BALTIC SHORTS | NYBFF

"BALTIC SHORTS | NYBFF" is a program of live-action short films from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, shown as part of the 9th Annual New York Baltic Film Festival (NYBFF). The festival is presented by Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America, which brings the best new films from the Baltic region to New York audiences. The shorts program includes PORTRAIT OF GRANNY (Omamma) by Ieva Ozoliņa, about her 88-year-old grandmother Aina's light-hearted outlook on life despite health concerns; CONCRETE KIDS (Betono vaikai) by Saulius Baradinskas, about kids who grew up in the courtyards of Lithuania's Soviet apartment districts and had to survive street violence without their parents' love; MY FIRST FUNERAL (Manas pirmās bēres) by Līva Klepere, in which eight-year-old Mare finds a funeral incomprehensible and takes refuge with the relative's dog; A MICROPHONE IN THE HEAD (Mikrofon peas) by Robert Raska, in which a dead man contacts his fiancée through a haunted karaoke microphone to deliver a final message; and SIGNAL PATH (Signalo kelias) by Eglė Razumaitė, about Liepa and her daughter moving to Germany for a fresh start while facing family disapproval and metropolitan challenges, a film the director says highlights the shift in the sex industry and asks how to redefine prostitution on screen.