- Occupation
Producer, Director - Country
Estonia
Niglas Liivo
Making Rain
The Vumba Hills in central Mozambique, close to the Zimbabwe border, are the kingdom of Mambo (Chief) Chirara. The Mambo's leading position is acknowledged by the government, and in addition to being the region`s most important spiritual leader, the Mambo has the right to hold court cases that deal with minor crimes, problems involving spirits and domestic affairs. In the northernmost corner of the Mambos kingdom, Mbuya Gondo, a woman in her seventies, is a spiritual medium. In the film, gender issues and local politics are brought to the surface as we follow these two leaders during a period of preparing for and performing the annual rainmaking rituals.
Yuri Vella's World
A documentary about Jüri Vella, a writer and social activist of the Forest Nenets, who lives in West-Siberia and who left his home village ten years ago to lead the life of a reindeer herder in the taiga. The little, unique world he created there was meant to offer protection from the degeneration caused by the alcoholism and unemployment that sadly poses a serious threat to the indigenous peoples of Siberia. To give his grandchildren a proper education in their natural environment, and to teach them reindeer herding skills, he established an elementary school in his winter camp. Unfortunately, Jüri Vella’s world is but an oasis of the traditional lifestyle within one of the largest oil-producing regions of Russia.
Itelmen Stories
The action in the film revolves around an ancestrally used practice of hunting sable by net. Set in rural Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, where fewer than 20 speakers of Itelmen remain, the film goes beyond its original aim to recapture a language and a hunting practice that are remembered but no longer in use. Two hunters encounter the wild environs and villages of Kamchatka as a history laden homeland and memories, nostalgia, resignation and hope echo throughout the film.
The Vumba Hills in central Mozambique, close to the Zimbabwe border, are the kingdom of Mambo (Chief) Chirara. The Mambo's leading position is acknowledged by the government, and in addition to being the region`s most important spiritual leader, the Mambo has the right to hold court cases that deal with minor crimes, problems involving spirits and domestic affairs. In the northernmost corner of the Mambos kingdom, Mbuya Gondo, a woman in her seventies, is a spiritual medium. In the film, gender issues and local politics are brought to the surface as we follow these two leaders during a period of preparing for and performing the annual rainmaking rituals.
Yuri Vella's World
A documentary about Jüri Vella, a writer and social activist of the Forest Nenets, who lives in West-Siberia and who left his home village ten years ago to lead the life of a reindeer herder in the taiga. The little, unique world he created there was meant to offer protection from the degeneration caused by the alcoholism and unemployment that sadly poses a serious threat to the indigenous peoples of Siberia. To give his grandchildren a proper education in their natural environment, and to teach them reindeer herding skills, he established an elementary school in his winter camp. Unfortunately, Jüri Vella’s world is but an oasis of the traditional lifestyle within one of the largest oil-producing regions of Russia.
Itelmen Stories
The action in the film revolves around an ancestrally used practice of hunting sable by net. Set in rural Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, where fewer than 20 speakers of Itelmen remain, the film goes beyond its original aim to recapture a language and a hunting practice that are remembered but no longer in use. Two hunters encounter the wild environs and villages of Kamchatka as a history laden homeland and memories, nostalgia, resignation and hope echo throughout the film.
Liivo Niglas, born in Estonia in 1970, is currently a lecturer of ethnology at University of Tartu, Estonia. He also runs an independent production company, Mp Doc, for anthropological documentary films. He has made films in Siberia, Africa, Central Asia and North America.
Pärnaõie tee 3
11914 Tallinn
F-Seitse
Koidu 17-1
10137 Tallinn
Koidu 17-1
10137 Tallinn