BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonian citizen is opinion leader in Moscow

At first glance, he seems to be a valuable asset for Estonia with an established position within the intellectual elite of Moscow opinion makers. His observations in brief:

The Soviets did occupy Estonia; the independence of the Estonian state was destroyed; Soviet deportations of women, children and the elderly were inhumane; in diplomatic standoffs between Estonian and Russia, the latter comes off as an idiot.

He’s Mihhail Veller, best-selling Russian author, Estonian citizen, recipient of the Estonia’s White Star presidential order, who keeps homes both in Tallinn and Moscow. A member of the Estonian Federation of Authors, Veller was born in Soviet Ukraine, of Jewish parents, graduated from Leningrad State University in Russian language and was “forced” by the authorities to move to Estonian in 1979. (It’s also said that Teet Kallas, editor of the literary journal “Looming” brought him to Estonia as an up and coming writer. There is a wide difference between the two reasons for moving to Tallinn. The first implies opposition to the regime. The second leaves the motivation open.)

Estonian as an example for spelling in English

To the beginner, the English language’s sights and sounds often don’t jibe. Rough, dough, doe, mow, now, roe (fish egg), row (with oar). Oar, or. Some, sum. Why, nigh. Glue, do. To, two. Corpse, corps, horse, worse. Tear (in eye), tear (rip). Sew, so. Brake, break, bleak. Daughter, laughter, rafter. Doll, roll. Some, home. The list is practically endless.

Allan Kiisk has been on a mission of orthographic reform for years. With the recent publication of his second book, Simpel-Fonetik Dictionary (Tate Publishing), Kiisk wants to eliminate the frustration for beginners caused by English spelling. “English is becoming a global language. I want to make it easier to learn. I support the global use of English.”

His first book on the subject was released several years ago. Simple Phonetic English Spelling – Introduction to Simpel-Fonetik, the Single-Sound-per-Letter Writing Method (Tate Publishing) established the rules of logical spelling: a) Each letter represents only one spoken sound; b) For longer vowels and stronger consonants use double letters – and another letter with the same sound. The same rules could easily apply for the Estonian language.

The new alphabet would add the letters ä and ö, and eliminate the letters c,q, x, y – adding up to a total of 24. Why pick ä and ö? (The bane of Hiidlased and Saarlased – õ.)The letter A in current English is used to represent more than eleven different sounds. Examples: far, ant, all, ago, make, head, read, foam, fear, pair, earn. C, q, x, and y are eliminated because they’re not suitable for Simpel-Fonetik writing. Each represents more than one sound and can be substituted by other, more common letters.

Wen ju riid Simpel-Fonetik words, ju mast pei ättenshön to iitsh leter. Rimember, iitsh leter häs oolweis the seim saund, the saund given in the Simpel-Fonetik alphabet, regardless wat leter is nekst tu it.

Culture Ministry to rescue troubled arts cinema

The debate over whether Artis, an arts cinema in Tallinn's Solaris Center, should be declared bankrupt or continue operating ended yesterday with the Ministry of Culture announcing that it will subsidize the establishment with 300,000 euros per year. 

The cinema, which belongs to the country's oldest film studio, Tallinnfilm, and is managed by the Film Foundation, offers a specialized selection of mostly European and Asian films.

Despite a following among film fanatics, the establishment has had problems making ends meet since it moved to the Solaris Center in 2009. 

This year, the 810-square-meter, two-hall cinema has to cover 200,000 euros in rent and another 105,000 euros in utility costs. It must also pay back its nearly 293,000-euro construction debt and other debts amounting to 170,000 euros, Postimees reported. 

The cinema is locked into a 10-year rental agreement for the space and would have to pay rent for the entire lease period if it were to back out.

Ingrid Teesalu

Jäänipäev : Silver spring, MD 20901

Beach cinema opened in Pärnu

On the 6th of June Pärnu’s first regular outdoor cinema, The Beach Cinema opened its first season. Located next to the Pärnu beach promenade and park, the Beach Cinema brings screenings from cinema classics to prohibited films.

