Established in 1997 in Denmark and running for 16 years in Riga every September, the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries (Baltic Sea Docs) is inviting more than 100 film professionals to Riga for its pitching and training sessions. As has already been announced (read the news), most of the activities of this 24^th edition will take place digitally, and the same goes for the documentaries selected to be screened. The entire programme will be available online to Latvian audiences free of charge.

The online screenings will run from 1 to 6 September, on the platform filmas.lv which is operated by the National Film Centre of Latvia, which is also the organiser of Baltic Sea Docs. A total of eight titles have been selected, and each one will have two screenings during the festival’s running period.

Well-travelled and awarded Romanian documentary Acasă - My Home [+lire aussi :
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interview : Radu Ciorniciuc
fiche film], directed by Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania/Finland/Germany), will open this year’s programme on 1 September, and will exceptionally be screening simultaneously on the digital platform and in the cinema K.Suns in Riga, the usual venue of the forum. After the screening, a recorded conversation between the director and Māris Prombergs, director of the art-house cinema Kino Bize in Riga, will follow.

The rest of the selection includes Tribeca-awarded documentary Scheme Birds [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin (Sweden/UK); ecological mystery The Wind. A Documentary Thriller [+lire aussi :
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interview : Michał Bielawski
fiche film] by Michał Bielawski (Poland/Slovakia); Toronto-premiered family relationship drama Love Child [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Eva Mulvad (Denmark), which will also be followed by a Q&A; touching documentary Lessons of Love [+lire aussi :
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interview : Małgorzata Goliszewska et …
fiche film] by Małgorzata Goliszewska and Katarzyna Mateja (Poland); and poetic film Babenco. Tell Me When I Die by Bárbara Paz (Brazil), which won the Venice Classics Award for Best Documentary on Cinema last year. An interview with the film’s director and its producer Mira Babenco will follow the screening.

Moreover, due to the subject matter of the film Self Portrait [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Katja Høgset, Margreth Olin, and Espen Wallin (Norway), about Norwegian photographer Lene Marie Fossen and her life with anorexia, a special discussion on eating disorders will follow the screening of the documentary. Finally, the film Overseas [+lire aussi :
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interview : Yoon Sung-A
fiche film] by Yoon Sung-a (Belgium/France), will also have a physical screening in an open-air setting at the Spīķeri quarter in Riga, and a pre-recorded Q&A with the director will follow.