BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Disko ja tuumasõda

Dear Friends of Estonian and European Culture,

The American Film Institute (AFI) presents the 22nd annual AFI European Union Film Showcase, a selection of 39 top films from EU member states from November 5-24 at AFI Silver Theater (8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910).

Please visit also AFI website http://www.afi.com/ which will be updated very soon.

Estonian film for this year is DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR (“Disko ja tuumasõda”) which will be screened on Sunday, November 8, at 9:45 PM and on Tuesday, November 10, at 9:00 PM.

DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR 

Estonian filmmaker Jaak Kilmi (REVOLUTION OF PIGS, part of AFI’s 2006 EU Film Showcase) examines the most important factor in how the Communists lost the Cold War: the West’s one-two punch of disco music and Dallas episodes. Western pop culture, banned in countries like Estonia but easily picked up from Finnish broadcasts with the help of homemade antennas, played a major role in winning the hearts and minds of the then-Soviet citizenry for democracy, in textbook “soft power” fashion. Blending wonderful archival footage, academic interviews and deliriously funny recreations (the best being Kilmi’s rural cousin Urve reading his letters full of Dallas updates to a rapt village audience) Kilmi’s eye-opening and entertaining documentary hits just the right tone between the serious and the surreal.

NYYD Festival scores with musical extravaganza

By Ella Karapetyan

TALLINN - Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, likes to bill itself as The Festival City, as there’s always something going on and events spring up all year-round. However, the centerpiece of the cultural calendar is the NYYD Festival, which is a magnet for the very best in the high arts.

International Music Festival ‘NYYD 2009’ offers its guests the opportunity to spend almost five days enjoying different kinds of music and welcomes everybody to be a part of this great music event.
This year the eleventh NYYD Festival will feature a wide variety of music, ranging from jazz and rock to classical music and will concentrate activities on musical theater and multimedia projects. The festival will also feature works by revolutionary German composer, theater-director and musician Heiner Goebbels, who is known for his mixture of styles drawn from sources as varied as classical music, jazz and rock music. He is also among the world’s most prominent authors of contemporary music.

Another highlight of the Fest is the world-renowned Greek composer Georges Aperghis, who works primarily in the field of experimental theater music. He is best known for composing a large amount of non-programmatic chamber music, as well as his theatrical visual effects.

Kids Euro Festival

Dear Friends of Estonian Culture,

Starting yesterday and lasting until November 9, the Kids Euro Festival is bringing 150 free performances, screenings and workshops, each representing a European country, to venues across the Washington DC region. Registration is required for most events. Please see the web site for a full schedule: www.KidsEuroFestival.org.

The festival will feature some of Europe's best artists and is sure to delight parents, children and grandchildren alike.

This year Estonia will be presented by film studio “Puppet Film” (Nukufilm) and “Cinema bus” (Kinobuss). Workshops and seminars will be held for students and educators. There will also be a public performance on Saturday, October 31 starting at 3 PM at the French Cultural Centre, 4101 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, DC 20007) and best animation films for children will be screened before the performance at 2 PM.

For more information and registration please visit:
http://www.kidseurofestival.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131
http://www.kidseurofestival.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87
Best regards

Terje Raadik
Press and Cultural Affairs Attaché
Embassy of the Republic of Estonia
2131 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington DC, 20008

Phone: (202) 588 0101
Fax: (202) 588 0108

Oscar feels 'Heat' from Estonia

LONDON - Helmer Asko Kase's epic "December Heat," about the birth of national independence in Estonia, is that country's entry for consideration in the foreign-language film Oscar category.

Dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Estonia, pic is based on the events of December 1924, when Communist Russia threatened to take over the small Baltic state. The film uses extras drawn from Tallinn's Guards Battalion.

"December Heat" was a box office hit in Estonia, becoming one of the top five films of the past 20 years. It is repped worldwide by Sweden's NonStop Sales.

The closing date for submissions to the foreign-language category is Thursday. Nominations will be announced Feb. 2, and the Academy Awards take place on March 7.

Estonia film fest adds industry market

Tallinn Black Nights to feature 48 regional films up for sale ..

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights, one of Eastern Europe’s leading winter film festivals, is adding an industry event to this year’s line-up.

Dubbed the Black Market in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the reputation that parts of the old Warsaw Bloc have for movie piracy, the regional cinema and audiovisual market screenings will be a strictly legitimate opportunity for buyers and sellers to make deals at a midway point between larger international events, L.A.’s AFM in early November and Berlin in February.

Devised by festival director Tina Lokk, this year’s Black Market -- which runs Nov. 30-Dec. 3, partially coinciding with established co-production event the Baltic Event -- is being treated as a pilot.

Lokk said the market will feature up to 48 industry screenings mainly focusing on new films from neighboring regions and smaller film industry countries: Central and Eastern Europe, Nordic region, Russia as well as Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The traditional Baltic Event, now organized in cooperation with Black Market Industry Screenings, will show the newest features from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Baltic Black Nights adds market

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

Estonia's Tallinn Black Nights, one of Eastern Europe's leading winter film festivals, is adding an industry event to this year's lineup.

Dubbed the Black Market in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the reputation that parts of the old Warsaw Bloc have for movie piracy, the regional cinema and audiovisual market screenings will be a strictly legitimate opportunity for buyers and sellers to make deals at a midway point between larger international events, L.A.'s AFM in early November and Berlin in February.

Devised by festival director Tina Lokk, this year's Black Market --which runs Nov. 30-Dec. 3, partially coinciding with established co-production event the Baltic Event -- is being treated as a pilot.

Lokk said the market would feature up to 48 industry screenings mainly focusing on new pics from neighboring regions and countries with smaller film industries: Central and Eastern Europe; the Nordic region; Russia; and the likes of Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The traditional Baltic Event, now organized in cooperation with Black Market Industry Screenings, will unspool the newest features from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Opera : Premieres and projects

MARKET DAY
September 13, 2009

Artistic director : Arne Mikk

The traditional Market Day will be held on Sunday, September 13 from 12.00–15.00, behind the Estonian National Opera at the historic Market Place. After introducing the new productions of the season, gorgeous costumes will be put up for an auction. The money raised will be donated for expanding the walk of fame of the famous people, who have worked at the Estonian National Opera, on Rävala Avenue. The footprints of the following beloved performers will be added to the walk of fame: Aleksander Arder, Ants Lauter, Rahel Olbrei and Hanno Kompus.

The new prints will be opened at 11 a.m. SEB Tallinn City Marathon takes place on the same day, with the starting point right next to the building of the Estonian National Opera. The orchestra of the Estonian National Opera will get the marathon under way. There are about 1.2 million marathon runners all over the world who, apart from taking part in marathons, are also keen on visiting various cultural events and consciously choose marathons that run through city centres. There will be plenty of music and fun for everybody!

Authentic design masterpieces Estonian way

TALLINN - In order to get to know Estonian national handicraft and get acquainted with different works of art of Estonian craftsmen, one can visit the newly opened design market which is situated on Rotermanni area and is held every Sunday from the beginning of August. The open-air design market also offers various kinds of original design masterpieces or just some creative works including different kind of stylish handmade jewelry, wooden art, pictures, as well as old-fashioned decorations, hand-knit woolen sweaters with traditional Estonian folk patterns, colorful glassware, original art such as graphic prints or fine ceramics and so on.

While visiting the design market one can see a large choice of traditional and classical favorite souvenirs such as carved wooden beer mugs, fun felt hats, juniper coasters and limestone candle holders, which could be an ideal gift for a foreign friend.

The onlookers can admire glassworks, ceramics, leather goods, quilts, mugs with graphic panorama of Tallinn Old Town, handmade medieval theme dolls, tapestries with Tallinn City and Old Town sights, lead-cast figure of Old Thomas and other items which are created right before your eyes.
The only principal of the design market is that all the works should be handmade by Estonian masters.

Back in touch with the Medieval Times

Together with the intellectual and cultural life there has also been lively trading throughout the centuries of which Tartu’s Hanseatic history speaks. Thus for several years the Hanseatic Days have given color to the summer cultural life in Tartu. This year has been no exception, as Tartu returned to its Medieval past on July 17 – 19.

Among those who seven hundred years ago started the Hanseatic League, those who traded goods and different cultures, were our ancestors. The grain grown on the fields here, and the handicrafts made by various masters have long traveled thousands of miles, and in exchange people have received goods and cultures from other countries. The River Emajogi has been measured by hundreds of fully loaded barges, the roads had the dust turned up and down by thousands of hooves and wheels. Tartu has heard discussions and lectures, war cries, secret whispers and songs in very different languages and dialects. 

All this is around us today – see and hear this passage of time when you look at the tower of Jaani Church, hear the bells of the Town Hall, go to the song festival or visit Hanseatic Days Festival.
Regardless of economic boom and bust, people need the cultural entertainment that the Tartu Hanseatic Days have offered for years in the most diverse and best form. Both the people of Tartu and the tens of thousands of visitors who came to Tartu, from near and far, enjoyed the Medieval party. See you in Medieval times next year!

Some like it Soviet !

A number of Soviet-era vehicles have recently turned into objects of art. A selection of cars, bikes and motorcycles from times long gone have been put on display in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Estonia, where the exhibition opened, is a former Soviet Republic which became independent in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Although one may think that the display is aimed only at the elderly who feel nostalgic for the Communist times, it’s not exactly true. The hands-on exhibition gives a rare chance to sit behind the wheel of one-of-a-kind, vintage vehicles.

“We thought that people would like to see something of the kind, that’s how the exhibition came about,” one of the organizers of the open-air event, Estonian actor Tarmo Myannard, told Estonian daily Postimees.

The exhibition is enriched all the time as citizens of Tallinn are welcome to put on public display their means of transport that have survived the test of time.

Beer festival draws huge names

By Ella Karapetyan

TALLINN - This year’s Ollesummer Festival was a wild success. In addition to plenty of local brews and local music, international superstars such as Moby and Mumiy Troll graced the stage at the festival.
Ollesummer is a massive beer festival that took place from July 8-12 in the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

The festival provided a huge variety of Estonian and international artists as well as a variety of activities for the whole family. A few of the internationally famous musicians that played at the festival include Moby (U.S.A.), Mumiy Troll (Russia) and Kerli (U.S.A.-Estonia).
The participation of these superstars took the event to a whole new level. Because of these world famous artists, the festival drew significantly more attention, and larger crowds, in comparison with the previous year.

The American singer–songwriter and musician Richard Melville Hall, better known by his stage name Moby, had the opening night of the Ollesummer festival in Tallinn.
“We just finished our Estonian show, and it was really fun. I know, I need to find better adjectives to describe shows. Fun. Great. Awesome. I have the vocabulary of a 12-year-old skater,” Moby said after playing the festival.

Tallinn Maritime festival promises to be bigger and better

By Ella Karpetyan

TALLINN - The capital of Estonia welcomes its citizens and guests to take part in this year’s Tallinn Maritime Days festival, which takes place from July 17-19.
The festival is a joint project of the City of Tallinn, Port of Tallinn, Estonian Maritime Museum, Estonian Union of Historical Ships and the Tallinn 2011 Foundation.
Tallinn Maritime Days will take place in the Admiralty Basin and Seaplane Harbor, which are connected by the future sea promenade – the so-called “Culture Kilometer.”

The festival will provide a grand setting for several maritime-themed events, ranging from song and dance performances, late-night film screenings, food markets, an exhibition at the Estonian Maritime Museum, children’s entertainment, as well as boat trips, and other water attractions.
The Tallinn Cycle Race will also be held in conjunction with the event. Participants are required to register beforehand.

This spectacular event, which is being held for the second consecutive year, is a unique opportunity for visitors to greet the dozens of sailing ships visiting Tallinn as part of this year’s Tall Ships’ Races.

Hundred of Thousands of people are celebrating Estonian Song and Dance tradition

Yesterday, on 4th of July started one of the biggest song and dance celebrations in Europe. In this year`s celebration which is held in Estonian capital city Tallinn, almost 35 000 performers and more than 100 000 spectators come to celebrate Estonian singing and dancing heritage that goes back 140 years.

Tallinn - The repetitions of the dance celebration started already on June 30th. Choirs and brass bands started to arrive to Tallinn on July 2nd. Altogether there will be 864 choirs and brass orchestras, including 26430 singers and musicians who will perform at the celebration along with 534 dance and gymnastic groups with 7460 dancers and gymnasts. In addition to Estonian singers and dancers, 41 foreign collectives with 1340 singers are expected to participate.

Internationally active Estonian entrepreneur and spectator of this year`s celebration Margus Reinsalu is glad that Estonian Song and Dance Celebration is the country's internationally most famous event: "The Song and Dance Celebration is not simply a big festival of singing and dancing but also a way to demonstrate the national spirit. It is definitely an unforgettable experience for anyone who attends it."

Giant song festival open in Estonia

Tens of thousands of Estonians will sing in huge choirs this weekend as Estonia host traditional song and dance festivals that thrived even during harsh Soviet times.

Estonia's "To Breathe as One" festival runs July 2-5 in the capital Tallinn with some 37,000 performers -- singers, dancers and musicians -- due on stage.

