Visiting Nijole Brazenaite-Paronetto

We recently visited our friend and supporter Nijolė Bražėnaitė-Paronetto at her home in New York. Nijole is an accomplished pathologist and scholar, and is also known for being part of a notable family: she is the widow of legendary Lithuanian partisan Juozas Lukša-Daumantas, and daughter of Konstancija Bražėnienė, who was awarded the Yad Vashem Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations for protecting Jewish children during the holocaust in Lithuania. Needless to say, Nijolė has some interesting stories to tell.

SFIFF 2013

We saw some incredible films at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, but nothing comes close to the mind-blowing audio-visual experience of Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel's Leviathan.

Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing is easily the most disturbing film I've seen at the festival - or anywhere, ever. In which "history is written by the winners," no matter who they are and what they've done...

Watching Sergei Loznitza's In the Fog was like seeing some of the stories from LAND OF SONGS brought to life. A bleak contemplation on how war effects the villager with no ideological stakes save his own personal integrity.

Other highlights include participating in San Francisco Film Society's A2E Direct Distribution lab, and running into our friend V.Vale of Re/Search Publications!

Land of Songs & Her Girl Friday

Aldona is a co-organizer at Her Girl Friday, a Brooklyn collective that produces events for women journalists & nonfiction storytellers. On March 7, they had their first San Francisco event at 111 Minna Street Gallery. Almost 200 people came to hang out and listen to speakers Ann Friedman, Martina Castro, Mimi Chakarova, and Katy Newton discuss their new projects, and Aldona presented Land of Songs as a work-in-progress.

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We're back!

The shoot was a huge success. Our Lithuanian crew-turned-family was fantastic, we could not have asked for better partners on this project. And the močiutės were fabulous, of course! They opened their homes to us, filled our ears with songs and stories, and stuffed our bellies with delicious home-cooked meals. We have the močiutės, their families, and indeed, the entire village to thank for their incredible generosity and willingness to help make this film the best it can possibly be.

We shot every single day for almost a month, and came home with tons of material: mushroom hunts in the morning mist, ghost stories at the "witch swamp," partisan bunkers, ancient beekeepers, ancient pagan rituals, and of course, the močiutės' singing anywhere and everywhere - from their kitchen tables to the river Skroblus, to a giant pyramid in the middle of the forest (long story!). We were delighted to discover that, yes, it's true: this really is the Land Of Songs...

Check Facebook for more photos.

Buk sveikas!

Aldona

We did it!

We reached our fundraising goal, thanks to our amazing backers! Words cannot express my gratitude.

We still have 4 days left to raise funds on Kickstarter. As our proposed goal amount only covers the minimum production costs, every dollar raised in these final days will go towards making the best film possible. We hope to be able to access the high quality video and audio equipment necessary to do justice to the wonderful močiutės, their beautiful voices, and their important stories.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/landofsongs/land-of-songs-dainava

Thank you and labai ačiū!

Thank you from Stase

Stasė is now in the hospital recovering from surgery. Our local production coordinator Ignas says that she is in pain, but that talking about the film lifts her spirits! She is very moved by the well-wishes and support. But she can tell you in her own words, just watch the video below! For those of you whose Lithuanian is a little rusty, here's what she's saying:

"Thank you to all of you. I promise to get better, and to sing many songs. I wish everybody would sing more. I have many stories to tell. I remember many tales, many songs … many adventures in our small, beloved Lithuania"