
Six theater and hip hop teachers take on a five month challenge to show the Latvian public that young men behind bars are more than just that. While seeming impatient, full of disbelief and even rude at first, it turns out to be a superficial impression given off by their masks that must be kept on at all time as an underage colony is a difficult place to be. It has its own rules and it’s not easy being creative there. Teachers help inmates reveal the talents within them that help transcending the monotony of the prison walls.

Six theater and hip hop teachers take on a five month challenge to show the Latvian public that young men behind bars are more than just that. While seeming impatient, full of disbelief and even rude at first, it turns out to be a superficial impression given off by their masks that must be kept on at all time as an underage colony is a difficult place to be. It has its own rules and it’s not easy being creative there. Teachers help inmates reveal the talents within them that help transcending the monotony of the prison walls.
2016-11-08
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Deniss is a Russian-speaking young man working at a fast food chain and spending his days in a small, gloomy apartment where all the things still remind him of his dead grandmother. Once a week he takes the stage, becoming a stand-up comedian. His jokes come from his life, which might be called dull as well as bleak, and, as he puts it, his ‘uninteresting biography’.
0.0Lords of Riga allows to see an insight into a passionate subculture of bike couriers. Weaving their way through the urban traffic, they have become silent and sometimes unnoticed witnesses of everyday life in Riga as well as examples of our modern-day society. What is freedom to this bunch of rebellious messengers and where it ends?
0.0The documentary explores issues of beauty and acceptance in a culture increasingly saturated with idealised and unattainable ideals of femininity. It is a story about the world of young girls in today's Latvia, based on conversations about girls' attitudes towards the world and their place in it.
0.0The three speakers represent two of the dialects, with the most common one - the middle dialect spoken in Riga and central parts of Latvia - not featured in the film. In intimate surroundings, a farmer, a schoolteacher, and a herder of ostriches talk about perceived differences between Latvian speakers, and about language policy and their lives.
0.0An attempt to understand the people chanting "Atlaist Saeimu!" (Sack the parliament!) year after year. Though rarely attracting a great deal of notice, there are always individuals collecting signatures for a referendum to dissolve the parliament for one reason or another, or simply standing outside the building and reciting their familiar mantra. Latvian governments change fairly often, but the parliament has been dissolved in line wth the Constitution only once, in 2010 (in 1934 it was dissolved unconstitutionally following a coup by Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis). The actual parliament building in Old Rīga was, however, attacked in January 2009 during a very rare violent protest which precipitated the fall of Ivars Godmanis' cabinet. The documentary zips back and forth in time giving portraits of various different people and political forces pushing the idea to "Atlaist Saeimu" for different reasons.
0.0Dinārs is a Latvian schlager singer popular with the ladies and known for his big cat mane. The eponymous film follows his path over a turbulent season of work.
0.0'Vadātājs' is an ancient Latvian mythological creature that leads people to Nowhere. As Latvia has been declared the most superstitious country in the EU, it is important to understand – what do we believe in? Three young filmmakers – a director, cinematographer and sound girl – question if Latvia is a lost country and if a Vadātājs has achieved enormous power by leading Latvian society into confusion. A search for a contemporary Vadātājs*, and the understanding of the origins of confusion within people in the 21st century.
0.0The documentary “Residents” probes problems in Latvia in general and Latvia’s medicine in particular with the story of two energetic young interns, Kārlis and Laura.
0.0Prayer for a Home shows how everyone needs shelter and a home – people in Latvia, Europe and troubled regions throughout the world. The film relates the story of the distinguished Latgalian poet Anna Rancāne and her family – her daughter Terēze, her grandson Daniel, and Daniel’s father, Dara Muhammad Ali – who are trying to stick together despite unfortunate circumstances. Even though Terēze and Anna are Catholic, while Dara is a Muslim from Kurdistan, their love transcends religious, national and cultural prejudice. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, the family is not destined to remain together, despite doing everything they can to stay close.
6.6The never-before-told story of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love – a spiritual group of surfers and hippies in Southern California that became the largest suppliers of psychedelic drugs in the world during the 1960s and early 1970s. Bonded by their dreams to fight social injustice and spread peace, this unlikely band of free-spirited idealists quickly transformed into a drug-smuggling empire and at the same time inadvertently invented the modern illegal drug trade. At the head of the Brotherhood, and the heart of this story, is the anti-capitalistic husband and wife team, who made it their mission to change the world through LSD.
0.0“The Inked Family” follows a couple of married Latvian-born tattoo artists – Anrijs and Monami Frost of online fame. They’re now living in Liverpool with their daughter, and their previous lives in Latvia seem almost surreal to them. The film traces Monami’s past, and the couple’s current lives and the success they’ve found as tattoo artists.
0.0After receiving an edict from the municipal authorities about the closing of their school, the students at Mežvidi primary school continue to attend lessons and exercise creativity and fun, but it’s all clouded in a sense of fatality. They aren’t many students, and because of that the school resembles a large family rather than an institution. Near the Russian border, deep in the Latgale region, this place will become a nowhere-land once the youth depart. In an intimate message about a national problem, the story focuses on three sisters for whom life is about to drastically change. Through their daily lives and small adventures we try to understand the real meaning of the contention that “the countryside is dying”. And we see hope.
6.8As her adolescence gives way to the obligations of motherhood, troubled Gemma matures in Motherwell, her Scottish hometown, heavily dependent on the steel industry. Unfortunately for her, her hedonistic way of understanding the world does not fit in with the philosophy of the rest of the villagers, so trouble soon follows.
0.0Vārdotājas (Wordsmiths) traces the recent rise of women's stand-up comedy in Latvia, but it is by no means just for laughs. Feelings of discomfort, shame, shock, are just some of the subjects tackled.
0.0In the Netherlands, 200,000 young people are concerned about the end of the world and the major climate disasters they may experience. They learn from Greta Thunberg that the world will end if we continue like this. Climate depression and eco-anxiety have recently become official diagnoses. Robin (26 die/them), Melih (16 he/him) and Armando (21 he/him) turn their concerns into action. How far will they go and how lonely is their struggle? Documentary about the biggest problem of our time and the pressure this puts on a growing generation.
8.0Documentary about the youth riots in Zürich in 1980. Videoladen, Zürich 1980.
0.0The film follows a thirty-year-old man’s efforts to introduce radical changes in his own life: to start visiting a therapist and preparing for the demolition of his bragging childhood home. Story chronicles the troubled relationship between Mārtiņš and his mother, just as he is about to tear down his childhood home.
0.0Documentary about a group of young idealistic friends in their squat in Amsterdam. Chased by the police and the press, they moved from squat to squat, with a clear message: don't make the city too expensive for the new generation of Amsterdammers. But living with such a large group and the flaws of the squat begin to take their toll. When the squatters collective falls apart halfway through the film, the filmmaker is left disillusioned and decides to confront the young squatters with her feelings of disappointment.
0.0A documentary that chronicles twin brothers searching for their absent father in faraway Russia. Having very few leads, the twin brothers – different in character and interests – are also looking for the ties that have never bound them as closely as they would have liked.
7.0The heroine is a widow and a fiancé who wants to begin a new and happy life. Conflicts in her family’s past prevent it, but she does not give up – she wants to clear away the ruins and do what she can. “Enough of looking for guilt, it’s time to find a solution,” she thinks, and takes action.