An audience of up to 200,000 is expected to watch two gigantic open-air concerts on Saturday and Sunday as well as dance performances involving thousands.

Visitors can also witness the spectacle of nearly 40,000 performers parade through Tallinn in national costumes Saturday afternoon ahead of the evening concert.

The events can be viewed over the Internet via the Estonian TV website at http://www.etv.ee/otse/?mis=etvotse

With huge numbers of participation and viewers expected, it appears that severe recessions in both Baltic states have not dampened public enthusiasm for the events.

Estonia's festival, now held every five years, first began in 1869 and became a venue preserving national identity and fostered resistance under nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation which ended in August 1991.

Medieval days in old town : 09-12th of July 2009

Keskaja Päevade ettevõtmised toimuvad sel aastal 9.-12. juulini Tallinna vanalinnas. 9. juulil hakatusega kell 19 on Tallinna Raekojas keskaegne karneval.

Päevade südameks on Meisrtite Turg, mis tegutseb iga päev 10 - 18. Tule koos meiega keskaega ja saa osa keskaegse Revali õitseajast!

Õllesummer 2009 » July 08-12 » Tallinn

Ticket information
Both 1-day tickets as well as 5-day festival passes give access also to enjoy headliners Moby (USA), Mumiy Troll (RUS) and Kerli (USA-EST).

Useful information
The festival is open from Wednesday to Saturday from 17.00 until 01.00 and on Sunday from 17.00 until 23.00

Security
Õllesummer is the most secure large-scale event held in Estonia. Security at the festival is provided by G4S

Public transport
How to get here

Festival territory
The Tallinn.Song Festival Grounds

Discount hotel offers

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"To Breathe as One!"

The Estonian Song Celebration (Laulupidu in Estonian), held every five years in July, is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world.

This summer let the Song and Dance Celebration themed “To breathe as one” amaze you!

The song Celebration tradition in Estonia is 140 years old. The festival in its current form has been going since 1947. The Song Celebration is a fulcrum for the cultural and national identity of the Estonian nation.
This year’s fest on the Song Celebration Grounds will have and more than 26 430 singers instrumentalists. The festival will be launched on Town Hall Square with Folk Music Celebration, followed by three dance performances themed “the Sea” and a two day Song Celebration.

The Song Celebration consists of two different concerts. Real music lovers can enjoy Estonian and Western vocal and symphonic repertoire on day one. But those who wish to discover Estonian music can listen to pieces by Estonian composers on day two.
The Dance Celebration can be seen on all three days. Dance is as important to Estonian people as song and this makes it an event not to be missed. Duration of each performance is around two and an half hours. 
The Folk music Celebration is new to the events program. This free concert will open the whole event on the Town Hall Square.

Come along and be one of the 180 000 participants at this summer’s highlight event!

"To Breathe as One" Program
Thursday, July 2
15:00pm - Folk Music Celebration on Town Hall Square
22:30pm - Celebration Flames arrive in Tallinn, Admiralty Inlet. Opening of Song and Dance Celebration
Friday, July 3
19:00pm - First Concert of Dance Celebration - on Kalev Stadium (2h 15min)
Saturday, July 4
11:00am - Second Concert of Dance Celebration - on Kalev Stadium (2h 15min)
14:00pm - Festive Parade of Song and Dance Celebration
19:00pm - First Concert of Song Celebration - on Song Celebration Grounds
Sunday, July 5
11:00am - Third Concert of Dance Celebration - on Kalev Stadium (2h 15min)
14:00pm - Second Concert of Song Celebration - on Song Celebration Grounds 

 

Tickets at www.piletilevi.ee
More information from www.laulupidu.ee

Going down in Estonia : Alienation frozen in place

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Emboldened by alcohol and steeped in despair, the characters in “Sugisball” lunge for love but would settle for understanding. There’s precious little of either, it seems, in Soviet-era Estonia, a setting that the Estonian writer and director, Veiko Ounpuu, exploits with a sophisticated eye and a cool intelligence.

Constantly pounded by frigid light and keening winds, the residents of a drab high-rise apartment complex face a variety of emotional crises. A nervous single mother (Maarja Jakobson) and her little girl attract the attentions of lonely men. A tortured writer (Rain Tolk) spies obsessively on the wife who left him. Meanwhile an attractive young doorman (Taavi Eelmaa) grows increasingly angry when none of his one-night stands find him socially acceptable.

