Retelling
Action, video, 2012
July 2012
I was looking for people who would be willing to retell their Latvian literature experience in front of a camera. I spoke to my first literature teacher. She’s still making up her mind about taking part, arguing she’s getting on in years, and so on... But her reply does not even matter so much. What matters is that I still remember her classes and the texts she taught. The walls of her Latvian Literature classroom held some „showcases” of Latvian literary figures, and one of these was devoted to poet Imants Ziedonis. Under a picture of Imants and his wife Ausma was a quotation from Ziedonis– Ai, kādiem ziediem smagi melniem / Pret tavu sirdi mana zied [With darkly heavy blossoms / My heart blooms toward yours]. This was my first encounter with love poetry. spoke to my father, who used to go on and on that a film should be made of the short story from Zaļā grāmata [The Green Book] by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš, a story about draining a pond and catching the fish. I never quite understood why he had settled on that particular story, but that does not matter. What matters is that he used to read to me at bedtime, andtell me stories from his childhood whenever we walked for long stretches together. some stories were repeated countless times.
I also searched the internet. My correspondence with strangers, whose only mark of identification were the books they had read and chosen, turned out to be surprisingly interesting. A beautiful and unexpected “readers’ map” started to take shape:
- The last Latvian book I read was Gaetāno Krematoss [Gaetano Krematos] by Margarita Perveņecka, and after reading it I had the idea of going to Karosta and recording a few phrases for my personal archives.
- I would love to retell Kā Runcis kļuva par Runcē [How Mr Cat Became M. Chat] by Poruks, just as a change from the usual “pale boy protagonist” routine...
- I feel like I should go with retelling Vārnu ielas republika [The Republic of Vārnu Street]... Probably because my grandmother is a character in that story, and because the story is what it is... Granny, or she and her sister, to be more precise, were allegedly part of that little gang; Granny’s sister was born in 1899, Granny herself was a bit younger.
People who sing are beautiful. So are people who tell stories.
Initially I had decided to use only the literary text, so that the only impact would come from the words chosen by the writer – with no surplus information on what and why, no added filmed material or illustrative pictures... After meeting these people who read books I am no longer so sure I can keep myself from filming that photograph of the grandmother, that pencil-marked page of the book, that one particular, special tree in the forest... (K.Ž.)
Downshifting? As long as there’s enough time, energy and interest to cultivate a relationship with yourself, all the rest of it – countryside, city, local shops, farmers’ markets, ignoring the big brands and networks, allotment gardening, mushroom gathering, berry picking, preserve-making and freezing, refusing the plastic bag in supermarkets, giving up meat, giving up the TV box, giving up Made in China rubbish, giving up rubbish in general, giving up on the third side job and the newest mobile phone model twice a year, meditation and marathon running – is no more than just a backdrop against which this most important relationship takes (or does not take) place. There will be no collective salvation – just one by one, individually. Every person with themselves (sic! Not to be confused with ‘every man for himself and God against all’!), their own ‘strategies’ – their books, their music, their movies, their children, their people, their animals, their conversations, their loneliness, their silence, their questions, their answers.
Artist's Bio:
Kristīne Želve is a film director, writer and publicist. She has studied film direction under Ansis Epners at the Latvian Academy of Culture. Želve is the author of documentary films Fedja (Fedya, 2012), Sievas (Wives, 2008), Blondie stāsti (Blonde Stories, 2003), ES, episode Cietums (EU, episode „Prison”, 2004) a.o., as well as the urban culture event Pur4ik 4ever (2011). Since 2011 Želve has presented the TV programme 100g kultūras. In 2011 Želve published her first compilation of stories, Meitene, Kas Nogrieza Man Matus [The Girl Who Cut My Hair], which brought her a Latvian Literature Award nomination for Best Debut of 2011.