International human rights film festival “Inconvenient films” is the biggest documentary event in Baltic countries. This year festival will celebrate its ten edition. In Lithuania documentaries from all over the world rarely reaches the cinemas, therefore this film festival is one of the rare opportunities to see the latest and most interesting documentary film productions. During the decade festival has manage to grown into an event with important international partners such as Krakow Film Festival, “Arsenal” - an International Film and Video Art Institute in Berlin and Karama - International Human Rights Film Festival in Jordany.
“Inconvenient films” will meet its 10th anniversary with a competition program almost entirely composed of debut documentaries of female filmmakers. Out of 11 selected films – 10 are directed or co-directed by women. The programmers of the festival say it was not an intentional choice, but more an outcome of an increasing amount of extremely powerful and complex documentaries created by women. The highlights of the competition programme include “Revolution won’t Be Televised” by Rama Thiaw, posing bold questions about the civil resistance against the presidential elections in Senegal. An original insight about the American prison system and its impact on society revealed by filmmaker Brett Story in her second time feature documentary “Prison in Twelve Landscapes” and a breathtaking documentary poem by Tatiana Huezo about corruption and violence in Mexico in “Tempestad.” The winner of the competition program will take home a winning of 1000 euros. Jury is composed out of internationally acclaimed members of documentary community, such as Pietra Brettkelly, documentary director and winner of numerous film festivals in the entire world.
A major event this year will be a thematic Retrospective - "The Holocaust: Memory in the screen.” Holocaust is particularly important for Lithuanian audience, since during the II World War the country has wiped out 95 percent of the local Jewish community. Along with the tragic statistics it should be also noted that almost entire Jewish culture, which had deep roots in this country, was completely destroyed and is barely visible today. Presenting a Holocaust film retrospective is a big step towards reconciliation and accepting the truth that Holocaust tragedy is not only a tragedy of Jewish community but of all of the country. Retrospective was formed together with “Arsenal” - an International Film and Video Art Institute in Berlin and will introduce the audiences to a variety of tactics and the use of the language in films representing the tragedy of the Holocaust. Retrospective will be launched by one of the first artistic documentaries about the Holocaust - film Night and Fog by Alain Resnais ( Nuit et Brouillard , 1955 . ). Historian Sonja Schultz will present a detailed depiction of the Holocaust in cinema history before the screening. On the last day of the festival viewers will be able to see Claude Lanzmann film "Shoah" (1985 m.). Following the instructions of Claude Lanzman almost ten hour-long film will be shown with only one break. Directors Irene Angelico and Abbey Neidik will present their documentary “Dark Lullabies” in Vilnius. It is a very personal film, which delves into the parents' trauma and looks for answers to the complex and sensitive issues.
International documentary film festival „Inconvienent films“ will take place in October 13-November 8 in Vilnius and all throughout the country. Festival will be opened by this year winner of Golden Berlin Bear, an immersive documentary of Gianfranco Rossi „Fire at Sea.“
