Kaader filmist «Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell», Tiit Härm ja Nijole Oželyte.    Foto Tiit Härmi erakogu / Postimees

May 26 - June 2, Film Anthology Archives (http://anthologyfilmarchives.org) online film series

Kaljo Kiisk
MADNESS / HULLUMEELSUS
Estonia, 1968, 79 min, 35mm-to-digital. In Estonian with English subtitles

Grigori Kromanov
THE DEAD MOUNTAINEER’S HOTEL / “HUKKUNUD ALPINISTI” HOTELL
Estonia, 1979, 80 min, 35mm-to-digital. In Estonian with English subtitles.

Peeter Simm
THE IDEAL LANDSCAPE / IDEAALMAASTIK
Estonia, 1980, 86 min, 35mm-to-digital. In Estonian with English subtitles.

One of the programs Film Anthology Archive planned to present theatrically in that faraway era that was the Spring of 2020 was the first substantial NYC showcase devoted to Baltic cinema of the 1960s-70s.

After a year-long postponement, they have reconceived the series as an online program, which will encompass all nine fantastic films – three each from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Traditional accounts of world cinema of this era invariably emphasize filmmakers’ newfound experimentation with the conventions of their medium, and their increasing exploration of subjectivity, self-referentiality, abstraction, and radical new approaches to storytelling.

This type of cinema found its place in the Baltics too, where a group of directors broke with the dominant conventions of filmmaking that had previously held sway.

During the second half of the 20th century, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian filmmakers, many of whom graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, aka VGIK, left their mark on the history of modernist European cinema, echoing the uncompromising film style of the various global “New Waves” and, at the same time, implicitly reflecting the cultural specificity of the Baltic states incorporated into the Soviet Union.

“Baltic Modernist Cinema” is guest-programmed by Lukas Brasiskis, and presented in collaboration with Gražina Michnevičiūtė, the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in USA; the Lithuanian Cultural Institute; the Lithuanian Film Center; the National Film Centre of Latvia; and the Estonian Film Institute.

Films will be available here starting May 26th, 2021: https://bit.ly/2Qbe5ie