Latvian Director Andris Gauja Visits Tartu
Arts of Survival Documentaries invited Latvian writer and director Andris Gauja to Tartu. During his visit, Gauja shed some light on his ongoing project.
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Arts of Survival Documentaries
Ever since graduating from the Latvian Academy of Culture’s screenwriting programme, Andris Gauja has written, produced, and directed several documentaries, such as “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” and ”The Lesson“ . The director has many links to Estonia, one of them being his current venture, a cooperation project with an Estonian filmmaker on a Latvian-Estonian experimental documentary.
Gauja is now conducting research for the Arts of Survival Documentaries while travelling back and forth between Latvia and Estonia. During the meeting with Tartu 2024 representatives, he talked about his vision and how the Estonian practice of observing the universe had inspired him.
As Gauja’s work focuses on the relationship between the large and small scale, he found himself conducting research in Tartu’s Old Observatory. His current area of interest is the universe and slime mould. Research around the idea began already in Latvia, but in Tartu, he said, everything suddenly seemed to fall into its place. For instance, Tartu will host the international slime mould congress in 2023.
During the Tartuff Film Festival, Gauja’s film “Family Instinct” was screened in Elektriteater, and on September 5th, he provided a workshop for aspiring filmmakers on how to create an effective visual sequence.
