Nyman lights Black Nights festival

Event closes with 'Negative Thinking'

By TOM BIRCHENOUGH

LONDON -- Estonia's 11th Black Nights festival kicked off Nov. 30 not with a pic, but with a concert by British film composer Michael Nyman and his band.

Event, which runs in the capital Tallinn through Dec. 8, closes with local premiere of Norwegian director Bard Breien's "The Art of Negative Thinking."

With local pics as well as pics from adjoining Baltic territories Latvia and Lithuania on a high this year, there will be keen interest in the 6th Baltic Event co-production market, which runs Dec. 4-5. Some 140 representatives from the area, as well as from Scandinavia, Russia and East-Central Europe, will be looking at 12 projects.

Estonia is represented by helmer-scribe Veiko Ounpuu's "The Temptations of Saint Tony " and Russian helmer Kirill Serebrennikov's Tchaikovsky-themed "The Swan Prince" from Estonian shingle Taska Prods. Serebrennikov's "Playing the Victim" won top prize at Rome last year.

Five films from the co-production markets in 2005 and 2006 are already completed including three that are on the program of this year's Black Nights fest. They are Rainer Sarnet's Estonia-Austrian co-production "Where Souls Go"; "Whisper of Sin" by Lithuania's Algimantas Puipa; and "The First Balkan Dogma,"a Macedonia-Bulgarian co-production by director Aneta Lesnikovska.

A two-day Baltic showcase Dec. 4-5 profiles eight new films from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Baltic Event also offers an Industry Day for Baltic producers Dec. 5. It will present a panel on post-production, the EU's Media program presentation on media development and distribution, and a lecture on negotiating a co-production by Renate Roginas.