10-04-2012

Lithuanian Director Starts Online Funding Campaign

By FNE Staff

    VILNIUS: Lithuanian filmmaker Romas Zabaraukas launched a 25-day online campaign on Kickstarter to fund his low-budget feature film debut, We Will Riot.

    Zabaraukas told FNE that he is hoping to raise $10,000, which will be used to cover a short sequence shot in New York. The film received a 1,300 euro grant from FSDIE, a French university fund.

    According to Zabaraukas, We Will Riot (www.kickstarter.com/projects/romaszabarauskas/we-will-riot) is the story of a New York hipster DJ who goes to Lithuania in order to experience something real for the first time and ends up causing a riot. The film juxtaposes Lithuania's innovative beatmaking scene with the shady and corrupt government dealings. Music production and spontaneous political protest explode together onscreen, fuelled by the internet and access to new technology in Eastern Europe. The film will be shot primarily in English.

    The director is producing through his newly established company Naratyvas (Narrative).

    The cast includes an unknown New York actor, Ebeneezer Nii Sowah, Lithuanian actress Vilma Kutavičiutė, who starred in Zabaraukas' previous film, Porno Melodrama, and debuting young Lithuanian actor Šarūnas Zenkevičius.

    The DOP is Paris-based Finnish cinematographer Ville Piippo, who worked on Porno Melodrama. The film, shot on 16mm, will be edited by Gintarė Sokelytė. The music supervisor is Mark Splinter.