Presenting Vilnius Music Scene at Le Guess Who?: Documentary Short

At this year's Le Guess Who? music festival in Utrecht (The Netherlands), Vilnius was among eight cities in the spotlight through their hybrid, year-long programme COSMOS. Alongside were Nairobi, Seoul, London, Detroit, Karachi, Marrakech, and Utrecht itself. Each city partner was commissioned to film a short documentary about their local music scenes. Today at NARA we are sharing the Vilnius film, which our team helped to create.

How does one present the richness of Vilnius music life without falling into predictable narratives?

The authors of the film followed three threads: Vilnius as a resilient space, Vilnius as a safe space, Vilnius as an international space.

Vilnius Music Scene at Le Guess Who?: Documentary Short

The resiliency was embodied by Minimal Mondays, the party series that has been going on for 20 years in Vilnius. The film features its founder Nerijus SHN.

The safe space was explored by Ira Hoisa, a Ukrainian DJ and co-founder of Ukrainian Beat, a Vilnius-based Ukrainian DJ community, organising fundraising parties for Ukrainian defense. Ira moved to Vilnius after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The international aspect was reflected by Samantha Lippet, the co-creator of the film. Choosing Vilnius as her home, Samantha co-founded Independent Community Radio Network (ICRN), a non-profit organisation connecting community radios throughout Europe.

"There's a huge moment in digital broadcasting. There's a lot of independent radio stations who not only have an important place in their community, but there's also a hunger for an alternative to streaming platforms", – Samantha Lippett. ©Mindaugas Drigotas

The film was commissioned by COSMOS, a global initiative aiming to amplify local scenes from around the world.

COSMOS is a part of the critically acclaimed Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht. This year, the festival featured Kim Gordon, Arooj Aftab, Theo Parrish, Dina El Wedidi, Bo Ningen and many other artists, breaking out from traditional genre and geographical boundaries. Lithuanian-Belgium duo Merope was also a part of this year's lineup.

The film was also screened at Linecheck Festival in Milan as part of the ASCOLTO programme. See a full selection of this year's COSMOS films at Le Guess Who?'s website and check all COSMOS partners throughout the years.

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The initiatives featured in the film represent independently-organised parties and communities, which are seen as alternatives in the Vilnius music scene.

The film was made before the recent news that a well-known Lithuanian DJ was accused of physically assaulting his partner multiple times. Another person was accused of spiking a woman's drink at the Opium Club in Vilnius. More similar cases were discussed on social media. The director of Opium, who denies the allegations, is the same person who is the director of Gallery 1984 club, which was used as one of the interview filming locations. The allegations started a vital conversation about abusive behavior in some nightlife spaces in Vilnius with victims daring to speak openly for the first time.

The creators of this film are actively following this story and stand with the victims, who, as is the case of many similar stories, are young women.

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