Nijole's Lithuanian Premier at VDFF
This year NIJOLE will be the opening film of the Vilnius Documentary Film Festival - VDFF 2019. The first time that the documentary will be screened in Nijole’s land. The festival will be held from 19 to 29 of September 2019, and will have screenings in Klaipeda and Kaunas.
This year NIJOLE will be the opening film of the Vilnius Documentary Film Festival - VDFF 2019. The first time that the documentary will be screened in Nijole’s land. The festival will be held from 19 to 29 of September 2019, and will have screenings in Klaipeda and Kaunas.
During the opening, Antanas Mockus, one of the most famous lithuanians of all times and Nijole’s son will be present.
This is how VDFF describes our film:
Nijole doesn’t really like people. She is provocative, an artist, an iconoclast. And much of this was inherited by her son, Antanas Mockus. Along with the peculiar relationship between mother and son – in fact Antanas is the film’s guiding force – their communication and lack thereof, the memories of a Lithuania that, in times of war, had to be fled from, her artistic works and her written reflections, this film has the same irreverent, strong, and somewhat disperse character of the fascinating woman it portrays.
From lithuanian press:
Antanas e Nijole al Biografilm Fest 2019
Biografilm Festival rende omaggio al politico, filosofo e matematico colombiano Antanas Mockus con la proiezione di Nijole di Sandro Bozzolo, in anteprima italiana, film sull'artista lituana Nijole Sivickas che ha ispirato l’azione artistico-politica di suo figlio Antanas Mockus, e il film Life Is Sacred di Andreas M. Dalsgaard, sui quattro anni di battaglie per la pace del gruppo guidato da Antanas Mockus che usando mimi, matite, flashmob e costumi da supereroe ha cambiato la storia politica colombiana.
Omaggio ad Antanas Mockus, il creativo e filosofo ex-sindaco di Bogotà che ha cambiato la storia politica della Colombia
Biografilm Festival dedica un omaggio ad Antanas Mockus e alla sua meravigliosa storia come innovativo sindaco di Bogotà.
Rettore dell’Università di Bogotà e due volte sindaco della città, è stato inventore di un nuovo modo di comunicare e fare politica, partendo dai più piccoli problemi ed ottenendo risultati straordinari.
Per risolvere il problema del traffico e degli incidenti stradali, distribuì ai cittadini dei cartelli con un pollice verde alzato e un pollice rosso rivolto verso il basso, da usare per segnalare i buoni e cattivi comportamenti dei loro concittadini. Assunse dei mimi ai semafori che reagivano alle abitudini scorrette di automobilisti e passanti. Girò uno spot in cui faceva la doccia chiudendo l’acqua mentre si insaponava chiedendo a tutti di fare lo stesso, come messaggio in risposta alla grave carenza d’acqua che la città affrontava.
Proibì le armi e fece diminuire violenza, criminalità e omicidi in città con iniziative molto creative; per ridurre la paura e le molestie organizzò le “Notti delle donne”, serate di coprifuoco volontario per gli uomini per permettere alle donne di uscire tranquille.
Biografilm Festival rende omaggio al politico, filosofo e matematico colombiano Antanas Mockus con la proiezione di Nijole di Sandro Bozzolo, in anteprima italiana, film sull'artista lituana Nijole Sivickas che ha ispirato l’azione artistico-politica di suo figlio Antanas Mockus, e il film Life Is Sacred di Andreas M. Dalsgaard, sui quattro anni di battaglie per la pace del gruppo guidato da Antanas Mockus che usando mimi, matite, flashmob e costumi da supereroe ha cambiato la storia politica colombiana.
Nijole en DOCS Barcelona
“Arte y política, Lituania y América Latina, madre irreverente e hijo activista. La inimitable trayectoria de Antanas Mockus, ex-candidato a la presidencia de Colombia, habría sido imposible sin los consejos visionarios de su madre, la artista nonagenaria Nijole Sivicka. Juntos se embarcan en un viaje íntimo de descubrimiento mutuo y nos dan una lección vital llena de coraje y vulnerabilidad.
Dicen que las mejores ideas salen de mezclas insólitas, a veces desconcertantes. La creatividad también podría ser una cuestión de transmisión familiar. El director italiano Sandro Bozzolo construye un cóctel inclasificable e inspirador que nos adentra hacia un viaje íntimo a las profundidades de sus vidas. Del presente marcado por la fragilidad de sus cuerpos, a las raíces lituanas que Nijole tuvo que dejar atrás, descubrimos dos historias vitales extraordinarias.”