As a nearly 100 days long summer film festival, the Beach Cinema will deliver handpicked films from cinema classics, cult films, new films, carefully chosen humour, scandalous cinema, prohibited movies, and premiers. “In the beginning of July we will screen mainly awarded films from 2010 and 2011 – previous years’ film harvest has been unbelievably great” said Aivar Laan, founder of the Beach Cinema.

The Beach Cinema belongs to the Rooftop Cinema Ltd. that started its third season in May this year. “We have successfully started the Rooftop Cinema – we have created a brand with unique characteristics that results in satisfied customers. Good things should be shared with others, therefore we decided to build a summer Beach Cinema with a cosmopolitan atmosphere,” Laan commented.

Annual "Nude Art Exhibit" opens in Pärnu

The international nude art exhibition "Man & Woman," which showcases works by artists from around the Baltic Sea region, made its annual opening at the Museum of New Art in Pärnu on Sunday.

Now in its 19th year, the exhibition has become a staple event of the Estonian art scene, ETV reported. 

In addition to showing off local artistic talent, the event brings together painting, photography and sculpture from Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the autonomous Province of Aland. For example, visitors can get acquainted with large-scale works by Lithuania's Vilmantas Marcinkevic and Finnish painter Viggo Wallensköld. 

In previous years, the theme of the exhibition has been human relations towards religion and death, according to Mark Soosaar, head of the museum. 

This year, however, the works focus on traits of men and women that are similar in all countries of the region. "The sea does not separate but connects people," said Soosaar. 

"Man & Woman" runs through September 3. 

 Ingrid Teesalu

Over 70,000 participate in museum night

Over 70,000 people visited museums across the country on the fifth nationwide Museum Night event that began on Saturday evening. 

Museums treated their guests to special programs. ETV reported that people not only visited museums located in city centers but also those located in less accessible places.

Only a couple of hours into the event, the visitor count at the film archive on Ristiku tänav,  outside of the city center of Tallinn, had grown to 400.

As 2012 is dedicated to celebrating the 100th anniversary of Estonian filmmaking, the main theme of this year’s event was cinema.

Excursions to shooting locations of Estonian films such as “The Last Relic” and “All My Lenins” were organized. The Bank of Estonia displayed historic footage of money printing and unique photos of former heads of the institution.

Tallinn University of Technology also turned into a museum, opening doors to its insect collections, rock samples and mining models. Following the general theme of the event, the school also screened a number of classic Estonian films. 

Ingrid Teesalu

FilmEstonia.eu launches in Cannes

The Estonian film commission will be officially rolled out during this year's Cannes film market under the brand FilmEstonia.eu.

FilmEstonia.eu plans to market Estonia as an undiscovered European location to foreign producers, focusing on low to mid-budget film and TV productions from Europe, Russia and Asia. Estonia will be positioned as a highly efficient, low-cost and high-tech European destination with undiscovered locations and four seasons.

FilmEstonia.eu will provide location scouting services, offer producers and directors free scouting trips to the country, channel contacs and facilitate the few official procedures necessary. A key goal of FilmEstonia.eu is the introduction of local incentive funding beginning in 2013.

The launch coincides with the celebration of the 100th jubilee of Estonian cinema in 2012. The FilmEstonia.eu pavillion will be located in the Pantiero section of the Cannes film market.

More here

Estonia celebrates 100 years of film history

With a centenary of cinema to celebrate, Estonia used April 30 to recognise the achievements of some its most venerated stars and directors.

The small Baltic state of Estonia pulled out all the stops on Monday as it commemorated 100 years since the first Estonian movie - Johannes Pääsuke’s 1912 political story Bear Hunt in Pärnu County (Karujaht Pärnumaal) – was made.

The day began with the ferrying of various local film luminaries from Tallinn to the university town of Tartu on the "CineTrain". Replete with film posters from the history of Estonian cinema, on board screenings of classic moments from Estonian film history and a free drink or two, the ‘CineTrain’ ensured the assembled throng were in high spirits on arrival.

