Dainis Īvāns

Looking for solutions of an efficient management and creation significant ideas to flourish Latvian culture and education, leaders of the Riga Latvian Society decide to hold the 1st Latvian Singing Festival back in 1873. At the beginning there are only four of them, very soon others – Latvians, Baltic Germans and Russians get involved, both influential persons of the society, countless volunteers from Riga, Livonia and Courland governorates. Also twenty-year-old Anna, whose desire to sing is stronger, despite the obstacles she has like any woman in that period of history, finds a way to join. By singing she finds self-confidence, power, joy of life and sense of unity, flourishing together with the Latvian nation, becoming a symbol of woman’s freedom.

Fridrihs Vesmanis (1875–1941) – the first Chairman of the Saeima (Parliament) of the Republic of Latvia, Latvia’s envoy to Great Britain, and a Supreme Court senator – was arrested and deported by the Soviets in June 1941. It was forbidden to mention his name during the years of the Soviet occupation. Only after Latvia regained its independence, his descendants found his autobiography, which reads like a last letter to the future Latvia. This film is dedicated to the inception of the Latvian state and the centenary of its Constitution and Parliament.

A film about "Dziesmusvētki" - the Latvian national singing festival tradition.

This film tells about the most striking and tragic phenomenon during the development of self-awareness of the Latvian nation – the Latvian Riflemen. The first Daugavgrīva regiment, the second Riga, third Kurland, fifth Semigallian, sixth Tukums, seventh Bauska and eighth Valmiera regiments of Latvian Riflemen – this was Latvia before its statehood. The film is a historically chronological study beginning with the formation of the Riflemen battalions and their first battles until the end of the Civil War in Russia, when a large part of the Riflemen returned home to the recently established state of Latvia. This is a story about common people challenged by the Big Epoch that determined their lives.

The documentary about Dainis Īvāns, leader of the National Awakening movement between late 1980s and early 1990s, a human symbol of the recent history of Latvia who embodies all hope, idealism, disappointment, choices, compromises, wins and losses. Eventually, he finds strength within himself to return to his roots, rather than let grindstones of history crush him, to be more than just an accidental figure in the big plan of destiny.

The film, dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of the Popular Front of Latvia, shows the most important turning points in the history of the Latvian National Awakening and Singing Revolution, as well as the rebirth of Latvian national symbols and values. In The Path to Baltic Freedom the authors focus on lesser known pages of history – the influence of perestroika on the early national movements of the 1980s, the role and participation of the Secret Service and the Communist Party in the newly-forming mass movements and their wish to guide or at least control them. The history of the Popular Front is shown not only until their victory in the first free elections in the history of the USSR that resulted in the restoration of independence for the Baltic states; the film also includes the decline of the organization after it had reached the most crucial of its goals.