Pioneers: Lithuanian Documentaries Directed by Women

The festival presents a programme of restored documentary films titled “Pioneers”, organized by the media education and research center Meno Avilys. It features documentaries created by female directors: Antanina Pavlova, Jadvygos Zinaidos Janulevičiūtės, Bytautės Pajėdienės, Janinos Lapinskaitės, and Dianos Matuzevičienės, together with Kornelijus Matuzevičius. The premiere of the restorations organized by VDFF in 2023 is complemented this year by three newly restored films.

The films in the program, curated by film historian Dr. Lina Kaminskaitė, reveal unique themes, different documentary film genres, and aesthetic means. The program consists of two parts, covering five decades of Lithuanian history, from the Soviet era to the first years of independence. The first part is devoted to women’s professions and their representations (kindergarten teachers, factory weavers, an elderly woman from the Klaipėda region), while the second part focuses on portraits of creative women (a singer, models, a photographer, a performance artist). Complementing each other, the program’s parts reflect the multifaceted development of Lithuanian cinema and offer a glimpse into the unseen side of Lithuanian social and cultural history through the eyes of female directors.

Pavlovas’s observational documentary The Birth of Character captures the daily lives of employees and children at a nursery school. Pajėdienės’ Every Night I Dream immortalises five weavers at a silk factory who decide to break the weaving record. Matuzevičius’ Šičionykštė delves into the hybrid identity of Klaipėda resident Hilda Spalvienė. Janulevičiūtė’s Beatričė sensitively and carefully creates a multifaceted portrait of performer Beatričė Grincevičiūtė. Lapinskaitė’s Venera su katinu (Venus with a Cat) offers three portraits of models, revealing different life experiences and bodies. Lapinskaitė’s Aktas (Nude) observes a photo shoot of one of photographer Snieguolė Michelkevičiūtė’s models, an elderly man.

Programme I

Charakterio gimimas

Early in the morning, the children start their journey to kindergarten, hand-in-hand with their parents. There is no shortage of activities for the little ones here – under the supervision of the kindergarten staff, they play sports, have health checks, dance, sing and play, and lunch and bedtime are not forgotten. Despite the common activities and the abundance of children in the frame, the different characters and interests of the children are slowly becoming apparent – from the closed-minded sensitives, to the company souls and the naughty ones who don’t want to go to bed, from those who are fascinated by medicine to those who are interested in the hairdressing trade. They are all individuals, and each one of them is observed by a silent camera.

Kasnakt sapnuoju

Five weavers at a silk factory decide to break the weaving record. The occasion is the 110th anniversary of Lenin’s birth. Having achieved their goal, the women are naturally delighted with the recognition they receive from the Communist Party of Lithuania and the titles of distinguished industrial workers they are awarded. However, behind the ideological motivation of the weavers, who are striving for the prosperity of the Soviet Union, lies a story of difficult working conditions, enormous fatigue, and women who lack time not only for their colleagues but also for their families waiting at home.

Šičionykštė

Hilda Spalvienė, a resident of Šakininkai village, is a German from Klaipėda region. The cheerful old woman, who draws a cigarette with a mouthpiece, recalls her life: before the war she lived in Germany with her husband, after the war she was exiled to Siberia. Later, she was able to go back to Germany, but she returned to Šakininkai – to the land of her parents. Although the film focuses on Hilda’s story, it also subtly invites us to consider the issues of multiethnicity and national identity of the inhabitants of Klaipėda Region. Hilda, who speaks with an accent, stubbornly calls herself a local: she was born here and is ready to spend her last days here.

Programme II

Beatričė

The life of singer Beatričė Grincevičiūtė is filled with music. The director carefully and with sensitivity creates a multifaceted portrait of the performer. In the film, she is both her own most demanding critic and a playful teacher of young children, affectionately called “Auntie Music.” Surrounded by a group of friends and admirers of her talent, she remains modest and simple, wanting as many people as possible to experience the beauty of music and her favorite songs. Only the subtle final shot reminds us that Beatričė experiences the world firstly not by sight.

Venera su katinu

Nadia, Teresė and Ramutė are the three heroines of this documentary. Although they are very different, they are united by their unusual work – for decades they have been making a living by posing for artists. For Janina Lapinskaite, it is not the exotic profession that is important, but the stories that have marked these women’s bodies over time. The heroines of the film talk openly about their choice of work, their colourful, albeit difficult past, and their equally difficult present – they bare not only their bodies, but also their souls to the camera.

Aktas

Part of photographer Snieguolė Michelkevičiūtė’s work consists of a series of nudes of older men. In Aktas, the director observes a photoshoot with one of the photographer’s models—his body, his face, his silent devotion to the realization of each new idea. However, it is not only the beauty of an imperfect male body that unfolds before the camera, but also a portrait of the photographer herself, her relationship with the subject, and the creative process of two people that emerges before the viewer’s eyes.