Our Fire Films

A spoon-fed madam comes head to head with the ugly truth that not only nobody loves her, but that she herself doesn’t love her. A psychedelic tale of glamour, suspense and the inner reaches of human psyche.

Shot in 2 evenings and edited in 24h. Created for the DVinfo.net 2nd annual Charity Challange with the contest theme – gifts.

Type: short film (colour:  b&w, kodachrome)
Status: released 10th of January 2010
@ Vimeo
@ YouTube
@ ExposureRoom
@ Archive.org (download)

Commentary:

The film deals with various personae and energy centres that occupy the human mind and shows them in relationship with each other.
The woman in black is the energy centre of the human psyche that corresponds with the wish of self betterment and annihilation of unsatisfactory personality traits.  But, alas, as Nietzsche said: “Be careful in casting out your devil ‘lest you cast out the best thing about you”, and so we have to continue this jihad or be left with an undeveloped or a degraded personality.

Length: 5 minutes
Genre: psychedelic
Soundtrack: Juanitos, Laura Krastiņa
Script: Google doc (in Latvian)
Licence: Creative Commons BY-SA (Approved for Free Cultural Works)
Team: Andris Krastiņš, Ieva Birnbauma, Margarita Kuhaļska, Laura Krastiņa, Duke*, Mārtiņš Links, Zane Pērkone.

After a Latvian folk tale, a short about a bride, who so loves her bridegroom, that she is willing to follow him even in death and beyond.

Type: short film (colour (mostly))
Status: released
@ YouTube (Latvian // with English subtitles);
@ Vimeo (with English subtitles)
Date of release: 31st of October 2009
Length: 5 minutes
Genre: horror
Soundtrack: original soundtrack by Vaarna (download)
Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Team: Andris Krastiņš, Mārtiņš Links, Zane Ozola, Duke, Jānis Lasmanis, Jānis Krūmiņš, Edgars Lilje. Thanks to: Jānis Traviņš and Jūlija Stefanoviča.

Dead Bridegroom Takes Away the Bride (short film; eng-subs) from Andris Krastiņš on Vimeo.

A girl is walking home after dark, but a winter witch by magic leads her true self (soul) away from the safe path (as witches in folklore do), while a shadow shell of the girl continues to walk as if nothing had happened. Realms change and the girl is walking deep in the dark forest of her own psyche, and the witch is leading her deeper and deeper into the dark, where she finally meets the winter witch eye to eye.

Shot and edited in less than 2 hours. Original material 6 minutes, shot with Canon HV20 and a small led flashlight. A submission for the thedvchallenge.com 15th (charity) contest, theme – cold.

Music by Sniegavīru Rūpnīca, my friend is in the band and I’ve got the permission to use the song in this film. The song is called “Raganu karaspēks” or “Army of witches”, which is attacking with fire amid a storm and everybody is screaming for help. The version of the song in this video is edited to suit the story rhythm.

See it @ ExposureRoom or Vimeo.

Winter witches from Andris Krastiņš on Vimeo.

Further Than Distance is a short film shot for thedvchallenge.com 14th contest, theme – travel.

Full size poster here

Type: short film (colour)
Status: released
@ exposureroom.com (download and view);
@ vimeo.com (download and view)
Date of release: 15th of November 2008
Length: 3:44 minutes
Genre: sci-fi/surreal
Soundtrack: Jaunt; Ehma; Julien Boulier
Licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Team: Andris Krastiņš, Mārtiņš Links, Jūlija Stefanoviča
Film made for thedvchallenge.com 14th contest, theme – travel.
You can read the making-of description and other film maker feedback at DVInfo.

Further Than Distance (short film) from Andris Krastiņš on Vimeo.