Returning from Precarity – Three Decades of Rebuilding Estonian Film Industry:

A Case of Film Education

Author

Elen Lotman

Abstract

Due to its idiosyncratic circumstances, the film industry of Estonia and its higher education system offers a compelling case study. Estonian language film education celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2022. Three decades of its history are densely intertwined with the “second independence” period of the Estonian state. It is a period of a nation-state returning from the brink, the film industry rebuilding itself from an almost full collapse and the three-decade-long build-up of film education from non-existence to a highly specialised professional curriculum culminating with a student Academy Award-winning graduation film in 2020 (Minu kallid laibad/My dear corpses, German Golub, 2020, Estonia). In order to have a birds-eye view of the three decades of the growth of Estonian film education and its reciprocal relationship with the film industry, I used a unique data source – the Estonian film database (www.efis.ee), which was opened in 2012 and is one of the most comprehensive national film databases. For this article, the EFD database was combined with a new data corpus created specifically for researching Estonian language film education, consisting of all students who graduated between 1992-2016 (the cohorts of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were not included because these intakes had either graduated too recently or have not graduated yet). This data corpus was the basis of SQL queries to the EFD database. One of the tasks of the queries was to track changes over time and also look into the effect of specialisations within the curriculum. The key finding is that film education in the case of a small nation cinema that produces active filmmakers, in the size of the Estonian film industry, has to resolve two aspects of teaching – the length of study and the number of specialisations. Our data confirms that the duration of education is an important factor. Cohorts who were able to study for either four or five years have collectively achieved a stronger position in the industry than cohorts who studied under the three-year Bologna system BA and did not go on to an MA program. Also, professional specialisation within a comprehensive multi-disciplinary curriculum promotes rapid advancement into the film industry. Large-scale change is visible and connected to the introduction of a curriculum structure known in film schools as the “six-pack system”, i.e., where screenwriters, producers, directors, cinematographers, editors, and sound designers study together, the same number of students in each discipline, comprising a skeleton crew of HODs (heads of department) for their student films. Another key finding is that the career paths of graduate directors follow a similar pattern, but it is possible, through targeted interventions, to shorten the bridge between film school graduation and the first feature film. Directing entails tacit knowledge that can only be acquired through regular practice.

Keywords

Estonia, small nation film industry, film education, filmmaking educational practices, curriculum development

Estonian-Language Film Education

The film industry of Estonia offers a compelling case study due to its idiosyncratic historical circumstances. Over a century, it has faced one birth and two rebirths. Having been established by the first Estonian filmmaker Johannes Pääsuke in 1912, the film industry of the budding Estonian Republic had to endure a complete restart under the Soviet Union. During the Soviet years, it was built, financially fuelled by the propaganda machine from Moscow, into a large industry, with the state studio Tallinnfilm playing a central role. One of the most precarious periods that the Estonian film industry faced (as did all post-Soviet countries, including Russia) was during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eva Näripea and Dirk Hoyer have described it as:

The sweeping changes of the transformation period essentially disintegrated the local film industry that had been tightly integrated with the Soviet circuits of funding and distribution. As a consequence, the corpus of Estonian narrative cinema of the first post-Soviet decade, i.e. roughly 1992–2002, is relatively modest, coming to circa 30 feature-length narrative films. While, metaphorically speaking, the darkest days of the industry in terms of output occurred between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, with not a single Estonian feature film premiering in 1996 and 2000, the production of the decade, in general, gravitates towards visual and narrative bleakness, cynicism and pessimism. (Näripea, Hoyer 2018)

Not only the Estonian film industry but also Estonia as a society went through a thorough transformation during the re-independence period, and the specificity of this transformation was that many systems were built without pre-existing structures. For example, the rudimentary banking system of the Soviet Union meant that the newly independent countries had to build the new capitalist banking systems mostly without any preceding structures – with the continuity too broken to successfully reintroduce banks that existed before Soviet times. This resulted in a situation described by Jaan Masso et al: “Since the 1990s, the Estonian banking sector has been considered technologically advanced, innovative and at the forefront of developing ICT applications and electronic banking services” (Masso et al. 2022: 60). Due to the fact that social structures had to begin anew in the early 90s, Estonia was able to jump on the digitalisation of the society without having to deal with a transition from analogue systems. A similar process happened in the Estonian film industry. For example, in the early 2000s, most of the global film industry was still analogue, with O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2000, USA), a film considered by many to be the first Digital Intermediate, released in 2000 (Belton 2008: 58). It was a period when DI was mostly considered for big-budget Hollywood films (ibid.). At the same time, in Estonia, the small film industry was already shooting digitally – its first digital feature film Vanad ja kobedad saavad jalad alla / Made in Estonia (Rando Pettai, 2002, Estonia), was shot in 2002. This process was sped up by the unfortunate side-effects of the collapse of the Soviet system: when the Tallinnfilm lab disappeared, the Estonian film industry had no option other than to embrace digital from the get-go.

