SHORT RIGA
As an individual department within this year’s festival the team behind the wittily titled SHORT RIGA have devised a remarkable feat – altogether three competitions of new shorts from around the world, Baltic student films and a separate category for music videos. Showcased within three respective programmes SHORT RIGA will take over the newly established small theater KINO BIZE as well as organise workshops and host an award ceremony.
This video has it all: lots of cash, half-naked women, men who exploit the macho image, cityscapes, and cars, new shiny cars. It’s just that it’s also very self-ironic, playing with well-established images and symbols of success and fame. The result is a surprising work of art which leaves you inspired, confused and amused all at the same time. Because riders never die, we just multiply, and that’s exactly what’s going on right here: if you multiply an image enough times, eventually, you might even become that image.
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Nobody knows how to define LOVE. How to describe the feeling of falling in love. Yet, at the same time, LOVE is the most written topic of all. We all think about LOVE and we think about our loved ones. LOVE is an essential element of life and must be interpreted through all mediums, forms and stories. The super-slow motion technique gives a dimension to the story that is highly needed – it is a well-known truth that the world stands still around the person you love.
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Have you ever swam in a suit? Or ridden a skateboard on fire? Have you played a game of chess while there’s golden confetti falling from the ceiling? Have you maybe tried drawing on the black board with a chalk in your mouth? No? “Rīgas Modes” offers you a glimpse of all these activities and more, providing the audience with a collection of deeply upsetting, inspiring, unreal and beautiful images which will either make you want to start a new Pinterest board, or drive you mad. Or possibly both.
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It might be a crazy party. It might be an ordinary night at a club, where burning sculptures constitutes a normal evening. It might also be a nightmare, or a dream, depending on your personal taste and comfort zone. Either way, Unity is a wonderful feast for your eyes, with its black-and-white, or cold blue sights and sceneries, which are a true pleasure to look at. Indulge, watch, but don’t touch – it might all turn out to be a complete mirage.
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In this world we tend to think of relationships as something that have a beginning and a potential end. What if we would be robbed of the ability for actual destruction? What if we simply could not run away?
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On a seemingly ordinary night at a grill bar by a highway, nothing outside the ordinary happens. Somebody is drunk and passed out on the table. Some other guests try to get in, but the owner of the place has other plans – he needs to dance. And then, suddenly, clock starts ticking backwards, there is a beam of intense light – and an encounter that could not be called ordinary by any means.
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We start with a close-up, and then, gradually, we start seeing the bigger, the more complex picture. And boy, is this picture indeed complex. Numerous tiny threads start enveloping the musicians, while the music develops more and more threads as well. At some point, you even realize you cannot believe your own eyes, but it’s a good thing – it means every smallest detail is constantly changing.
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In response to continued conflict in Ukraine and the reintroduction of conscription in Lithuania, video production company Unicorn Video have sourced clips from several propaganda movies found in the Lithuanian state archives, combining them with a contemporary deep house soundtrack.
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A journey of an over modern future wave guy to conquer the virtual reality and reunite with a beyond focused laser-cat-combatant. In order to get there and to open the window he has to get high and get low.
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In this sleepy, sombre world which seems even a tad bit hypnotised even – nobody blinks, nobody moves, life appears in the form of a young, energetic woman. Her body breathes life in these motionless rooms, and sets a stark contrast between her and people, seemingly stuck in time and space. A wonderfully rhythmic performance which is bound to make you want to move, even if you are trapped still.
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A love song video inspired by the classical story of Romeo and Juliet, turned into a personal interpretation. Experimental/non-photo real 3D animation provides a fun clash between classical ‘high art’ text and cartoony, lego like ‘low art’ animation. The strategy typical to pop art, used to provide us with a dreamy and trippy interpretation of a well-known love story.
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The video attempts to point out and ridicule the unsuccessful drug policy in Estonia. The Soviet style and imitations in the video are the keys to unveiling the truth: current drug policies in most western civilizations are extremely outdated and need to be revised. If the leading corporations and politicians do not resolve this problem, the people will take matters into their own hands.
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Some music videos manage to tell quite an epic tale. Like this one, which includes an encounter with the Venezuelan border police, crossing the ocean in a car, and chasing the escaper’s dream on the dunes in Venezuela. An epic tale of bringing one’s dreams to reality, ‘’Į Venesuelą’’ challenges the genre, its conventions, and what we expect from a video in the Baltics. Also, do birches really grow in Venezuela?
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Breathe in, breathe out. Transcend this reality and find yourself in a place where events don’t make much sense and involve a man being strangled with a rope that glows, way too many bloodied people to feel comfortable around them, and a very special pedestal for a mini chair and mini deer horns. Making sense is an arbitrary notion, as long as it’s aesthetically pleasing.
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In distant Lithuania, music is heavily controlled by an oppressive special police force called The Beat Patrol, ensuring the quality of beats and basses all over the country. They search neighbourhoods for people listening to bad music, and deliver violent punishments and instant executions to maintain high standards. If you want to live, make sure you only listen to seriously heavy bass tunes, and never ever play the acoustic guitar in public.
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