Daugavpils University Receives a Unique DVD Film Collection, “A Selection of Latvian Films,” as a Gift

To mark Latvia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2015, the National Film Centre, in cooperation with the Secretariat of Latvia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, implemented the project “A Selection of Latvian Films,” which consists of one catalogue and 25 DVDs containing 70 Latvian feature, documentary, and animated films.

As a result of discussions by the working group responsible for compiling the collection, the selection includes 10 feature films, 16 documentary films, and 44 animated films. The films are grouped into two chronological periods – classic cinema and the present day. The oldest film on the feature-film list is director Leonīds Leimanis’s "The Boggy Swamp" (1966), while the newest is Jānis Nord’s "Mother, I Love You" (2013). The documentary selection begins with Ivars Kraulītis’s "White Bells" (1961) and ends with Dāvis Sīmanis’s "Escaping Riga" (2014), while the animated films begin with Arnolds Burovs’s first film, "Ki-ke-ri-gū!" (1966), and Roze Stiebra’s "The Golden Sieve" (1975), and conclude with Signe Baumane’s "Rocks in My Pockets" (2014) and Reinis Kalnaeļlis’s "The Golden Horse" (2014).

The 25 DVDs in the selection are accompanied by a catalogue in Latvian and English covering all the films and their authors – 40 directors. Introductory articles for each section of the selection were written by industry professionals Dita Rietuma, Inga Pērkone, Zane Balčus, Ieva Pitruka, and Ieva Viese.

The film selection is available for home loan from the Humanities and Arts Sciences Lending Library at 13 Vienības Street, Daugavpils University.