Ptarmigan operated in Tallinn from 2011-2014. We no longer maintain any presence in Tallinn, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced at Ptarmigan during these years.
Ptarmigan and The Penitentiary: Battery Project presents Done Kino 2014!
If you are interested to shoot short films in Tallinn's Patarei Prison and experience an experimental version of collaborative cinematic improvisation event called Kino Kabaret, you should participate in the weekend Done Kino on 15 -17 August 2014.
Registration form and more info can be found here.
Kino Kabaret events have character of temporary film labs taking place all around the world where all kind of cinematic artisans gather for several days, divided into sessions of various amount and length, to create short low-budget films in an improvisational manner. Usually each session contains three main parts: a production meeting; shooting and editing; and screening of films made during a session.
Done Kino is the first Kino Kabaret cell in Estonia established in 2013. Each year it tackles a different topic, although the same principle: to dig up forgotten and pushed out of the consciousness by ignorance, laziness, procrastination, or fear, issues, and in its holly awkwardness, expose and transform them into the starting point for much more exciting scenarios.
It’s second edition is takes place at Patarei which from 1840 served many functions in changeable historical times (sea-fortress, military barracks, Soviet and Estonian prison, dark tourism venue), reflecting the long and complex relationships between Estonia and Russia at different stages in their histories.
Done Kino 2014 wants to add one more episode to this historical fate: collaboration between Estonian, Russian, and foreign filmmakers. Therefore we look for variously original and experienced (or unexperienced) directors, scriptwriters, actors, camera operators, film editors, animators, sound designers, and musicians who are brave and creative enough to overcome passive acceptance of the current division of the Estonian and Russian cultural scene and treat terrifying but stunning premises of Patarei as a stage of inspiring and potentially ground-breaking shooting location, Kinolab and projection hall. It is all not about integration or assimilation, but more about going beyond exclusion caused by mutual ignorance and taking it as an excuse for collaboration. One can never know how much creative potential is in unexplored human relations restricted by reactionist divisions based on the ideological and cultural convention of belonging. Nevertheless, Done Kino has no interest in politics, but filmmaking, creativity, spontaneity, self-organization and non-competitiveness.