Tartudok2024: Meet The Auteur at Elektriteater is a part of Arts of Survival Documentaries event series. This year we are hosting a dozen film directors from Europe in South Estonia, who will bring their best works to Elektriteater. The programme is curated by Arts of Survival Documentaries Artistic Director Kaarel Kuurmaa, who will open a discussion with the auteurs after the films.
The third resident of the Tartu 2024 Arts of Survival Documentaries Residency is Andrey Paounov, who will present his films on 12 August at 18.00 in Tartu Elektriteater. The event is in English, films have Estonian and English subtitles. The entrance is free!
Schedule
18:00 Georgi and the Butterflies (2004, 60 min)
20:00 Walking On Water (2018, 105min)
21:30 Q&A with Andrei Paounov. Moderator: Kaarel Kuurmaa.
Films
Georgi and the Butterflies (2004, 60 min)
Georgi and the Butterflies tells the story of a man and his dream. This man is Dr Georgi Lulchev, a psychiatrist, neurologist, administrator, amateur chef, entrepreneur and Director of the Home for Psychologically Challenged Men. His dream is to organise a farm in the yard of the Home, situated in a former 16th century monastery 20 km away from Sofia, where the patients can raise snails, ostriches and pheasants, produce silk fibres and soy bread.
In a country where 80% of the population lives in poverty, every day is marked by the struggle to survive. To overcome the shortage of funds, the Director organises different activities for subsistence. During the last 15 years, Georgi has tried to implement some unconventional business ideas, failed and resumed his efforts with unflagging enthusiasm.
This is a story full of optimism, snails, ostriches, silk, charity, soy bread, schizophrenics, foreign investors, Western hunters, misery and compassion. (Balkan Documentary Center)
Walking On Water (2018, 105 min)
Walking on Water follows internationally renowned artist Christo on his quest to realise The Floating Piers, originally conceived in 1970 by Christo and his late wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude. In 2016, seven years after Jeanne-Claude’s death, this stunning, site-specific masterpiece was finally cleared to be mounted on Italy’s Lake Iseo, which lies at the foot of the Alps. But securing a location proved to be only the first step in a tumultuous process of creative problem solving and prickly negotiations.
An illuminating portrait of a master artist and the arduous business of bringing an ambitious work to life, Walking on Water gives us a rare and entertaining look into the business of large-scale art production. The Floating Piers attracted over 1.2 million visitors.
“Few artists deserve the moniker ‘maverick’ as much as Christo, and few documentarists are as attuned to the intersection of visual delight and strong personality as Andrey Paounov.“ – Variety
Andrey Paounov
Andrey Paounov is the author of the award-winning creative nonfiction trilogy on the absurdities of the post-communist transition. His first documentary feature Georgi and the Butterflies (2004) won the Silver Wolf at IDFA in 2004. The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories (2008) – his second documentary feature was included in the 46th International Critics Week of the Cannes Film Festival 2007. The Boy Who Was a King (2011) was Andrey’s third full-length documentary, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. Andrey’s latest documentary, Walking on Water (2018) had its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival. It has been distributed in cinemas in Germany, the United States, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, The Netherlands and others.