Past Events:



























































THE 7th BALTIC FILM FESTIVAL
Friday, January 11, 7 pm
FED UP!
Director: Peeter Simm, Estonia, 2005, 97 minutes, English sub-titles

When his wife leaves him for his ‘best friend’, German truck driver Kaminsky is only too glad to take a trip to Estonia. He wants to give his beloved old music box to a friend there, and then possibly take his own life. What Kaminsky doesn’t realize is that he is being followed by a number of people who all want to get to Tallinn as well: an Estonian bank robber who has hidden his stash in Kaminsky’s truck, a philosophical undertaker who is driving the bank robber, the Estonian cellist Stella, who wants Kaminsky to help her get back home, and his ‘best friend’, who is the man behind the bank robbery. In this upbeat comedy, what begins as a drama turns into a quirky, screwball road movie. (18 years and over)

Saturday, January 12, 6 PM
LOTTE FROM GADGETVILLE (Lotte no Izgudrotāju ciema)
Director: Heiki Ernits, Janno Põldma, Latvia, Estonia, 2006, 81 minutes, English sub-titles

Somewhere on a great seashore stands a small village where inventing all kinds of domestic gadgets is held in great esteem. The most important event of the year is the annual competition of new inventions, where the most efficient and wittiest invention gets the prize. One of the most famous inventors in the village is Oscar, the father of the lively and playful puppy-girl Lotte. Oscar works on a new invention, as does his main rival, rabbit Adalbert. Victory for Adalbert would bring great honour to the entire rabbit clan. Who will be the winner this year?

Sunday, January 13, 6 PM
ANASTASIA
Director: Maris Martinsons, Lithuania, 2006, 84 minutes, English sub-titles

When the Baltic States regained their independence from the Soviet Union, thousands of Russians found themselves cut off from their native land. Some of them returned to Russia, others became naturalized citizens and resumed their lives in the new country. But two Russian brothers, Kostya and Yura, want neither to return to Russia nor to live under a new government. Believing their rights have been violated, they decide to challenge the new government by capturing a minivan full of passengers and demanding a million dollars ransom as compensation for the injustice inflicted on them. Events take a different course when one of the hostages, a young woman, Anastasia, defends the brothers’ actions and changes sides. (18 years and over)
Admission: General Public $9, Seniors and Children $6
Ticket purchase is directly from the National Film Board Mediatheque.
Seating is limited.
Location: NFB Mediatheque
150 John Street (at Richmond Street West)
Toronto (Osgoode subway station), M5V 3C3
Tel: 416 973 2187


Condemn Crimes of Communism seminar
Monday June 11, 2007
Welcome and introduction - Alide Forstmanis
Why did they flee? Read transcript here


Belarus
Read by;
Chairman of the Executive Board
BELARUSIAN CANADIAN ALLIANCE

About statement author
Dr. Rayisa Zuk-Hryshkievich, was born in 1920 in a small town of Pruzhany in the West of Belarus. She is one of those who selflessly contributed to building Belarusian community life in Canada soon after the ?post-war? generation of Belarusian immigrants came to this country. She served as a President of Belarusian Canadian Alliance and later, the President of the Belarusian Canadian Co-ordination Committee. In 1988 Dr. Rayisa and her husband, Dr. Vincent Zuk-Hryshkievich, initiated and installed the Belarusian Memorial Cross at Martyr?s Shrine in Midland, ON to commemorate those who fell victims to communist terror in Belarus.

Belarus:
Communist genocide of a nation
Read transcript here



Estonian eyewitness statement
written by Eduard Kolga
Read by Avo Kittask
President of Estonian Central Council in Canada
Read transcript here


Eyewitness account by Mrs. Shirley Popiel
A about Hungarian revolution in 1956.
She worked at Australian House in London UK. Read transcript here


Lithuanian eyewitness statement
Written by Rima Zemaityte-De Iuliis
Read by Ruta Zilinskas
President Lithuanian Canadian Community
Read transcript here

A Forgotten Odyssey
Mary Nowak, retired history teacher from Kitchener read notes to "A
Forgotten Odyssey" - an epic of human courage and survivors of the
Soviet forced labour camps, compiled by Stefan Wisniowsky, Sydney,
Australia and Art Wagner, Detroit, USA.

A brief historical synopsis

COMMUNIST CRIMES IN UKRAINE
Speech by Andrew Gregorovich
at the Crimes of Communism Seminar, Monday, June 11, 2007, 1 PM at the Lithuanian Centre, 1 Resurrection Rd, Toronto
sponsored by the Baltic Federation

There are three things that most people know about Ukraine. First of all because of its huge wheat production it is the “breadbasket of Europe”. They also know that the world?s worst nuclear disaster in 1986 was in Ukraine at Chornobyl. Lastly they know that? Viktor Yushchenko, the President of Ukraine, was poisoned in 2004 with a deadly poison which scarred his face. For entire speech click here