Filmas.lv launches collection of late filmmaker Rihards Pīks' work
Latvia's National Film Centre has compiled a ten-film collection on the Filmas.lv portal honouring film director, cinematographer and former politician Rihards Pīks, who died in early September. The selection spans documentaries and feature films made between 1964 and 1986.
To honour film director, cinematographer and former politician Rihards Pīks, who died in early September, Latvia's National Film Centre (NKC) has put together a collection of his work on the Filmas.lv portal, spokeswoman Kristīne Matīsa told LETA.
The selection includes three documentaries and seven feature films made between 1964 and 1986, on which Pīks worked either as director or cinematographer.
Early documentary work
His early period is represented by a 1964 short documentary about autumn farm work in the Piebalga area, along with a similarly styled short from 1967. The documentary section closes with an ambitious 1967 feature-length documentary shot across the Soviet Union by several Riga documentary film crews, with Pīks working as a cinematographer in one of the camera units.
Move into features and directing
By the late 1960s Pīks began being entrusted with feature film work, and the collection includes his collaborations with directors Jānis Streičs and Aloizs Brencis, including Streičs's first independent feature and two crime dramas by Brencis. In the mid-1970s Pīks himself sought to become a director and completed the All-Union Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors, producing a psychological short film as his diploma project.
Several feature films followed, based on literary works — an adventure film for children and adaptations of novels by Alberts Bels and Andris Kolbergs.
A varied career
Pīks was born in Riga in 1941 and trained as a cinematographer in Moscow, graduating in 1971. He worked at the Riga Film Studio as a cinematographer and director, serving as its head from 1987 to 1990. He later led the National Film Centre and served on several industry councils. In politics, Pīks was Latvia's culture minister (1996–1997), a member of parliament, foreign minister, and a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2008.
