DOCS
Docs MAKE A MARK Despite difficult times for the film industry, there’s brisk activity in the world of Estonian documentary film making. Films are being premiered online, and in the cinemas, new international projects and workshops are initiated. By Filipp Kruusvall
T
his year’s 12th Docpoint Tallinn International Documentary Film Festival presented no less than seven new Estonian documentaries. The festival took place in a hybrid format: the international program was show via an online platform, Estonian premieres were taking place simultaneously online and in the cinemas that had just been reopened. Like almost everywhere else in Europe, the cinemas in Tallinn had been closed down for December and January. However, the government decided to reopen them just four days before the start of the festival. Docpoint Tallinn reacted quickly and implemented a plan of action to premiere one new Estonian documen-
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ESTONIAN FILM
tary per day, in the cinema. Obviously, the number of attendees was limited due to safety, but it had the symbolic value of showing support for the Estonian filmmakers and screening venues during these tough times. BUNCH OF ESTONIAN PREMIERES
The festival opened with Raimo Jõerand’s current Year of the Pig that gave us an opportunity to take time out from the crazy 2020, and take a longer glance at the preceding year 2019 that was witness to Estonia’s fragmentation both politically and between generations. Raimo Jõerand and the cinematographer Rein Kotov tell a story of a nation and a state on the eve of the era of industrial
production, without over-explaining or taking sides. After the world premiere at the prestigious HotDocs festival in Toronto and winning the audience award at Bogota Film Festival, it was finally time for a domestic premiere of the Estonian-Colombian-Swedish co-production A Loss of Something Ever Felt. The film tells the story of an Estonian family whose life it turned upside down after a grown-up son goes missing in Bogota, Colombia, and his sister travels there to find her brother who has succumbed to drugs. Maria Aua’s debut Iron Thread is a film in the tradition of the poetic auteur documentary. Aua expertly weaves the construction of the new building for the Estonian Art Academy together with the historical strata of the old textile factory that used to be there. Iron Thread was premiered together with Ivar Murd’s short documentary Power that shows the industrial landscapes of North-East Estonia from a new angle.
