Latviski par šo filmu

Not Easy to be Different

www.ourfirefilms.com/noteasytobedifferent

Not Easy To Be Different is a documentary short film about four young people in Latvia with psychiatric illnesses who strive to integrate into the society. It is about their success and failure, about understanding of others and, frequently, about the unapproving eye of the society. The patients themselves and the people close to them share in their challenges and experiences, and tell about their problems and how they are trying to solve them.

The makers of this film hope that it will also help others in similar situations to gain from the experience, and for the relatives, friends and colleagues to gain greater understanding and forthcoming. We also hope that this film will help the larger society to receive a better outlook on people with mental illnesses, as well as will facilitate an improved acceptance and assistance.

For this film we chose people who are already on the path of integration into the society. An in-depth view in the medical treatment and experiences and problems that are associated with it we leave for another film.

The film was started as an independent project of the NGO „Our Fire”. But soon after we were joined by Lelde Goba, who at that time was a student of the Latvian Academy of Culture. As well as we received help from the studio „Elm Media”, which assisted us with know-how and gear.

In the future we will make available additional materials, interviews and information. Currently sub-titles in Russian are being prepared.

As Lelde eventually had to comply with the requirements of the Latvian Academy of Culture in relation to submitting her bachelor’s project, she has created another short film by using partially the same film material and also doing a separate cut. We invite you to see her film too, which is entitled Mans hobijs ir dzīve (My hobby is the life).

And least, but certainly not last, we wish to deeply thank everyone who agreed to participate in the making of this short film! We especially thank the main protagonists and wish them all the best in their path to light.

This film is published under the Creative Commons BY-SA license: it may be freely used and distributed within the rules of the license – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Our Fire, NGO.

e-mail: biedriba@ourfire.org | www.ourfire.org | www.ourfirefilms.com

See also on: archive.org (download)

Type: short film (colour)
Status: released November 25, 2012.
Length: 25:00
Genre: documentary
License: Creative Commons BY-SA (Approved for Free Cultural Works)
Soundtrack: S.O.S.O., Mindthings, Helēna Kozlova

Music used in the film:

1. Soso – http://www.youcancallmesoso.com/
1) “That time I dug so deep I ended up in china” 00:00-00:24 + 02:08-02:46;
2) “Sab Lackath” 03:38-04:23 + 06:43-07:10;
3) “Happy People” 08:33-10:02 + 18:00-19:26.

All songs mentioned above are written by Soso, published by Universal Music Publishing AB.

2. Mindthings – www.mindthings.net
“Sounds From The Past”, 23:56-24:40
Published at www.jamendo.com under CC BY-NC license

3. Helēna Kozlova
“Mēnestiņis skatījāsi”, 21:47-22:25

For best experience and an index go directly to Vimeo.com or watch on Youtube.

A gathering of friends jamming ethno style. When spoken, then in Latvian.

Saturs (Index):
00:22 - Ievads (Introduction)
00:48 - Par īkšķu klavierēm (On the Thumb Piano)
01:24 - Par vargānu (On the Jew’s harp)
04:43 - Par didžeridū (On the Didgeridoo)
07:59 - Strukturēta improvizācija (Structured jam)
24:57 - Brīvā improvizācija (Free for all jam)

We’ve got a strange situation with the upcoming documentary short. One of our operators Lelde, who has contributed a lot to the project, wished to use the film for her bachelor’s work at the Latvian Academy of Culture, which I of course agreed to. At the final stages of editing the film she decided that it would be best for her if she edited the final version for herself. Apparently the Academy has certain expectations that differ from my editing techniques.

So currently we’re already editing two different versions of the film, because I am no student of the Academy and therefore not burdened by their expectations. Film making is my hobby not a profession exactly because I have certain expectations of artistic freedom.

I have given all the tapes and material to Lelde and am very eager to see what she’ll come up with and how her version of the film will differ from mine. Needless to say that this has given me added motivation to make lots of improvements to my version, and I hope that she feels the same way and that we’ll both benefit from this.

I think this beautifully illustrates the benefits of the Creative Commons way of doing things. There will be not one film, but two, and, hopefully, both will be better films than if just one was made with no friendly competition.

As I mentioned previously our film will be released under the Creative Commons BY-SA license. Release date: June 7, 2012 (the date after Lelde’s version shall be presented to the Academy).

I never thought that I’d be editing videos on a laptop. The usual opinion is that, among other things, the screen is too small and the hardware too incapable. True in part, but mobility is a great plus.

I bought a laptop for working on documents and browsing the internet mostly (Dell Vostro 3450), it has no video card, a 14″ screen and the processor is i3. So I was quite skeptical when I decided to try editing video on it. To my surprise my cheapish laptop turned out in practice to be more powerful than my 5 year old editing pc.

Because I’m very busy at work and like to spend time with my wife at home, I now edit mostly on the go, during the daily commute in the train and elsewhere. I have more free time, I am more mobile and the big screen is overrated – I can check the details later at home, but it doesn’t impact the real editing much. And I’ve become quite agile with the trackpad.

So I suggest you try editing on the laptop too, maybe it works for you.