The Third National Belarusian Film Festival concluded in Brest on September 26 with no film winning the main "Crystal Stork" award for the "Best Presentation of a National Theme." The jury led by Lithuanian film director Gytis Luksas also failed to select a nominee worthy of the Best Actress award.
Fourteen feature films, seven animated films and 25 documentaries were shown during the five-day event. "In August 1944" directed by Mikhail Ptashuk snagged three Crystal Storks for Best Feature Film, Best Actor (Yevgeny Mironov) and Best Sound (sound engineer Sergei Chuprov). Irina Kodyukova of the Belarusfilm studios, the author of
"Wonderful Christmas Eve Dinner," took home the Best Animated Film award. "Andrew's Stones" by Viktor Aslyuk of Letapis won the award for Best Documentary; "Neboga" (Atheist) by Larisa Kabernik of the Belarusian Video Center received Crystal Stork for Best Student Film.
The Best Director award went to Nadezhda Gorkunova of Telefilm for "The Unplayed Role." Aleksandr Vereshchagin of Belarusfilm won the Best Animation award for his cartoon "The Christmas Tale." Dmitry Zaitsev of Telefilm took home the Brest Photographer award for "Water Eyes." Despite financial difficulties that complicated the organization of this year's festival, Gennady Mosko, chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee, promised that the next biannual national film festival would be held in Brest in 2003. The organizers originally planned to hold the event in various regional centers, but the Brest authorities would like their city to host the festival every time.
The State Committee on the Press has issued an official warning to the Brest-based private weekly Brestsky Kuryer. The committee believes that the publication violated the media law by carrying a statement on behalf of a number of non-governmental organizations under the heading "Stop Baiting Democratic Presidential Candidates!" Two of the
organizations were the regional branches of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party and the United Civic Party, which were not registered with the justice department of the Brest Regional Executive Committee.
Article 5 of the media law prohibits the use of the media for spreading information on behalf of political parties, trade unions and other non-governmental organizations that have not obtained state registration according to the established procedure.
As a Brestsky Kuryer representative told BelaPAN, the publication will not contest the warning because it does not threaten the paper with closure. Under Belarusian legislature, the State Press Committee has the right to initiate court proceedings for closing a publication if the
publication receives two warnings within a calendar year. Brestsky Kuryer received a warning on similar grounds at the beginning of the year but achieved its annulment in court.
The Third National Festival of Belarusian Films opened in Brest on the evening of September 23. As many as 43 feature films, documentaries,
TV movies, educational and animation films made in 1999 and 2000 by the Belarusfilm national studio, the Telefilm association, the Belarusian Video Center, the Belarusian Television and Radio Company and the private studios Videofact and Prymaki, are to be shown in the framework of the competition program during the 5-day festival.
The Crystal Stork, the main prize of the festival, will be awarded for the "best presentation of a national theme." In addition, prizes will be distributed to the winners in 10 categories during the awarding ceremony, which will be held at the Brest Drama and Music Theater on September 26. "I am proud that I am regarded as a friend and have been
invited to head the festival jury," said Gytis Luksas, chairman of the Lithuanian Filmmakers' Union, at the opening ceremony on Saturday. "I would be still more happy if we worked together. We are neighbors and I would like our cinema not to have borders and customs barriers," he
added. "A merit of Belarusian cinema is that it works positively,"
said prominent Russian actor Nikolai Burlyayev, director of the International Film Festival of Slavic and Orthodox Peoples "Zolotoi Vityaz" (Golden Knight), who attends the festival as a guest.
"Belarusian filmmakers shows all peoples of the former Soviet Union that is possible to work positively on the screen," Mr. Burlyayev said. "The world's filmmaking industry has weltered in amorality and earthliness. We must pool our efforts to bring along the younger generation and those who refill prisons, mental hospitals and the skid row of our common world. The Belarusian film festival presents
what can nourish the soul. We must saturate screens with the pictures that spiritualize the soul, not put it into mud."
The festival's opening ceremony ended with the showing of a Belarusian-language feature film by Ivan Pavlov, in which all roles were played by Belarusian actors. The film festival in Brest has gathered big names of
Russian cinema, including actors Lyudmila Potapova, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Aristarkh Livanov, Boris Khmelnitsky and Larisa Luzhina among others. A showing of two Russian feature films and a meeting with prominent Russian director Vladimir Motyl took place in the
"Belarus" movie theater, the festival's main venue, in the framework of the Russian Cinema Day on September 23. The bulk of the expenses on the festival was borne by the Belarusian Filmmakers' Union. Funds were also contributed by other members of the organizing committee, including the Brest city government.
Yelena Cheb, the Minsk-based private newspaper Den's correspondent in the Brest region, has been denied accreditation to cover the Third National Festival of Belarusian Films, which begins in Brest on the night of September 22.
"The denial was groundless," Ms. Cheb told BelaPAN. "An official of the public relations department at the Brest City Executive Committee explained that I was on a certain 'black list.' I was not told what was that list but was given to understand that I was not alone on it." According to Mr. Cheb, she was also advised not to make a fuss and to borrow material from someone of her colleagues. The journalist noted that this was not the first time she denied the right to perform her professional duties. For instance, after she took the job of a Den correspondent,
she applied to the Brest Regional Executive Committee for accreditation but was denied without explanation. Now she is not admitted to news conferences held in the Committee's building.
