This is the reunion of both artists in cinema – two years ago they collaborated on the director’s previous documentary Kondoru kalve (2018) for the inspiration of the artist, Purvītis Prize winner Michael Fischer, to Latin America to draw inspiration. At that time, Mārtiņš Grauds and the composer Anna Ķirs had an agreement on mutual assistance – the music of his list for this visual journey through Peru, Mexico and Bolivia, but he is making a documentary about Koku operu.
Hammer clicks
New documentary Koku opera has been made for a year and a half from the first attempt to the end, when a contemporary opera is born between the trees. “I wanted to show me how something starts and develops out of nothing,” admits the director. He adds that the greatest value has been the opportunity to look into the process in which different types of art meet – music, scenography (Andris Eglītis), architecture (Austris Mailītis) and costumes (Mareunrol’s) – which reverently fit into the picture. In creating his work, Mārtiņš Grauds has wanted to refer to documentary poetic cinema and believes that he has really succeeded in three scenes. One of them is the interplay between the music written by Anna Kirse and the hammers and the sounds of sawing, which form a unified symphony.
In addition to the musical theme, the film also features a conversation on the topic of ecology, which has been rooted in Finnish thinking since the 1960s. The artist’s residence center speaks about this topic in the film Mustarinda head of Anti Majava. It was he who learned about some time ago Koku opera The first version premiered at the Alternative Chamber Music Festival in Sanssouci Akniste and wanted to bring it to Finland.
Anti Majava has seen an opportunity through this musical work to pay attention to topical nature protection issues and allow them to resonate more widely. “It was in Finland that the theme of ecology gained much more concrete features in this opera written by Anna Kirse,” says Mārtiņš Grauds. His film has started to reach the audience – it will be shown in Norway, Finland and elsewhere. November 18 at 14.05 it will be shown on LTV1.
Evening tales
The short film documentary by Mārtiņš Grauds should have premiered in the National Film Award program. Dinar as one of five in this year’s competition Latvian code. Latvia for the works supported today, but the declaration of a state of emergency has brought changes (it is planned that Dinar will reach the audience on December 15 LTV1). The focus of this 26-minute film is a middle-aged musician, groups Deficit leader and pet lover Dinārs Stundiņš, who has brought Mārtiņš Grain into the world of green balls. The director has wanted not only to tell a personal story about a bright and gorgeous personality, but also to offer the audience a broader portrait of today’s society. “This time of change is difficult for many, because they are so often rare at home,” sings Dinārs Stundiņš, recording his latest hit. Music, travel and the absurd in everyday life are things that permeate the director’s own work.
From November 27, the multi-series art film of the New Riga Theater will be shown on the internet platform agentura.jrt.lv Agency, whose admission took place in the summer. Agency promises a combination of a psychological thriller and a detective in which the innocent will not be. In this project, Mārtiņš Grauds has helped theater director Alvis Hermanis to translate its raw material into cinema. Mārtiņš Grauds has been the cinematographer and editor-in-chief of this multi-series art film together with several new assistants.
“We worked in a tense mode all summer – in the first half of the day we took another picture, but in the evening we edited the filmed, which I sent to Alvis. He called these first editions of these scenes fairy tales every night,” reveals Mārtiņš Grauds. In total, ten series per hour have been made, where, along with the masters hardened in various winds of the acting profession, the 3rd year students of the New Riga Theater of the Latvian Academy of Culture will also experience their debut cinema.
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