Palimpsestic Cities: Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius in 1960s Baltic Poetic Documentaries

• In Event: Space, Place, and Mediated Memory in Baltic and East European Cinema

Abstract

Drawing on Andreas Huyssen’s conceptualization of the urban palimpsest, a framework that speculates on cities as multilayered spaces inscribed with historical, cultural, and political traces, this presentation investigates the strategies of urban representation in three short Baltic poetic documentaries of the 1960s (Huyssen, 2003). Focusing on Time Walks Through the City (Dir. Almantas Grikevičius, 1966), My Riga (Dir. Aloizs Brenčs, 1960), and 511 Best Photographs of Mars (Dir. Andres Sööt, 1968), I analyze the dual nature of these works as products of the Soviet system that simultaneously embody the subversive potential of poetic documentary that emerged in the region during this period.
Through the use of visual and narrative fragmentation, each film reconfigures the urban landscape as a distinct site of mnemonic resistance, revealing tension between local identities and the hegemonic ideological discourse. This paper argues that these documentaries not only critique the ideological impositions of Soviet rule but also articulate alternative spatial and temporal imaginaries that reclaim the city as a space of cultural and historical agency.

Author

• Samantha Bodamer, U of Pittsburgh