Based on a 1979 novel by Mati Unt, “Sugisball” (“Autumn Ball”) plays out in neglected living spaces and scrubby wasteland, the robust ugliness of the surroundings amplifying the sense of disconnection. Cradled by Ulo Krigul’s ominous score and Mart Taniel’s striking cinematography, the actors deliver moments of unexpected humor and insight: a tense encounter between the single mother and her television repairman is momentarily derailed when both become silently captivated by the ballroom scene from “The Thorn Birds.” Pent-up romantic longing has seldom been conveyed with so few words and so much imagination.

In the press notes Mr. Ounpuu tells us his film is intended for “all people with a gentle soul and weak liver.” A cheery disposition probably wouldn’t hurt either.

SUGISBALL (AUTUMN BALL)

Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan.

Written and directed by Veiko Ounpuu; director of photography, Mart Taniel; edited by Mr. Ounpuu and Tambet Tasuja; music by Ulo Krigul; produced by Katrin Kissa; released by Strand Releasing. At the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, Museum of Modern Art. In Estonian, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes. This film is not rated.

With : Rain Tolk (Mati), Taavi Eelmaa (Theo), Juhan Ulfsak (Maurer), Sulevi Peltola (Augusti Kaski), Tiina Tauraite (Ulvi), Maarja Jakobson (Laura), Mirtel Pohla (Jaana) and Iris Persson (Lotta).

 

Estonian Pavilion

53rd International Art Exhibition -
La Biennale di Venezia

After-War
Kristina Norman

June 7- November 22, 2009
Professional Preview Days: 3-6 June 2009

Pavilion opening: Saturday, 6 June 2009 at 6 pm

Palazzo Malipiero,
San Marco 3079,
Venezia

Kristina Norman's project After-War will represent Estonia at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The exposition at the Estonian Pavilion is curated by Marco Laimre and commissioned by the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.

Kristina Norman belongs to the generation that entered the art scene in the '00s. She deals with political, provocative, documentary and research-based art. Norman's work is highly context-centred and has grown from her immediate surroundings. After-War is a comprehensive installation environment comprised of videos, photographs and objects in five separate spaces.

The installation is based on a specific event and the issues surrounding it that must be regarded as the most traumatic event in Estonian society since the restoration of independence in 1991, and one which aroused the most public discussion.

In April 2007, the Estonian government removed a monument commonly referred to as the "Bronze Soldier" from a prominent place in the centre of Tallinn, where it had stood since 1947. The memorial, officially called "The Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn", was dedicated to the Red Army soldiers who fell during what in Russia is known as The Great Patriotic War (WWII), but for most Estonians this memorial was a symbol of Soviet occupation. The monument was removed from its original site and relocated 2.5 km away at the military cemetery. The original location was then planted with low shrubs and flowers as if there had never been a monument there. This "psycho-geographical" manoeuvre carried out by the Estonian government provoked protest by the Russian-speaking community and was followed by two nights of rioting on the streets of Tallinn. Using the concept of a memory community, Kristina Norman describes and analyses past events and proposes subsequent cultural practice. The title of the work After-War is a reference to the idea that the war is over, but the conflict still continues.

Estonian History Museum under renewal

The reconstruction of the Great Guild Hall of the Estonian History Museum will be completed by the year 2011, also the new permanent collection will be set up in the museum. The museum takes the rooms of the basement of the Guild Hall into use as exhibition halls and creates the new permanent collection in the building of the Great Guild which involves the whole history of Estonia and enables the interactive studies.

The permanent collection of the Estonian History Museum has currently been divided into two and the public gets no integral overview of the Estonian history without visiting the Great Guild Hall and Castle of Maarjamäe. “The location of the Great Guild Hall in Tallinn Old City is favourable, but currently the advantage resulting from the location will remain fully unused, as not all halls of the building can be opened for the visitors. This sets restrictions for the display and the building has no location suitable for the implementation of the museum programmes,” Monica Hankov, the Director of Business Environment Division of Enterprise Estonia, said.

The museum needed the basement of the Great Guild Hall for a long time as the fund storage of the museum. Today the suitable rooms have been found for the funds in Maarjamäe complex and the dominant part of the funds have been moved there already.

The opening of the basement for the public also solves the domestic problems. For example the visitors of the Great Guild could have been using only one toilet room and this has set restrictions also for the organisation of the representation events in the dignified building. Also, the unique attic of the Guild Hall is worth displaying, the visiting of which is currently impossible due to the poor condition.