Special program: Mark Soosaar, retrospective


Kihnu naine (A Woman of Kihnu) 1973, 50 min

(Grand Prize festivalil "Inimene ja meri" Riias, 1974 ja Grand Prize Nuoro Filmifestivalil Sardiinias 1990)
On the small island of Kihnu off the western coast of Estonia, people have their own colorful culture and Mark Soosaar investigates trough the eye of a camera how the generations turn and pass but the people and the culture still stay the same. This is a film about the author’s favourite island and its people. Kihnu and its people at 1973 is a colourful documentation, which by now has double value: on the one hand, one can see the „Estonia before the Second World war, still not entirely lost“, on the other hand, the 1970ies in Estonia.

Kihnu Kristjan (Kristjan from Kihnu) 1992, 28 min

Kihnu is a small island not far from the Estonian coast on the Baltic Sea. Kristjan Michelson, an 11-year-old boy from Kihnu is a good singer and skillful fisherman. He dreams about a proper farm on the island. Kristjan is worried that in the current process of land distribution where former landowners fight for every step on the island, he cannot wish for even a small plot. Kristjan loves his grandma who lives on the island all year round. Kristjan promises to come back to the island after finishing school in Tallinn, after his glorious international concert trips...

Emavene (Grandma of Boats) 1993, 65 min

In Estonia, old boats were sacred. When they became useless, they were allowed to die slowly. On some islands, the soul of a boat floated to the world beyond in the St. John's Day bonfire. This is how the souls of the Viking kings left together with their boats... This is a visual essay, recorded at the American Indians and Fenno-Ugrians over four years. The canoe takes us to the Washington state, west Siberia, Estonia and Hungary. The boats made from a single tree lived in old beliefs, and still exist in the harmony of our knowledge.

Isa, Poeg ja Püha Toorum (Father, Son and Holy Torum) 1997, 90 min

(Prix Nanook, Pariis 1997, Golden Gate Award, San Francisco, Berliini FF 1998 Panorama programmis)
A documentary film about the survival of the nomadic Khanty people in Siberia in the face of the exploitation of their lands by Russian oil corporations. Their thrilling is destroying the natural environment, which supports the hunting lifestyle of these people. The film focuses on the family conflict between a father who is one of the last great shamans of his people and his Westernised son who is an officer of indigenous affairs at an oil company. The son's assignment is to persuade the Khanty to sell all their ancestral lands to his Russian employer. The parents are bitter and saddened by his betrayal of his heritage.The film includes rare footage of the rites and life style of the old shaman and his wife as they worship Torum, the main god of the Khantys; it shows them bringing offerings to Torum, dancing and beating trums, praying to him through the medium of sacred bear's heads.

Liblikate kodu (Home for Butterflies) 2004, 28 min

Mark Soosaar about this film: This documentary is my very intimate personal story. The first b/w part (8 min) was produced with my daughter and father in 1973. They played hide-and-seek, warmed up frozen butterflies and posed for a film crew. The second color part (37 min) was produced 25 years later. The new couple, me and my grandchild Melisse, are involved in real love stories. To link with my angel I use a mobile phone, her prince is riding on TV-screen. As millions of children in all over the world, she identifies herself with a movie hero...
 

Mark Soosaar is a film director and cameraman, one of the most outstanding documentary filmmakers in Estonia today.

He has been educated as a cinematographer in Moscow Film Institute. Soosaar has worked in Estonian Television 1970–78 as a film director and in Tallinnfilm Studios 1978–1991 as a film
director. He worked as a freelance film maker in 1991–96 and since 1995 he has also been the director of the Museum of the New Art.
Soosaar is the director of the International Documentary Film Festival in Pärnu, Estonia, since 1987 and he has acted as an audiovisual training instructor and media expert for UNESCO since 2000.
He has created more than 50 documentary films on ethnography, folklore and arts. 8 films by him are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His films have been shown three times in the Berlin Film Festival (1988, 1994, 1998) and in lots of others, bringing several International awards.