The jury of the “Baltic Focus” program, which will decide on the main prize “Herz”, is film director Giedre Žickīte, film critic and member of the jury of the US “Golden Globe” award Dmitro Desiateriks and TV journalist, theater critic and screenwriter Henrietta Verhoustinska.
The jury of the “Artdocfest Open” program, which will decide on who will be awarded the “Grand Prix” – internationally awarded historian and chief editor of the largest Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” Ādams Mihniks, director of theater, cinema and opera productions and artistic director of Daile Theater Viesturs Kairišs and theater and cinema actress Chulpana Hamatova.
The winners of both competition programs will show their films on the last day of the festival – March 8 at 18:00 (“Baltic Focus” winning film) and 21:00 (“Artdocfest Open” winning film).
The closing film of the festival is Lithuanian director Artūrs Jevdokimova’s film “Life and Death of a Christmas Tree”, which brings to the fore the ethics of environmental sustainability and lifestyle, in line with the director’s debut film about the reusable clothing industry. The film tells about the amazing business of Christmas trees between Denmark and Georgia. It turns out that the seeds of spruce cones are harvested in Georgia in the fall and then sold to Denmark, where seedlings are grown for sale throughout Europe. However, these firs are often up to 60 meters tall, and in order to reach the best cones, harvesters have to climb to the very top. Sometimes they lose their balance and fall. Is the multi-billion dollar Christmas tree business worth the lives lost to cone pickers?
The film premiered at the Tallinn International Film Festival “Black Nights” (PÖFF). Screening of the film at the “Splendid Palace” cinema on March 7 at 19:00.
“Artdocfest/Riga” film screenings will take place in the traditional venues of the festival – in the “Splendid Palace” cinema, as well as in the “Zuzeum” art center.
About the inclusion of films made in Russia in the festival program
The organizers of the “Artdocfest/Riga” festival emphasize that they continue to show a firm stance against the war started by Russia in Ukraine and support Ukraine’s path to regaining freedom, showing it also in the colors used by the festival, which will remain so as long as the war in Ukraine continues. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the festival has included in its bylaws a ban on films funded by the Russian or Belarusian governments or related entities. However, this does not exclude films created or produced by independent authors of Russian and Belarusian origin in Europe and other parts of the world, who are bravely trying to communicate the situation in Russia. According to the organizers of the festival: “They, risking their lives, send us depictions of the reality of countries that have been seized by dictators who are at war against the free world and at the same time against their own people. Latvia, with its historical experience, has a great potential, as well as a responsibility the task of conveying information to the rest of the world about what is really happening in Russia and how it affects the democratic and anti-war population. That is why Ukrainian-born festival president Vitaly Manskis is committed to exposing authoritarian regimes with the help of documentaries.”
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2024-02-23 14:08:34
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