Five years may not seem like a long time, but for many of the alumni of the Baltic Pitching Forum it has been enough time to see films get made, awards won and new projects begun.
Previous participants of the Forum have gone on to win plaudits in the film industry. These include Latvian filmmakers Lauris and Raitis Ābele whose film Castratus the Boar, pitched at the first Baltic Pitching Forum, ended up winning the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival, also Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints held a premiere of her film Ice in Budapest ISFF. This year also saw Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša’s By The Pool, a winner of the 2015 Baltic Pitching Forum, have its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Baltic Pitching Forum we will invite these alumni back to talk about their experiences.
3 successful films and 3 different stories will be told on first day of event, October 6th in the open session starting at 1:30 PM:
- Alumni of Baltic Pitching Forum 2013 – Castratus the Boar, by Lauris Ābele and Raitis Ābele, producers: Dace Siatkovska, Thom Palmen. The film is an impressionistic story about a small town resident, Valter, whose secret prevents him from integrating in a local community. His days are about breeding pigs and singing in the church choir but that does not reduce his loneliness. When he finally tries to establish closer contact with a fellow girl, Aija, his perception of masculinity takes a weird turn. International premiere held in Open Film Festival Kinoshock (Russia), 2014. The list of festivals: Berlin ISFF 2015 (Germany), Minimalen ISFF 2016 (Norway), Leuven ISFF 2015 (Belgium), Karlovy Vary IFF (Czech Republic), Cork IFF 2015 (UK), Rīga IFF (Latvia), Tenerife ISFF 2015 (Spain), Sleepwalkers ISFF 2014 (Estonia), Antarctic ISFF 2014-2015, Valladolid IFF 2015 (Spain), Spektrs IFF (Latvia).
- Alumni of the Baltic Pitching Forum 2014 – Ice by Anna Hints, producers: Eero Talvistu, Emilie Dubois, Oliver Berlemont, Raoul Nadalet.The film tells a story about a father and a son who are set on the enchanting ice road across the frozen sea. Harri is a lieutenant colonel in the Estonian army. Divorced, he only meets his 10-year old son during the school holidays. Harri decides to make up for the lost time by going to an adventurous father-son winter trip to an island. Missing the last ferry, Harri decides to take a local ice road over the frozen sea. On the vast snowy desert past memories collide with the present. The World premiere was held in Budapest International Short Film Festival BuSho (Hungary), 2017. The list of festivals: Budapest ISFF 2017 (Hungary), Shorts Mexico ISFF 2017 (Mexico), Helsinki IFF 2017 (Finland), Armagnac ISFF 2017 (France), Schlingel IFF 2017 (Germany), Paris Courts Devant ISFF 2017 (France), Premier Court Métrage ISFF 2017 (France), CinEast IFF 2017 (Luxembourg). Nisi Masa European Short Pitch award in 2015 (Luxembourg).
- Winner of Baltic Pitching Forum 2015 – By the Pool by Laurynas Bareiša, producer Klementina Remeikaitė. World premiere held in Venice Film Festival (Italy), 2017. The films tells a story about group of teenagers who rent a house with a sauna to throw a party. Initially, nothing seems to be unusual about the party: the teenagers drink, dance, vomit, smoke, relentlessly talk about their relationships and then leave in the early hours of the morning. When the house keepers come in to clean the place, they find Indre who is trying to find the button of her ripped up trousers in the sauna.
The session will take place at Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, October 6 starting at 1:30 PM and is a part of Baltic Pitching Forum 2017. More about open sessions on FB.