The regional branch of the Belarusian Association of Journalists has described the denial of accreditation to a private publication's correspondent at the Belarusian film festival as the beginning of a new stage of Brest bureaucrats' campaign against the non-state media.
Bishop of Brest and Kobrin Sophroniushas consecrated the newly rebuilt Assumption of Our Lady (Prechistinskaya) Church in the village of Shchebrin not far from Brest in southwestern Belarus.
The church, classical in style, was built by the Uniates in the 1790s and was later taken over by the Russian Orthodox Church. The building was used as a barn under the Soviets and had turned into a roofless ruin by the early 1990s, when it was finally earmarked for restoration as one of the oldest stone churches in the area.
The rebuilding effort was funded by the government. Perhaps that is the reason why it took so long. The work was not over until several weeks ago. A small bell, cast in Minsk with private donations, was installed in the bell tower on September 20.
The consecration ceremony took place on September 21, the birthday of the Virgin Mary. From now on, a Brest-based priest will come to Shchebrin on weekends and holidays.
More than 150 blank ballots were found by a garbage container near the building that housed a polling station in Baranovichi, Brest region, during the recent presidential election. The bulletins were found on September 17 by a local resident who handed them to the editorial office of the local private newspaper Intex Press.
The bulletins did not bear signatures of two members of the precinct commission as required by electoral regulations. According to an expert of a local publishing company, the found bulletins had been press-printed, not made with the help of a photocopier or a Risograph printer.
Under Belarusian legislation, the quantity of the blank ballots given to a precinct commission and the number of the unused bulletins must be registered in special acts. The unused bulletins must be canceled and sealed up before the vote count.
Mikhail Yaroshuk, the former chairman of the Baranovichi City Election Commission, was not able to explain how the blank bulletins could have been trashed and why there were not commission members' signatures on them. Now some of the found bulletins are kept at the Intex Press
office whereas another part has been handed to the local branch of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.Representatives of Baranovichi's organizations that were involved in election observation - the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the Vyasna Human Rights Center - intend to
file a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office and the Central Election Commission.
The Riga Academic Russian Drama Theater won the grand prix at the 6th International Theater Festival "Belaya Vezha" in Brest for its production of Moliere's play "The Schemings of Scapin" in staging by
Gennady Trostenetsky.
The best puppetry award went to the Brest Puppet Theater for "Golden Snuffbox" directed by Dmitry Nuyanzin. Russian actor Aleksandr Rezalin, who played the part of Mefistofele in Moscow-based Moon Theater's "Old New Faust," received the best drama actor award went.
Katarzyna Wenglicka from the Polish Theater in Poznan won the best dramatic actress award and Belarusian actress Svetlana Zelenkovskaya from the National Academic Yanka Kupala Theater got the best debut prize. Theaters from Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States showed 14 dramatic and 12 puppet plays during the festival from September 11 to 15. The event was organized by the Belarusian Ministry of Culture, the Brest Regional Executive Committee, the
Belarusian Association of Theater Workers, the Belarusian сenter "UNIMA" and the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company.
Belarus' central election commission has rejected a petition accusing Belarusian state TV (BT) of bias against the challengers to the incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko in the runup to the country's presidential election.
BT programs contain "no 'lies and slander' about the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic of Belarus, because criticism of their political views does not fall under that category," says a letter received by the petitioners, Brest-based political groups and NGOs, from
commission head Lidiya Yermoshina.
Ms. Yermoshina referred to Belarus' media law, which guarantees TV journalists the right to freedom of opinion. That somebody does not share a journalist's opinion is not a valid ground for censorship, she said.
The country's laws also guarantee all candidates equal access to the state media and require state media outlets to give the candidates equal opportunity for election propaganda. BT "has fully fulfilled" its obligations
regarding campaign airtime, Ms. Yermoshina stressed. BT, which is Belarus' sole national TV channel, did broadcast the opposition candidates' 30-minute prerecorded statements amid programs scolding them and praising Mr. Lukashenko, who waived his right to free campaign airtime.
Presidential candidate Sergei Gaidukevich's advertised September 3 meeting with voters in Brest did not take place.
On arriving at the meeting venue, Aleksandr Rabotai, first deputy chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus (LDPB), gave an intriguing explanation for the absence of his boss. According to him, very strong reasons had prevented Mr. Gaidukevich from visiting Brest, as the "country is on the eve of a coup d'etat." Mr. Rabotai referred to correspondence between the LDPB leader and the central election commission. Lidiya Yermoshina, chairwoman of the commission, admitted that Belarusian Television had spread false information about Mr. Gaidukevich, but the top election authorities' order that the presidential candidate be given airtime to refute the slanderous allegations was ignored, Mr. Rabotai said.
He also pointed out that the Belarusian authorities were preparing to falsify the election results, and that Belarus would face an economic collapse in the event of Aleksandr Lukashenko's reelection as president.
29 September 2001