Gintaras Makarevicius (LT) | Winter Parallels

SYNOPSIS

I was inspired to make the film Winter Parallels by everyday social life in Lithuania. Since I started making short documentaries in 1999 I have always been interested in the lives of people with the lowest social status who, however, perform work. [...] Dramatic situations that can shock an extraneous spectator are quotidian in the life of these four persons. In the beginning I was going to make a film about people from different social backgrounds, but later I understood that one question that concerns me the most is what reasons does it take to perform unpleasant, psychologically difficult and often badly paid occupations. The characters of the film, whom I got to know before the shooting, were very kind, sensible and nice people who could have some other jobs but have consciously chosen their professions. Either in the animal rescue center, children’s special needs institution, immigration registration centre or emergency road transport service routes, every day they are confronted with dramas and complex fates of people or homeless animals. Conversations with them have revealed to me that none of the four would give up their profession. Gintaras Makarevicius

ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY

Gintaras Makarevicius was born in 1965 in Trakai, Lithuania. He lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania.
He earned a master in Fine Art in 1994 from the School of Fine Art, Vilnius. In 2007 his work was included in various festivals such as the Tinklai International Short Film Festival and in the Vilnius Documentary Film Festival in Vilnius and in international group exhibitions, among others at Galleria ARTRA in Milan, at Arhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark, at Landesgalerie Linz in Austria, in the e-flux Video Rental Project in Centre culturel suisse, Paris and in Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts in Cambridge, MA.

FILMOGRAPHY

• Winter Parallels, 2007, 54'00", HDV
• Vaskichi, 2003 – 2004, 17'00", DVD
• Relatives, 2000, 24'00", BETA
• The Pit, 2001 –2002, 45'00", BETA / DVD
• Naicai, 2002, 19'00", DVD
• Hot, 1999, 12'00", DVD
• Language from the past, 2004, 11'47", DVD