“2021. At the end of December 2018, the Ministry of Culture (MoC) granted the Latvian National Cultural Center (LNKC) funding in the amount of one million euros with the aim of creating a film about the Song Festival – “The Land That Sings” -, however, the State Audit Office criticizes this approach, as it circumvents the way in which In Latvia, funding is allocated for the production of films, and the said money was not planned for the film at all.” “Delfi” portal reported at the beginning of June.
There have been precedents before
The hype surrounding the shooting process of the film “The Earth That Sings” essentially casts a shadow on the work process of filmmaking in Latvia, while at the same time raising the question of what purpose films are made in Latvia at all.
Similar discussions have already taken place before, when the funding for the film “Storm of Souls” (2019) was not awarded through a competition, as it usually happens, but directly from the Saeima tribune. At that time, such an approach created a rift within the Latvian film industry, where other film professionals expressed dissatisfaction.
“The Saeima’s direct allocations to specific film projects discredit fair creative competition and confirm that in our country the principles of lobbying, negotiation, and elimination are vital and viable,” then commented on the situation Head of the National Cinema Center Dita Rietuma.
The justification for the allocation of this type of funding in the case of both “Blizzard of Souls” and “Singing Earth” is closely related to national values, which the film’s story reflects on. However, this makes us ask whether films in Latvia are an autonomous form of art or an ideological tool that serves political interests?
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Awarding one million to the film “The Land That Sings”
When asking the State Audit Office for a comment on the audit recommendations and the specific situation regarding the allocation of funding for the filming of the film “Zeme, kas dīt”, its representatives assured “tv3.lv” that in general a positive opinion was given on this specific case, but at the same time, attention was drawn to certain shortcomings .
The State Audit stated that initially, before receiving the funding, it was not planned to allocate it for filming. Thus, the State Audit Office has pointed out shortcomings in the procedure for the planned allocation of funding: “We pay attention to the transparency and openness of the allocation of funding. The film did not appear anywhere in the results.”
When asking about the procedure for granting funding, in which LNKC provided funding to the authors of the film “The Earth That Sings”, the State Audit Office noted that it took place through a negotiation procedure.
In effect, this means that the competition for financial resources that could have been awarded to any other project did not take place. This fact was also confirmed by “tv3.lv” LNKC.
As one of the reasons for this aspect of the situation, the time limit was mentioned, that is, it was originally planned that the film would be handed over to the audience for evaluation before the 150th Song and Dance Festival, taking into account that the authors started making the film already in 2018, when they received the first funding ideas for development in the amount of 17,700 euros from the National Cinema Center.
2023-07-19 09:42:43
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