[Exi-bay-announce] May 2-8 @ S.F. Lumiere: Documentary: "The Singing Revolution"

[Amara Graps]

From: Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>, Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:08:37 -0500

>You have touched my emotions:  I'm not linked in to this culture as 
>someone like you or Steve. But I do love my memories of Estonia and 
>the two weeks I was in Tallinn.

One aspect of this film that I think is worth to keep in mind is that
the other two Baltic republics: Latvia and Lithuania, had their similar
stories running in parallel to the story in Estonia. If one uses the
example of the Latvian dainas as evidence of their singing tradition,
then Latvia's singing tradition goes back before Mesopotamia times
(according to some historians), for example.

So in my mind the Baltic revolutions should _all_ be called "The Singing
Revolution". But there is a reason that more people attach the label to
Estonia: there were no deaths in that revolution, like there were in
Lithuania and Latvia. The film focuses only on Estonia for another
reason: the people funding the Tustys wanted that particular Estonian
story, which was already rich with material. Mr. Tusty had a tough time
editing it to the two hours that he finally produced. He said in
February at the Boulder Film Festival that he will release this Fall
a DVD with supplementary material.

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado