81 meters

It is spring 2021. During the pandemic, cinemas closed their doors for months. They are now reopened with the help of the camera: the voice of a cinephile invites the audience to come on a personal odyssey to the few remaining cinemas in Latvia. They are revived, nostalgia mingling with the inexorability of time, and the hope of coming back stronger than ever.

An essay about a lost time, found by a Super 8 camera and the passion for the art of cinema. When Jānis Ābele and his creative team started working on this short film in 2021, there were 32 film venues in Latvia, but only half of them were cinemas. 81 Metres is a declaration of love to cinemas that had its world premiere at Beldocs in Serbia. It has screened in Poland, Portugal, and many other countries, and has been added to the repertoire of the Kino Sõprus cinema chain in Tallinn. This is not something that happens often with short films.