Baltic Film Resources
The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema by ISBN: 9780851707532Date: 2000-03-28This work maps the rich, varied cinema of Eastern Europe, Russia and the former USSR. Over 200 entries cover a variety of topics spanning a century of endeavour and turbulent history from Czech animation to Soviet montage. It includes entries on actors and directors and key figures like Eisenstein.
A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas by 
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ISBN: 9781444337259Date: 2012-10-16Showcases twenty-five essays written by established and emerging film scholars that trace the history of Eastern European cinemas and offer an up-to-date assessment of post-socialist film cultures. Showcases critical historical work and up-to-date assessments of post-socialist film cultures Features consideration of lesser known areas of study, such as Albanian and Baltic cinemas, popular genre films, cross-national distribution and aesthetics, animation and documentary.
East, West and Centre: Reframing Post-1989 European Cinema by ISBN: 9780748694150Date: 2014-12-09Scholars in the field assemble to consider the ways in which notions such as East and West, national and transnational, central and marginal are being rethought and reframed in contemporary European cinema.
Eesti film = Estonian Film: 1991-1999 by ISBN: 9789985608869Date: 2000Film catalogue, published in English and Estonian.
Postcommunist Film: Russia, Eastern Europe and World Culture by ISBN: 9780415671644Date: 2012-03-27Covers a wide range of films from small and independent filmmaking to mainstream, popular cinema, and explains post-communist signifiers as manifested in visual culture both inside and outside former, and current, communist countries.
The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition by ISBN: 9780691069371Date: 1992-08-02Horton and Brashinsky examine a wide variety of films from BOMZH (initials standing for homeless drifter) through Taxi Blues and the glasnost blockbuster Little Vera to the Latvian documentary Is It Easy to Be Young? and the "new wave" productions of the "Wild Kazakh boys." An intriguing discussion of films of Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Kazakhstan ends the work.
Animation Behind the Iron Curtain by ISBN: 9780861967452Date: 2020-09-22As art reveals the spirit of the times, animation art of Eastern Europe during the Cold War, funded by the Soviet states, allowed artists to create works illuminating to their experiences, hopes, and fears. The political ideology of the time ironically supported these artists while simultaneously suppressing more direct critiques of Soviet life.
Estonian Animation: Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy by ISBN: 9780861966677Date: 2007-02-20Robinson's frank, humorous, and thoroughly researched book traces the history of Estonia's acclaimed animation scene from early experiments in the 1930s to the creation of puppet (Nukufilm) and cel (Joonisfilm) animation studios during the Soviet era, as well as Estonia's surprising international success during the post-Soviet era.
"From Myth to Reality: Images of Domestic Space in Post-Soviet Baltic Films" from Film and Domestic Space by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781474428941Date: 2022Domestic space, and its varying functions in Soviet and post-Soviet societies, has recently been discussed in a number of scholarly works. This interest in domestic space echoes more general tendencies in recent works by Eastern European film scholars. In the twenty-first century, according to Ewa Mazierska, the field of post-Soviet film studies started to witness a growing interest in the spatial aspect of films and a shift from temporal to spatial analysis took place.
Narratives of Exile and Identity: Soviet Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9789633861837Date: 2018-05-10In an innovative effort to situate Baltic testimonies to the Gulag in the broader international context of research on displacement and memory, scholars from the Baltic States, Western Europe, Canada, and the United States seek answers to the following questions: Do different groups of deportees experience deportation differently? How do the accounts of women, children and men differ in their representation? Do various ethnic groups remember the past differently: how do they use historical and cultural paradigms to structure their experience in unique ways? The essays in the book also examine the issues of transmittance, commemoration and public uses of the memory of deportations in contemporary social, cultural and political contexts of Baltic societies, including the reflection of Gulag legacy in literature, the cinema and museums.
Jonas Mekas: Interviews by ISBN: 9781496829214Date: 2020-08-30A refugee from post-World War II Europe who emigrated to the US in 1949, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) became one of America's foremost champions of independent cinema and one of its most innovative filmmakers. An admired poet in his native Lithuania, Mekas began recording his life on film shortly after his arrival in New York.
