Documentary film "Braucam uz Kei Dīz / Let's go to KDs"

Saturday, 9 July at 1:00pm, Brisbane Latvian Hall.

Duration of the film: 1 hour 5 minutes.

Tickets $20; Concession $15; Children under 12 free.

Please purchase your ticket at the door but RSVP on Eventbrite, or email us on brisbanelatviancommunity@gmail.com to help us with catering numbers.

Refreshments available for purchase. Bar open.

Please read the information below by Ilona and Klāra:

When we start preparing for the 58th Australian Latvian Arts Festival (AL58.KD), we also start thinking about previous KDs, how they came about, why they came about and what they have given to Latvian society in Australia - all those adventures, those hours dedicated to rehearsals, events, and in recent years in collaboration with Latvia. Why?

We really wanted to understand the phenomenon of the Latvian Arts Festival (KDs) and its influence on being Latvian. We were looking around for a way to remember and honour those who had taken the path that we were embarking on in organising the KDs. But we were also interested in the many thousands of participants who had contributed their energy to helping Latvians in Australia to preserve and understand their heritage and understand its impact on making them who they are.

And so the documentary film was born. It would serve as a contribution to the archive of materials about the lives of Australian Latvians but also as an exploration of what "being Latvian" means. A film format was chosen because it is easily accessible (more so than text) and by providing subtitles in English, it would be accessible to everyone - not just those who still spoke Latvian.

We also chose a professional Latvian filmmaker - with intent - because we were interested in the added layer of meaning that might come from someone outside of Australian Latvian society examining the KDs phenomenon.The director (Dace Pūce) and cameraman (Maŗtiņš Jurevics) arrived in Australia at the beginning of 2020 in the middle of the horrendous bushfires that ravaged Australia but before the Covid-19 pandemic incapacitated the world. They filmed interviews, concerts and rehearsals, examined old films about KDs and reviewed hundreds of extant photos. They had already researched the story of the KDs in Latvia, before they came here.