The Singing revolution

A documentary film about a Baltic state that stood up for independence in a non- violent way.
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"The Singing Revolution" (Estonian title: "Laulev revolutsioon") was screened in its Canadian Premiere as the main Gala film of the 3rd Annual estdocs Estonian Documentary Film Festival in Toronto on Sunday Oct. 21, 2007 at the Ontario Science Centre Auditorium. "The Singing Revolution" won both the Audience Favourite and the Jury Prize for the week-long festival. The film also had it's Polish premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival.

The film delivers a lot of densely packed information on Estonia's recent history from the Communist/Nazi Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 that effectively delivered Estonia into the repressive dictatorship of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Regime to the most recent Song Festival("Laulupidu") of 2004.

More time is spent on the early years of the Russian occupation in the 1940's as it was then when the terror of the occupiers was at its fullest. The film then leaps ahead to the years of the mid to late 1980's when Mikhail Gorbachev's "perestroika" (economic restructuring) & "glasnost" (open-ness/free speech) opened the way for Estonian national movements such as the Estonian Independence Party, the Popular Front and the Estonian Heritage Society to test the limits that would be allowed before a further brutal oppressive crackdown began. Their steady probing and persistence made tiny Estonia a leading element on the way to the eventual breakdown and breakup of the Soviet empire.

Along the way, the role of Estonian music in general and the ongoing National Song Festival in particular, are shown as a force that kept hope for independence alive from as early a date as 1947 when Estonian composer/conductor Gustav Ernesaks was able to sneak his song "My Fatherland is My Love" into the new Soviet Republic's first post-occupation Song Festival.

Although the subject matter is overall one of a very serious nature there are still several moments of humour in the film such as one Russian babushka's complaints about how "I'm ashamed of Estonians, they are so sly. Face to face they're so nice to you, but they stab you in the back when you turn.

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Toronto Screen Shots
The fun begins afterward when we head over to a local pub and chat about our impressions of the film. There is no stress here... some of us are true movie fanatics but others are just looking for the opportunity to throw out our off-the-cuff impressions. No pressure... if you'd rather sit back and listen, that's fine too.

CHECK BACK: It is possible that Carlton will reschedule. Check back on Friday!

COURTESY: Please change your RSVP if you cannot make it to the film to give others a chance to come instead. If the event fills that will likely require us to split into two tables, and so do take that in stride. Thanks!!

film website: www.singingrevolution.com