{"id":39366,"date":"2023-11-03T13:05:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T12:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zff.hr\/?p=39366"},"modified":"2023-11-03T13:05:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T12:05:25","slug":"film-moves-through-time-and-it-moves-you-in-conversation-with-leo-soesanto-and-lauma-kaudzite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/film-moves-through-time-and-it-moves-you-in-conversation-with-leo-soesanto-and-lauma-kaudzite\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Moves Through Time and it Moves You: In Conversation With L\u00e9o Soesanto and\u00a0Lauma Kaudz\u012bte"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf_fields":{"page_builder":false,"content":"

Once again, ZFF\u2019s audience will have the chance to see the selection<\/strong><\/a> of fresh titles from the just concluded tenth International Film Festival in Riga<\/strong>. We talked to the selectors of short films, L\u00e9o Soesanto<\/strong> and Lauma Kaudz\u012bte<\/strong>, about the anniversary edition of the festival.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Riga\u00a0International Film Festival was established in 2014 and in ten days it will mark its jubilee tenth edition. How would you describe\u00a0Riga\u00a0IFF\u2019s main mission?<\/strong><\/p>\n

L\u00e9o Soesanto<\/strong>:<\/strong> I would say the\u00a0Riga\u00a0IFF\u2019s goal is to show the best films, what cinema can offer in terms of possibilities. And these are the best films from the present, from the festival season, but also from the future, if we consider the industry side where we showcase work-in-progress shorts. The festival organizes retrospectives too: last year, it was Pier Paolo Pasolini; this year, it\u2019s Jim Jarmusch. So I guess there\u2019s an edge in what the festival picks, with an emphasis of course on the Northern European space. Latvia belongs to the Baltic countries, which are close to Nordic countries, so there\u2019s definitely a northern wind of fresh air in what the festival does.<\/p>\n

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What do you find particularly interesting in the short film as a form?<\/strong><\/p>\n

L\u00e9o Soesanto<\/strong>:<\/strong> I appreciate above all its freedom and the artistic outcome from limited and restricted means (time, money) \u2014 both reasons are not mutually exclusive. I like it when the restriction of the format still leaves blank spaces in the narration and that it doesn\u2019t bother me, because the filmmaker trusts me to fill them with my own imagination or, even better, because she\/he\/they don\u2019t care. Isn\u2019t it great that one of the greatest pieces of filmmaking is a short which is made of still photos (La Jet\u00e9e<\/em> (1962) by Chris Marker)? They\u2019re not strictly moving images \u2014 it\u2019s like a Powerpoint presentation or scrolling pics on Instagram. But the film does move through time and it moves you.<\/p>\n

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L\u00e9o<\/strong>, you joined the\u00a0Riga\u00a0IFF\u2019s short film program team last year, after years spent at Cannes\u2019 Critics\u2019 Week and International Film Festival Rotterdam. What ideas or conceptions would you like to grow on your mission in\u00a0Riga?<\/strong><\/p>\n

L\u00e9o Soesanto<\/strong>: <\/strong>I try to apply in\u00a0Riga\u00a0what I learned \u2014 and I’m still learning \u2014 in the previous festivals I’ve worked for. Which is having the most balanced, inclusive and surprising (I hope) program. In terms of growth, my goal as a curator would be of course adding more films, more programs!<\/p>\n

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Lauma, you are currently\u00a0Riga\u00a0IFF\u2019s Short Film Coordinator. What does that mean in practice? What does your role include?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lauma Kaudz\u012bte<\/strong>: I imagine my role as the connecting point, the bridge if you will, between the filmmakers and audience. I have to make sure that there are films to watch and that there is an audience for said films. The person who ties it all together.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A jubilee edition of\u00a0Riga\u00a0IFF\u2019s has just been held. Can you pick out specifics and some of your personal favorites from this year\u2019s program?<\/strong><\/p>\n

L\u00e9o Soesanto<\/strong>: We\u2019re celebrating the 10th anniversary of the festival, so it felt natural to select 10 films for the Latvian competition. It\u2019s both a good reality check and a showcase of the strengths and diversity in the Latvian short film scene. Among them, I would highlight\u00a0Resistance is Futile<\/em>\u00a0by Armands Za\u010ds, which is a personal story which will move anyone feeling melancholic \u2014 in Latvia, anywhere \u2014 about passing time and unfulfilled dreams. In the International Competition, we\u2019re very proud to show the world premiere of\u00a0The Convent Gardner\u00a0<\/em>by Patricia Neves Gomes, which is very sensual, subtle and playful.<\/p>\n

Lauma Kaudz\u012bte: <\/strong>Indeed, we have several world, international and European premieres selected at the Short International Competition, so I would start with those! And overall \u2013 there are strong female voices selected at both lengths \u2013 short and feature, so I would suggest discovering those.<\/p>\n","featured":false,"featured_image_top":false,"featured_image_mobile":false,"attachment":false,"images":false,"gallery":{"images":false}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39367,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39366\/revisions\/39367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2023.zff.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}