- "Baltic Filmmakers Bolster Ties, Set to Make Splash in Cannes" / by Christopher Vourlias Variety.com; Jun 29, 2021
- Lost Lost Lost: The Early Years of Avant-Garde Filmmaker Jonas Mekas (Lithuania, dir. Jonas Mekas, 1976)
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- Pan Tadeusz (Lithuania, dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1999)
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- Screening Room with Jonas Mekas (2005)
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- Mother, I love you (Latvia, dir. Jānis Nords, 2013)
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- 1944 (Estonia, dir. Elmo Nuganen, 2015)
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- The Mover (Latvia, dir. Davis Simanis, 2019)
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Additional Resources on Selected Major Baltic Films
- Lithuanian Old Movies Archive From Internet Archive
- 101 Estonian Films: Animation List of essential Estonian animated film, assembled by PÖFF
- "The "reminiscences" of Jonas Mekas: Poetic form and rooted sorrow" / by Rimvydas Silbajoris Journal of Baltic studies, 1973, Vol.4 (4), p.327-334
- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
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- Baltic Screen Media Review
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- American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ABSEEES) This link opens in a new window
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Covers North American and some European scholarship since the late 1980s on East-Central Europe, Russia, the former Soviet Union and former Soviet republics. Indexes journal articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, and selected government publications. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Full text of core scholarly journals from their beginning to approximately five years ago. Disciplines include botany, business, ecology, general science, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, statistics. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles.
- Soviet Cinema Online: Periodicals and Newspapers, 1918-1942 This link opens in a new window
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The collection includes Soviet film magazines and newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s, reflecting an interesting period in the history of Russian Film. Part I: Journals online, number of titles: 27. Part II: Newspapers online, number of titles: 20. - Universal Database of Baltics, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine Newspapers (UDB-EUR) This link opens in a new window
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Important periodicals published in European nations which used to be part of the Soviet Union. The sources are in mostly in Russian.
- Estonian Film Database "The database is maintained by NGO Estonian Film Database. It was opened on 12.12.2012 and is meant for providing information about the whole Estonian film heritage from 1912."
- NY Baltic Film Festival Established in 2018, the annual New York Baltic Film Festival is presented by Scandinavia House and organized by the Consulate General of Estonia, Consulate General of Lithuania and Daris Delins, former Honorary Consul for Latvia in New York. Programming support is from the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Center of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Center.
- Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia
Selected Baltic Films
Mother, I love you (Latvia, dir. Jānis Nords, 2013)
"In this acclaimed Latvian drama, 12-year-old Raimonds tries to cover up a bad note at school and starts a spiral of lies, which spins out of control. He has to venture into Riga’s thrilling night-life to save his saxophone, his friendship and his face in front of his mother."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Tangerines (Estonia, dir. Zaza Urushadze, 2014)
"Tangerines is the spare, yet haunting tale of an older Estonian man who cares for two wounded soldiers from opposite sides of the 1990s-era war in Georgia."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
1944 (Estonia, dir. Elmo Nuganen, 2015)
"The year is 1944. As the Battle of Tannenberg Line rages, Estonia finds itself helplessly trapped in the crossfire of two opposing forces. With the Red Army on the offensive, the severely outnumbered SS dig in to repel the Soviet advance on the Third Reich."
Official Estonian Submission for the Academy Awards. Official Selection at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
The Summer of Sangaile (dir. Alanté Kavaïté, 2015)
"17 year-old Sangaile is fascinated by stunt planes. Afraid of heights, she has never dared to even enter one. At a summer aeronautical show, she meets Auste, a local girl of her age, who unlike Sangaile, lives her life to the full with creativity and dare. As the romance between the two girls deepens, Sangaile allows Auste to discover her most intimate secret, and finds in her teenage love the only person to truly encourage her dreams."