Back to Estonia — 22 Years Later

Back to Estonia — 22 Years Later

Click to see the Multimedia

I wrote a post some time ago about the Rock Summer 1988 festival and the experi­mental multi­media I did on that for YLE Teema. Then, three days ago I went to the screening of the documentary done on this same event called Eesti vabaks! Rockfes­ti­vaali joka ei päättynyt ( Free Estonia! Festival which never ended!) . But I had hard time seeing it as tears just came down, down, down… What an emotional rollercoaster. So personal, on so many levels.

I won’t get more into my personal invol­vement and memories of the actual event twenty-two years ago — I did some of that already in the multi­media piece which I urge you to see if you have not seen it already. But…God…so many memories, seems like it was only yesterday.

I went to the director Sanna-Sisko Tohka after the screening and thanked her — noting that I don’t think there has been anybody in my life who has made me cry so much in a movie… She had done a great job with the material. I was also (positively) surprised to find out how central a role my images played in whole and how totally new dimension they get in this documentary. So, yes ‑surprised — and proud I guess, in a way.

But… see for yourself. There is a trailer out already on the Teema website if you are interested. The documentary will be shown on Yle Teema on Saturday 3rd September at 21.00 followed immediately by an hour and half compi­lation of the actual concert. And it will be in Yle Areena later on — and it is available for viewing also outside Finland. In addition it will be broadcasted also in Estonia, but that will be later next year.

My words fall short on describing how I have felt about the whole process of working with this now some twenty years afterwards and how I feel about it also now when I see the results. So I take the liberty of quoting one comment I got (for the original post) by one of the girls in the photo above.

This truly was an age of innocence and not only for those who were young but for everyone who was open and ready for it. You only really long and struggle for a change when something really is wrong and living in SU gave no chance for a free spirit to breathe and thrive.Something had to change and everything that happened during Rock Summer 88 both on and off stage symbo­lized that mental shift, the fact itself that RS could be organized and really happened was a triumph over the bad and the evil.Sounds romantic and looking back, it really was romantic. Nothing in the present day Estonian life resembles even remotely that spirit then and there.We have landed,we are real,we are older, things have changed, all that (freedom) is done.
Your photos are truly beautiful and they really bring back those days, in my and my friends’ minds, so thanks for doing that job and looking keenly forward to see that documentary too…..”

(from Kairi June 9th, 2011)

I thank you Kairi — and everybody else who have given me feedback on this — for your kind words and for taking the trouble of writing back. As I said, my words fail me and fall short. But I say this: it is moments and comments like this, people like you who really make a diffe­rence. Doing one’s work for real people, not just posting stuff and wondering if anybody ever cares to look at it. People like you somehow give reason or motivation or energy for doing this what I do — what I love to do.

So one more time: a big thank you. It is appreciated more than you can guess.

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