A parade from Tartu Train Station to the Estonian National Museum - where a stamp commemorating Johannes Pääsuke was unveiled – kept the party atmosphere alive and on to the evening for the Estonian Film 100th Anniversary Award Show.

Oldest written documents in Estonia uploaded

A project to digitize the oldest parchment documents in the country is now complete.

The State Archives, Tallinn City Archive and History Museum led the effort, which started in 2010.

The documents contain information valuable to studying the history of settlement and agriculture in medieval and post-Renaissance Estonia as well as political, military and cultural history, said the institutions.

The oldest written historical sources are on parchment and date from the 13th century, the oldest one of all from 1237: in it, papal legate William of Modena communicates a decree from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II regarding donations to the church. The original document is in the the Tallinn City Archive's magistrate's collection.

From the same era is the oldest record in the State Archives, from 1240, and, from the Estonian History Museum, an indulgence from Pope Innocent IV from 1247.

The latest parchment documents are from the mid-19th century, but the majority are from the 14th to the 16th century.

The digitization involved making copies of the recto and verso sides of 4,122 archive pages. The digital copies are life-size.

The work was funded via the Economic Affairs Ministry from EU structural assistance for promoting information society.

The digitized parchment documents are available for public use at : http://www.ra.ee/pargamendid/

Kristopher Rikken

Estonia’s numismatic past and present at the Bank of Estonia Money Museum

Estonia, one of the three Baltic republics tucked away in the northeastern corner of Europe, just south of Finland, has one of the most colorful numismatic pasts for both its size and history. Having only gained their independence as a republic in 1918, this status was sadly short-lived after the conclusion of the Second World War.

In the last one thousand years, Estonia had been fought over by the Danes, the Germans & the Hanseatic League, the Poles, the Swedes and finally the Russians. Fast forward half a century since it’s internationally un-recognised incorporation into the USSR and the onset of Gorbachev’s Glasnost which finally resulted in Estonia’s (as well as Latvia’s and Lithuania’s) re-emergence as an independent nation once more.

The coinage of Estonia reflects all of these eras insomuch as one will find many excellent examples of the coins of these ruling powers in the country’s many museums and archives. On a recent visit, I had the opportunity to view both the Bank of Estonia’s own Money Museum as well as the History Museum’s (Ajaloomuuseum) numismatic collection, both located in the heart of Tallinn, one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval old towns having gained UNESCO heritage status in 1997.

Eurochannel's April movie programme devoted to Estonia

The April movie programme of Eurochannel, which is distributed outside Europe, is this year dedicated to Estonia. Among other things, the movies “Shop of Dreams” and the series “Class: Life After” will be shown.

The programme that focuses on a different country each month started on Eurochannel six years ago, Gustavo Veinstein, President of Eurochannel, told BNS. Three years ago representatives of Eurochannel visited the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) and discovered the Estonian programme for themselves.

The idea of having an Estonian month on Eurochannel was born a year ago. Vainstein said that it took a little time to put together the programme, but it was not difficult as the quality of Estonian movies is high.

In addition to “Shop of Dreams” and “Class: Life After”, other works to be shown are “Night of the Carrots”, “Karl and Marilyn”, and “Still Alive” will be shown. In addition, Eurochannel will show Estonian Movie 100 advertisement clips.

Eurochannel is a television channel presenting European culture and lifestyle that is distributed in South America, the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Angola, Mozambique, Portugal, and South Korea. The programme of European origin alone is shown in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Korean.

Estonian festival on Eurochannel : The class - Life after

The Class: Life After (Klass, Elu pärast, 2010)
Estonia 

Cast: Laine Mägi, Liina Joonas, Imre Paabo

Presentation:

Everybody has a breaking point. When bullied, some people fight back. Others run away. A few, however, bottle up their anger and resentment until it explodes. That was the fate of two high school students by the names of Joseph and Kaspar. Fed up with the constant torment and bullying, they struck back, bringing apocalyptic violence to the halls of their school.

