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Antanas Mockus is a Lithuanian-Colombian mathematician, philosopher, and politician who was mayor of Bogotá, ran as a presidential candidate, and served in the Colombian senate. Lithuanian-Italian coproduction Nijolė, however, is not a film about the politician, but about his eighty-eight-year-old Lithuanian mother, the eccentric and irreverent artist Nijolė Šivickas and her approach to the world — a philosophy that continually inspired her son. "Nijolė is an unclassifiable and inspirational cocktail that takes us on an intimate journey to the depths of their lives. From the present marked by the fragility of their bodies, to the Lithuanian roots that Nijolė had to leave behind, we discover two extraordinary, vital stories." — Dok Leipzig (Sandro Bozzolo, 2018, subtitles, 82 minutes)
In a secluded region of Lithuania — where the local church is decorated with antlers and the children nestle in fur — a tightknit community of hunters and skilled taxidermists doggedly skirts the edge of mortality, searching for game and celebrating life. In the world of Animus Animalis: On People, Animals, and Things, hunting is synonymous with love of nature, and animals, dead or alive, are part of community ritual and lore. The impermanence of existence appears to have a quietly mystical significance, closely aligned with the cycle of the seasons and the presence of abundant forests and faunae. (Aistė Žegulytė, 2018, subtitles, 70 minutes)
Presented in conjunction with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Embassy of Lithuania, and the Lithuanian Film Centre.