Directed by Audrius Stonys, Kristīne Briede, documentary, 78 min, eng subtitles, 16+
Written by Kristine Briede, Audrius Stonys
“Is there a meaning to filmmaking?” Or, what is it that we are doing in documentary cinema? Bridges of Time is a meditative journey which leads us to (re)discover the work of some of the masters of Baltic poetic documentary cinema – Herz Frank, Uldis Brauns, Ivars Seleckis, Mark Soosaar, Andres Sööt, Robertas Verba, Henrikas Šablevičius and Aivars Freimanis, who broke the dogmatic poster-like propaganda documentary tradition in the Soviet Union in the 1960s by creating films that were totally different: humane, meaningful and poetic. With their captivating black & white images of man and nature, they “film the Earth, but remember that Heaven is above us” (Frank) - filming the substance, the reality, but also showing us the ideal and the spiritual embraced in the material. Their films brought a new way of looking at the world and reconsidering the very nature of documentary cinema as an art form.
This documentary film of the Lithuanian director Audrius Stonys and his Latvian colleague Kristīne Briede is a gently flowing and similarly poetic, creative and thoughtful encounter with this generation of documentary makers from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, adorned with excerpts from some of the films of this “Baltic New Wave”.
Awards:
Karlovy Vary IFF 2018 (Documentary Films Competition)