The Class: Life After deals with the grim aftermath of a tragedy. In Tailing, the Capital of Estonia, a community was shaken to its core by the senseless violence of one fateful day. This film explores the hard truths of the shooting, revealing both the depths of human depravity, and also the immense tenderness that we can be capable of when all else is lost. Each episode reveals a new perspective as the victims struggle to make sense of the violence, figure out who’s to blame, or just try to rebuild their shattered lives.

Tallinn opens Russian art display

Tallinn has opened a panoramic exhibition of 19th- and early-20th -century Russian art from museums in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The exhibits include numerous paintings, sculptures and applied art items, and the styles range from academism to the avant-garde.

The names include Ilya Repin, Alexei Savrasov, Boris Kustodiyev and Konstantin Korovin.

Kerli and Hannah

Apologies to Milan Kundera for borrowing from the title from his literary masterpiece, which explores artistic behaviour during the Prague Spring with an intellectual and philosophical vigour, that apparently is untranslatable. Kundera is on record saying Hollywood’s version of The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Daniel Day-Lewis had little if nothing in common with his book, which was written in 1982, but only published, with Kundera’s approval in the Czech Republic in the original Czech in 2006. Kundera has remarked that the movie had very little to do with either the spirit of the novel or the characters in it.

Yet after listening to the feather-brained Kerli’s now officially, (as of yesterday) released single “Zero Gravity”, and seeing the brand new video, courtesy of Õhtuleht (link below) I found no other words to describe this vapid paean to all that Hollywood in its brainwashing fervour holds dear.

What is truly a weightless number was actually already on the air, if you will excuse the attempt at humour, already last year. Kerli performed “Zero Gravity” at Vabaduse laul, Freedom song, in Tallinn, along with other English language numbers (that August 20th festival marked 20 years of reindependence from Soviet occupation for the younger set). The 25 year-old from Elva apparently has very few Estonian selections in her repertoire. So a young man, who greeted my news about Kerli’s release by beginning to sing the song, tells me.

I’ll leave the blatant anti-Christian symbolism in the video for others to comment on, but it is there – just as it was when Kerli first came to my attention with her initial attempt at swaying young minds with the help of superficial America and Hollywood. That was with the release of “Walking on Air”, which demonstrated more musical and lyrical fluff coupled with mind control symbolism.

It happened on Emakeelepäev

A funny thing about us older guys. We no longer meet at bars, or for that matter aktused. Our offspring are way too old to go to Seedrioru, grandkids not quite there. It takes something like the Sportsmen’s Show in Toronto to have three old friends meet, who had not seen each other for a while. Living in three different cities makes that a reality. Bumping into each other at Suvihari occasionally is not unexpected but is often unplanned. This time, explorative e-mails made the meeting an event to book and to anticipate.

Two of us, with but a week’s difference in age just that they could be twins, for both were conceived in Estonia but fled in utero and made their first earthly noises in Sweden. The third was also conceived elsewhere, but not in war-torn Estonia (de jure still free). Still, a common thread, for even if not “made in Estonia”, then where the parents ended up, and born in yet a third country, Canada. Just three musketeers growing up with Estonian names in a foreign culture, learning to speak the language of the new homeland, chosen by their parents, only upon reaching school age. English as a second language. Not the immigrant experience, but the refugee one. An experience that Toronto’s multicultural enclaves know very little about today with cosseted immigrants demanding treatment that our parents could not even conceive. Freedom, self reliance and hard work formed them, our communities and us.

The world’s foremost Estonian contemporary artist : Jaan Toomik

At the far end of this year’s Moving Image fair in the Waterfront Tunnel, visitors have a great opportunity to diversify their contemporary art knowledge. The mammoth projection installed right at the back of the fair is by Jaan Toomik, a performance and video artist who is described in his wall label as “the most well known contemporary artist from Estonia.” So, who exactly is Mr. Toomik?

