Coming Out

Vitalius and Albinas have been together for 52 years. As they grow old and Albinas’ memory slowly fades, Vitalius is tired of hiding and decides to tell their life story publicly for the first time. This documentary, created for LRT’s Radijo dokumentika series, tenderly unspools the years they’ve spent together.

Lithuania currently does not recognise either same sex marriages or civil unions. After ‘Coming Out‘ aired on Lithuanian radio, its online version quickly became the most shared and streamed episode in the show’s history. It reopened a public debate on human rights and led to activists organising a symbolic humanist wedding ceremony for Vitalius and Albinas. It was the first time Vitalius held Albinas’ hand in public. Twenty-one thousand people signed the certificate as witnesses – a document which Vitalius has now handed over to the national museum.

Produced by Rūta Dambravaitė and Inga Janiulytė-Temporin

Translation by Vaida Pilibaitytė and Justinas Šuliokas

Winner of the Prix Europa European Audio Documentary of the Year 2024 and featured at the EBU Audio Storytelling Festival 2024.

Rūta Dambravaitė is a journalist at Lithuanian National Radio and Television, LRT, creating audio stories for almost a decade. She produces the program Radijo dokumentika and covers global cultural events. Her stories focus on social, historical, and cultural topics. Currently, Rūta is studying visual anthropology and documentary practices at the University of Münster, Germany. She is always looking for ways to tell stories sensitively and responsibly, making an effort to understand her subjects and the context they come from.

Inga Janiulytė-Temporin has been working as an environmental journalist and audio documentary producer at Lithuanian National Radio and Television, LRT, since 2017. She is interested in untold stories and providing a platform to people and places that have not had access to it before.

Night of the Dead

Karina Alanís Martínez is a cocinera tradicional (traditional cook) from the state of Michoacán in Mexico. Traditional cooks are respected members of their regional communities entrusted with passing down the culinary heritage of the local cuisine. In this documentary fragment, Karina reflects on cooking for lost loved ones during the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico.

Karina’s reflection comes from the piece Cocina, on day 8 of the series 14 Days in Mexico City, by audio producer Daniel Semo.

Daniel lived in Mexico City as a child, but is now based in Melbourne, Australia.

Have You Eaten?

‘Have you eaten?’ is a common Chinese greeting, like asking ‘how are you?’ in English. In this short feature, Qing Hu uses the phrase to redraw a line of connection between her current home in New York and her grandmother.

Qing Hu is an audio producer and journalist based in New York now. She was born and raised in Xi’an, China.

Nuisibles

Nuisibles (Pests) is a sonic study in the process of dehumanisation. Touching on themes of police violence and systemic racism.

Created by Ka-Young Park a documentary maker based in Seoul, specialising in immigrant issues, and Dimitris Roidis a performer and sound artist based in Athens.

Special thanks to: our professor and mentor, Frédérique Pressmann, for her unwavering support, valuable guidance, and unique energy. We are deeply grateful for her honest mentorship. Also, we owe a lot to Pascaline Perreti from Louis Lumière for her support in the research and production as well as to Charlotte Rouault for her invaluable initial feedback and mentorship. Lastly, we would like to thank Stavroula Karatheodorou for her help with translation during several on-site interviews.

First played in London at In The Dark Radio’s ‘What’s New?’ night

The Ship Sails On

We easily recall the images, smells and tastes that have marked our lives, but what about the sounds? What about the voices of those who are no longer with us? What ultimately stands the test of time?

An intimate acoustic work by director Hrvoje Korbar and sound engineer Marija Pečnik Kvesić, La nave partira (The Ship Sails On) is a nostalgic dedication to family legacy, an audio reconstruction of fragments of personal and family memories and a farewell to a lost world and its languages.

Starting from the recording tapes the author found while clearing up the apartment after the death of his grandparents, the authors construct a collage of documentary footage, ambient sound, poetic autofictional texts and musical memories. The ephemeral nature of sound and human voice stands in opposition to the material nature of objects and images, the impermanence of memory trying to find its final form.

Winner of Best Short Form at the Prix Marulić (2024)

Producer: Adriana Kramarić
Director: Hrvoje Korbar
Sound engineer: Marija Pečnik Kvesić
Other key staff: Actors: Maruška Aras, Rok Juričić Composers: Sara Jakopović, Lovro Stipčević

If I Could Choose

A woman in her thirties struggles to get out of bed, to face herself in the mirror, and to muster the will to head to work. She’d much rather turn back and go for a swim.

“Nu Dan”  is a concept album by Kate Vanackere, consisting of four tracks that offer a glimpse into the confined world of someone grappling with a quarter-life crisis.

The album was recorded in Kato’s bedroom during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, with invaluable remote assistance from Inne Eysermans.

Kato Vanackere creates audio, music, and theater. She studied Woordkunst at the royal conservatoire in Antwerp, and has been doing pretty fine recording birds in her spare time. In her work she sings about loneliness, farewells, moving forward, the sea and the city.

The Magic of Waves

“I discovered that I had magical powers, the powers to transform the world’s soundtrack, to make it a better place to live…”

Winner of Best Short at Grand Prix Nova (2023) and Third Prize at the UK International Radio Drama festival (2023)

Eve-Marie Bouché (Paris, France) At first, she was a dramatic author, then she started writing texts for radio dramas (Radio France). But when she learned how to edit sounds, it was an epiphany, the discovery of another form of writing. She can’t stop any more!

Less and Less Soul

In search of justice – a whisper can be louder than a shout; it stays in the heart and mind forever.

This programme explores issues around child sexual abuse and contains content that listeners may find distressing.

agnieszka czyżewska jacquemet –  the executive producer/editor/author – has been working in Polish Radio at the Regional Broadcasting Station Radio Lublin S.A. since 1996. She is still amazed at the world and she approaches each story with curiosity and humility. She is convinced that human beings give soul and body to all disasters, wars, political decisions and social issues. A drop reflects the ocean. Co-founder and board member of the Audionomia Foundation.

She is the winner of the Silver Medal URTI/UNESCO 2022, Prix Europa 2019  – Special Commendations 2016 and 2021, Prix Bohemia 2017 and Grand Press Radio 2015 amongst others.