The Emerging Producer from Latvia talks about the main job of the documentary filmmaker, as well as her future projects

An interview with Anete Ruperte, producer for Latvian company Mistrus Media and selected for the 2023 Emerging Producers programme. Read her EP profile here.

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change?
Anete Ruperte: The documentary filmmaker’s main job is to tell stories that challenge established narratives, and to do so in an artistic and formal way that encourages viewers to question how they come to understand the world that they live in. Even if we can change or impact two peoples’ perspective, the goal is complete. 

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Where do you find audiences for your films?
First you have to define your audience and after that you have to become a part of it. You have to know what they want to see in social media, in papers, in the street, how to talk to them and how to engage their interest so that they think for a second about the subject of your movie and in the end about the movie itself.

What films have you seen recently and would recommend watching?
One of the most recent films that impacted me strongly is Charlotte Wells’ fiction feature Aftersun [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2022). It’s a story about looking for your share of the sun. Both heroes are looking for a place under the sun. The only difference is that one of them has been at it for so long that he realizes it’s easier to end it all.

A documentary film by Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed Music for Black Pigeons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koe…
film profile] (2022) that explores the lives and processes of some of the world’s most renowned and prolific jazz musicians.

What projects do you have underway (including fiction films and other projects)?
Our film studio is now working on fiction movie projects like The Bog, director Reinis Kalviņš, in pre-production, tells a story about the body of a boy found in a peat field. Broze, a local policeman, is forced to reopen a case of a missing person from 30 years ago: the past has never really been buried. The fiction feature Maria's Silence [+see also:
film review
interview: Dāvis Sīmanis
film profile], by director Dāvis Sīmanis, in production, tells the true story of Maria Leiko, famous actress who late in her career has to decide between fame and love for her grandchild, between her ideals or the lies of Stalin’s totalitarian regime. The documentary film How to Fox Yourself, by director Armands Začs, in production, is a new view on the director’s generation on the backdrop of tragedies in his circle of friends also showing how cinema can heal us from a loss or, in this case, a personal tragedy in the director’s life. The documentary film Patricia, by directors Inese Kļava and Dāvids Ernštreits, document the tough journey of Patricia Eiduka – from promising skiing junior to a respected young woman, whose single-mindedness makes her accomplishments to be rightly called a phenomenon.

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EMERGING PRODUCERS is a leading promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the EMERGING PRODUCERS 2024 edition is 31 March 2023.