First off, let’s figure out where Estonia is. It’s in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, bordered by Russia, Latvia, and the Gulf of Finland. It has 1.34 million people, and thus is one of the least-populated nations of the European Union. The country is ranked high for economic, press, and democratic freedoms (in fact, Estonia is a proponent of e-government, and its citizens can vote online). Its capital and largest city Tallinn boasts a hill called Toompea that hosts historic churches and castles. Sounds pretty okay!

Jaan Toomik himself (seen at left) was born in October, 1961 in Tartu, Estonia, then the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. He served in the military, as all male citizens were forced to, and was stationed in Afghanistan and Russia. After the military, Toomik enrolled in the Art Academy in Tallinn, where he studied painting and produced neo-expressionist work. Toomik eventually found his way to performance and installation art.

Estonia's Seto minority strive to protect traditions

Decked in the finely-crafted silver jewellery that symbolises her tiny minority, folk-singer Oie Sarv hums a refrain and reflects on what centuries of tradition mean in the Internet age.

Estonia's Seto, a group of only 15,000 in this Baltic nation of 1.3 million, are struggling to keep their way of life alive as young people leave their close-knit communities to seek new opportunities.

For many of the estimated 2,000 who live in what is known as Setoland, a cluster of villages in southeast Estonia, tradition is key.

Sarv, 56, is a folklore expert and one of the best-known practitioners of the "leelo", an ancient polyphonic singing style that in 2009 was recognised by UNESCO for its value to the world's heritage.

"The leelo is part of our lives, we sing on all kind of occasions, both joyful and sorrowful," Sarv told AFP in Obinitsa, her home village which lies some 280 kilometres (170 miles) from the Estonian capital Tallinn.

"The most famous singers in the first half of last century were able to sing up to 20,000 rhymes. The leelo also helps us to keep our ancient language alive," she said.

The origins of the Seto are shrouded in mystery.

KUMU celebrates six years of sharing Estonian art

February 17 was the sixth anniversary of Tallinn’s beautiful modern KUMU Art Museum. KUMU, an abbreviation of “Kunstimuusum,” (Art Museum,) opened its doors to visitors in February 2006 and since then has been a cornerstone of art and culture here in Tallinn and a very strong partner of the United States Embassy.

Our relationship dates to the museum’s opening and we are pleased to have worked with them on numerous projects over the years: we have supported their art-history seminars, helped to bring American artists to the museum, routinely screened American films in their auditorium, and last year Ambassador Polt lent his stamp art collection to the museum as part of an exhibition. We congratulate KUMU on their anniversary and look forward continued collaboration.

The European Commission will not support building Estonian National Museum

TALLINN - The European Commission announced that it will not support building the new complex of the Estonian National Museum (ENM) near Tartu as the size of the future museum building raises questions, National Broadcasting reports.

The Commission’s spokesperson Karolina Kottova said that they had sent a new letter to Estonian authorities about the essence and size of the museum. ENM would have been the biggest museum, building which would have been supported by the EU. The exhibition space would have been ten times of what it is in the current buildings and the maintenance costs of it would have been nearly 80,000 euros a year which cannot be covered from ticket sales, the European Commission pointed out. The Commission also says that the wish of ENM to become a regional centre raises issues due to its far off location. The location is in Raadi, outside the city of Tartu. Also the Commission did not see enough of the Estonian state support behind such a big project.

The Commission has not issued an official document of refusal as usually a member state withdraws an unsuitable project after the Commission issues its evaluation.

The Estonian National Museum was founded in 1909. The museum’s mission is the collecting, preservation, research and presentation of the culture and history of the Estonian people, other Finno-Ugric nations, and minorities in Estonia. The Estonian National Museum is currently located in various buildings in the centre of Tartu. When after years of planning and design contests, the construction procurement for it was declared last year, the presumed calculation cost was estimated in the range of 32.15-37.8 million euros.