Subtitles are available for the video in Estonian, Russian, English and Portuguese - use the CC button.
What is happening to the others? What are we, all of us, going through in this country called Estonia?
One hundred people tell stories of their lives in Estonia and give us a mosaic of this country, painted colorfully in all its glory, traditions, flaws and losses. Young, old, conservative, liberal, native, foreigner, healthy, disabled, men, women, both, neither.
Once upon an afternoon, me, a Brazilian, was telling expats in Facebook about a small story of discrimination by a private company who thought their policies were above the Equal Treatment Act. Much to my surprise, so many people showed no empathy and amongst a lot of venom, I was told this: if you don't like it here, leave.
I'm not leaving, I love it here. And I love it so much that I want a society that loves us all back equally. You, me, them. This felt like a call to action, to try and make a difference. To listen to the people, to take the conversation out of the social media fighting arena and to simply stop, sit still, talk and listen. To take questions learned from one interview and bring it forth to the next person. To find what's hidden in the silence and give faces to our stories, to give stories to the numbers, to breathe life where there's none, to help build a community.
Our ultimate goal for this movie is to subtitle it in Estonian and Russian and show it in every corner of Estonia that allows us to have a screen and a few chairs. To call people in and let the stories speak for themselves. That perhaps they've been through the same. To relate. Or more importantly, if they have never heard such stories before, they now know...They happen too.
We have interviewed 50 people so far and we frankly need your help to reach 100 and more.
At some point, I noticed a challenge. How could I be hearing all those moments lived in Estonia and not show Estonia itself? I was capturing intimate moments of love but also outrageous tales of bullying. Not only joyful memories of childhood but also the loneliness of old age. Aren't we shaped by the society we live and the surroundings around us? Clearly, this would not be complete without contemplating Estonia's nature and silence, without the black, reds, greens and blues of the folk dresses, without the rituals of sauna and much more. A narrator will invite us to the deepest questions of his soul, will share his deepest anxieties, his most secret joys and the wonder of discovering Nature for the first time.
History is in the making right now. Let us be a part of it. Let's say our piece.
How will your money be used:
- It is important to note that we have already interviewed 50 people and have heavily invested in equipment as well as transportation and accomodation to make this movie happen
- Transportation and Accomodation. We have already been to X Estonian cities. This comes at great transportation costs. Some of the places we have been: Kihnu, Kohila, Viljandi, Setomaa, Rakvere, Haapsalu, Tallinn and Tartu
- We still need to interview another 50 persons and we want to cover the broadest geographical area possible in Estonia. That means north, south, east, west and the islands
- Russian Language Interpreter and Translator. The interviewers of this movie do not speak Russian but this movie cannot be done without interviewing the russian-speaking Estonians, so this is a critical aspect of funding
- Sign Language Interpreter
- Folk Dances. We have a choreographer creating a solo folk dance specially for the movie. We would love to pay her
- We have a dance teacher helping us film several folk dance groups. We would also love to pay her. Filming folk dance groups involves transportation, accomodation and food as the dancers are participating on a voluntary basis
- Nature Footage: we want to capture nature in all seasons. This is another critical aspect of the movie, being the connecting thread of every human being living here
- Marketing Campaign
- Submit the documentary to film festivals around the world
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