Anonymous

18 Sep 2020

Field Notes
A Design Film Festival in Latvia


“Where is Latvia?”

That was my first thought when we received an invitation from Ilze Supe of Kuldiga Artists Residency to bring A Design Film Festival (DFF) to Latvia in 2013.



Even though it has been 30 years since Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union, the country still grapples with its past. Many Latvians I met shared how a ‘brain drain’ had led thousands of aspiring doctors, artists, and engineers to leave in search of better opportunities abroad. But in recent years, things have started to change.


The capital, Riga, is a modern city filled with restaurants, cafes, boutiques, and galleries. Posters advertising photography exhibitions and rock concerts line the streets. People are comfortable speaking English, though Latvian and Russian are the dominant languages. Locals were surprised to meet a non-European visitor and eager to share insights about life in Latvia. Our guide mentioned that the only Asians they typically saw were Chinese businessmen scouting for investments—back then, Latvia wasn’t exactly a tourist destination.
A two-hour drive from Riga International Airport took us to Kuldiga, the small town where DFF would be held. The journey passed vast open fields, scattered farms, and the occasional horse, with few cars and even fewer people.

Kuldiga itself was quiet and peaceful, with few buildings taller than four stories. It has a population of just 10,000 and boasts well-preserved medieval architecture. Nearly every home had a backyard for growing vegetables, and people ate meat only once or twice a month, preferring homemade bread, pasta, and garden produce. Restaurants primarily served vegetarian and seafood dishes, along with occasional ‘game meat’ depending on what the local hunters had found.
 

Despite its rural charm, Kuldiga didn’t feel isolated. The city center had florists, cafes, supermarkets, galleries, bookstores, museums, and a park that screened films every weekend during spring and autumn. This was where we would present the festival.

From 15–17 August 2013, we screened Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Design & Thinking, PressPausePlay, and The Human Scale. The event was titled Dizaina Filmu Festivāls Kuldīgā. Sune Petersen, a visual artist from Copenhagen, traveled to Kuldiga for the festival and created live visuals for the opening and closing parties. His interactive motion graphics responded to the silhouettes of the audience as they danced, turning them into part of the artwork.

There was a lot of homemade wine during and after the event, so much of the trip is now a blur. But I do remember: Taking a trip to the Baltic Sea in a vintage Lada, visiting Venta Rapid, the widest waterfall in Europe, and a really cool cat that lived behind the houses where we stayed.

Mobility is the Key

What fascinated me most about Kuldiga was that, despite its small population and remote location, there was a hunger to experience the world through design, film, and art. Even with language barriers, people connected with the stories in the films. The language of design and film is borderless—universal for those who are curious about the world.

Since the beginning, DFF has aimed to make design more accessible, especially to non-professionals. Film is the perfect medium for this—entertaining, approachable, and easy to transport. Unlike exhibitions, which require extensive logistics, shipping, and paperwork, all we needed for DFF was a hard drive filled with films.

That mobility is now a core principle for any content we create:
  • Easy to share and able to travel anywhere.
  • Appeal to a global audience through a universal medium and language.

Kuldiga reinforced this idea: if you make something truly mobile, it can go anywhere—and connect with people in ways you never expected.

—
Felix Ng
Co-founder, Anonymous
@felix.anonymous

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