Sinopsis de Nijole en DOCS Barcelona 2019
“Arte y política, Lituania y América Latina, madre irreverente e hijo activista. La inimitable trayectoria de Antanas Mockus, ex-candidato a la presidencia de Colombia, habría sido imposible sin los consejos visionarios de su madre, la artista nonagenaria Nijole Sivicka. Juntos se embarcan en un viaje íntimo de descubrimiento mutuo y nos dan una lección vital llena de coraje y vulnerabilidad.
Dicen que las mejores ideas salen de mezclas insólitas, a veces desconcertantes. La creatividad también podría ser una cuestión de transmisión familiar. El director italiano Sandro Bozzolo construye un cóctel inclasificable e inspirador que nos adentra hacia un viaje íntimo a las profundidades de sus vidas. Del presente marcado por la fragilidad de sus cuerpos, a las raíces lituanas que Nijole tuvo que dejar atrás, descubrimos dos historias vitales extraordinarias.”
Sección Oficial - Panorama
Sección competitiva que agrupa una selección de los mejores documentales del panorama internacional más reciente. Las películas de esta sección compiten por el Premio DocsBarcelona TV3 al Mejor Documental y el Premio Nuevo Talento a la mejor película de los directores debutantes.
Nijole's World Premier at DOK Leipzig
Our film Nijole will be premiered at the 61° edition of the Leipzig Film Festival. Next Masters Competition. Nominated for the MDR Film Prize. A lituanian-italian co-production.
DOK Leipzig 29. Oktober – 4. November 2018
61. Internationales Leipziger Festival für Dokumentar- und Animationsfilm
Antanas Mockus and I working on Nijole’s presentation “Works and Reflexions” at the Contemporary Art Center of Vilnius.
I am one of the 4 components of a trip to Lithuania in 2016: Nijole, Antanas, Sandro (the director), and me. Of the 4, today we are 3. We wanted to make a biographical film and we ended up making a film about the relationship between art and love, about freedom. This film, called Nijole, will become Cinema (with a capital C) in a few days: the world premiere will be at the 61st edition of the Leipzig Festival, the European documentary's temple; just a day after Herzog, in person, released his latest documentary; in the competition that highlights the next masters of the documentary. But this is nothing: the film will see the light in the country where Nijole was trained as an artist, and from which the conditions that later led her to Colombia arose. The film will be screened for the first time, only one month after his death. Those who will see this film, will see it, in its essence, next to the essence of his son Antanas (his work). Nijole yearned to make art without an object. This movie is that, it's herself, made light.
“Antanas Mockus was Mayor of Bogotá, several times Colombian presidential candidate, and voted into the senate in 2018. But this film is not about the politician, but about his 88-year-old mother, the idiosyncratic artist Nijolė Šivickas. She has consistently protected her private life from the public eye, agreeing only reluctantly to media interviews. Even her son knew almost nothing about her Lithuanian childhood. In her artistic practice, but also emotionally, she had turned her back on her homeland.
Now Nijolė has been invited to give a workshop on the occasion of a great retrospective in Vilnius. The film follows her and Antanas on this journey. It’s basically a son’s look at a mother whose independence and critical social spirit were his constant inspiration. Sandro Bozzolo and his team approach their protagonists with restraint, adapt the montage to their rhythm and focus on the rooms of their creative work, on Nijolė’s meetings with Antanas and their journey home together, which moves both deeply. The son takes his mother by the hand, as does this story of an outer and inner journey with the audience. Which events continue to shape one’s life and which had better be forgotten?”
Nijole - Best Doc at FEST Pitching Forum
Our documentary project NIJOLE has its first AWARD! We got the - Envy Post Production Award for Best Documentary at FEST - New Directors New Films Festival pitching forum.
I had the opportunity to pitch the documentary project "Nijole", a movie that approaches for the first time the life and art of Nijole Sivickas, mother of Antanas Mockus, at the Pitching Forum of FEST - New Directors New Film Festival 2017, at Espinho, Portugal.
The project was selected as Best Feature Documentary Project. The film won the post-production price at ENVY studios in London, UK.