News

17 November, 2009. To celebrate the wealth and diversity of contemporary documentary films in Europe, selected cultural institutes and embassies in London and the European Commission Representation in the UK have collaborated on 'Memory', a six day documentary festival from the 15 to 21 November at the Ciné lumière.  The festival, now in its third year, will showcase the work of new and established directors from across the continent, among them also young Lithuanian director Giedrė Beinoriūtė, whose award winning documentary animation film "Grandpa and Grandma" (2007) will be screened at the Ciné lumière on the 17th November, along with the recent Polish and Estonian documentaries.  

"Grandpa and Grandma" is based on the life story of the director’s grandparents who were exiled to Siberia by the Soviets in 1948. This brutal period of Lithuanian history is told in a personal way, as a fairytale. The story teller is a little girl, who sees events in her own childlike way. The visual basis of the film consists of extant family photographs together with material from the national archive and animation inserts. According to Giedrė Beinoriūtė „exile was discussed so much that as a subject ir became undeservedly overused. Young people started picturing the deportees as old unhappy people, with whom you would never want to have anything in common as they would make you sad. And being sad is really out of fashion these days. We forget that young people were also exiled, even very small children; families were torn apart. It was this aspect that interested me – the story of one family, which was very similar to tens of thousends of other stories. Deportation to Siberia is still a painful and complicated moment in the history of the nation. Naturally, it is difficult to talk about, but necessary. It is like psychotherapy to heal the society. I feel it is time for that.“

The season presents documentaries from Romania, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Poland and Bulgaria. The season extends beyond Ciné lumière with screenings at the  Hungarian Cultural Centre and the Italian Cultural Institute.

Through visiting the past and revealing often unseen archives, these remarkable works offer a unique opportunity to Londoners to rediscover history that is common to all of us, through various viewpoints.

Memory is the third joint projec of the EUNIC London cluster (European Union National Institutes for Culture in London) which aims to improve and promote cultural diversity and understanding between European societies.

European Documentary Workshop 9 - 13 November
Ten recent graduates of leading European film schools will create five films on the theme of ‘The Fall of The Wall’. In collaboration with the London Film School and with the generous support of the European Commission Representation in the UK