Dynamics of Change in Baltic Sea Region Cinema: Industries, Institutions, and Audiences
The 10th Baltic Sea Region Film History Conference
November 13–14, 2025
Venue: Estonian Film Museum
Pirita tee 56, Tallinn, Estonia
Preliminary Programme | November 13
9:00 - 9:30 | Registration and coffee
9:30 - 9:45 | Opening of the conference
9:45 - 11:15 | Panel 1. Documentary modes and voices
Teisi Ligi: Modes of Address in Baltic New Wave Documentary
Dita Šķēle: Manifestations of Subjectivity in the Recent Essay Films of the Latvian Television Project “Latvian Code. Latvia Today”
Zane Balčus: Framing the Self: Self-Portrait Documentary Film in Baltic countries
Chair: TBC
11:15 - 11:45 | Coffee break
11:45 - 13:15 | Panel 2. Archives, postmemory and political pasts
Kamil Lipiński: Postmemory Found Footage Documentation in the Face of "Forgetting": The Case of the Letters to Afar Project
Hanna Maria Aunin: Visualising the Nazi Past: Soviet Estonian Documentaries and Newsreels During the Thaw Era
Rosario Napolitano & Epp Lauk: The process of Cinefication in Latvia during the Stalin Era (1940–1941 / 1944–1953)
Chair: TBC
13:15 - 14:30 | Lunch break
14:30 - 16:00 | Panel 3. Exhibition, festivals, policy and circulation
Arne Papenhagen & Saara Mildeberg: A Stage for the Up-and-Coming in the Baltic Sea Region
Monika Gimbutaitė: Lithuanian Film Policy Regarding Film Theaters (1990–2001)
Karl Taul: The Exhibition of Films in Estonia, 1896–1914
Chair: TBC
16:00 - 16:15 | Short day wrap and announcements
16:15 - 18:00 | Optional museum visits / informal meetings / admin time
18:30 - 22:00 | Networking event with snacks and drinks @ Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia, Endla tn 3
Programme | November 14
09:00 - 09:30 | Coffee and arrival
09:30 - 11:00 | Panel 4. Poetics, narration and imaginaries
Samantha Bodamer: Latvian Poetic Documentary and Global Networks: A Critical Transnational Reading of Laila Pakalniņa’s Spoon
Egle Vertelytė: The use of voice-over narration in the Lithuanian feature film “Southern Chronicles”
Ilona Hongisto & Joonas Talvila: Opaque Underwater Aesthetics and The Baltic Sea
Chair:TBC
11:00 - 11:30 | Coffee break
11:30 - 13:00 | Panel 5. Methods, metadata and historiographic inquiry
Andres Kõnno: Creating linked data for a student film database: the case of BFM
Katre Pärn: Semiotics and the history of film art in Estonia
Elīna Reitere: Epistemic Courage and Decolonisation Efforts of the Latvian Film History of the Soviet Period
Chair: TBC
13:00 - 14:15 | Lunch
14:15 - 15:45 | Panel discussion. Film heritage on display: festivals, events, and archives (90 min)
Participants:
Jay Weissberg, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone), artistic director
Oliver Hanley, Bonn International Silent Film Festival, co-curator
Paulina Reizi, ACE, A Season of Classic Films, coordinator
Milja Mikkola, Sodankylä Midnight Sun Film Festival, programme director
Moderated by Eva Näripea, Film Archive of the National Archives of Estonia, director
15:45 - 16:00 | Closing remarks
19:00 - 21:30 | Cheka Commissar Miroschtschenko (1925), dir. Paul Sehnert, film Screening @ KUMU