Estonian language higher film education started in 1992 from a small film and video department under the Faculty of Culture of Tallinn Pedagogical University. It was established by Estonian filmmakers, a process led by cinematographers Arvo Iho and Rein Maran (who was the head of the Estonian Cinema Union at the time). During the Soviet period, most Estonian filmmakers studied in Moscow (at VGIK, the state film institute). Describing his motivations for opening a film school, Arvo Iho has recalled the preceding period:

When I came back to Estonia from America, the situation here was depressing. The streets were boarded, and soon I found myself at the barricades surrounding the Radio and Television House. During the three August nights when we were waiting for the Pskov paratroopers’ tanks, a conviction deepened in me that it is necessary to create Estonian own film school because from now on, no young Estonian will go to study in Russia anymore’ (Iho 2012; all translations by E.L. unless otherwise indicated – E.L.).

This concern of professional filmmakers about the future of filmmaking and how it is connected to education resembles the period of the first republic, where Estonian filmmakers also understood the importance of film education to its budding film industry.

In the fall of 1923, two film courses were founded in Tallinn (EFIS 2011). One of them bore the name of the Ukrainian film star Vira Kholodnaodnaia and did not leave a deep mark on the Estonian film scene, while the other gathered a circle of people, some of whom later formed the core of Estonian filmmakers (ibid.) That course, founded by Balduin Kusbock, was registered with the Ministry of Education as an educational institution on November 9, 1923, although teaching actually began on August 20 1923. Kusbock published an advertisement on September 20, 1928, with a description of the curriculum, which included: film technique, acting, stage technique, reading, miming, physiognomy, semiotics, dynamics, facial makeup, history of art and culture, fashion problems, aesthetic and ethical cinema requirements, movement, rhythm, fencing, photo-cinema technique, film script, improvisation, dance etc. (Päewaleht 1928a). On November 11, 1928, Päewaleht announced the merging of the Film Club (Filmi-Klubi), founded in 1925 (Kaja 1925) and the Kusbock studio. Among the teachers was, for example, Konstantin Märska, who offered classes on film technique (Päewaleht 1928b). Märska is widely considered one of the founders of Estonian film, who shot the first Estonian full-length feature ("Mineviku varjud" 1924, EFIS 2022) and other titles. The fact that Märska, a cinematographer, was an important contributor to the very first phase of formal film education in Estonia interestingly connects with Raimo Jõerand’s observation about cinematographers in Estonian film:

One after the other and forced by circumstances, they have gradually become directors and then, also forced by circumstances, teachers. In 1992, Arvo Iho founded the National Film School, after which Rein Maran took over the department, and then it was Jüri Sillart's turn. They had all trained as cinematographers. Currently, the film education is run by Rein Maran's student Elen Lotman, also a cinematographer. We see that cinematographers have become the heart and conscience of Estonian film in this context – its core. (Jõerand 2014).

Thus, the first attempts at Estonian film education during the First Republic era share similarities with the post-re-independence period in the 1990s: the local filmmakers considered film education crucial for the development of the domestic film industry. This is an important distinction, as there are plenty of schools in the world where the initiative to establish a film curriculum comes from the school itself.

Yvonne Fritze and colleagues underline the importance of the filmmakers’ community in shaping film education:

We see that policies regarding art and culture, the film professionals as well as higher education have high stake interests in shaping the curriculum of film education. Policies for the arts and culture, and film more specifically, change as does higher education policies; even more influential might be the role of the professional community of filmmakers (Fritze et al. 2016: 263).

Mette Hjort has even connected the ability for a small nation’s cinemas to appeal to its filmmakers’ sense of responsibility to the future of local filmmaking: “Small cinemas that thrive all have filmmakers who are able and willing to function as artistic leaders, and who understand just how important it is to take up tasks that go well beyond the mere making of films.” (Hjort 2011: 2)

In order to have a birds-eye view of the three decades of the development of Estonian film education and its reciprocal relationship with the industry, I used the Estonian Film Database. Indrek Ibrus and Maarja Ojamaa underline the uniqueness of the EFD: “In practical terms, however, it must be recognized that there are very few databases in the world that are as comprehensive as EFD and the few that exist […] do not give out their data for analysis.” (Ibrus, Ojamaa 2020: 548).

For this article, the EFD database was combined with a new database created specifically for researching Estonian language film education, consisting of all students who graduated from the cohorts admitted between 1992-2016 (the cohorts admitted in 2018, 2020 and 2022 were not included because these groups either graduated too recently or have not graduated yet). This data corpus was the basis of SQL (Structured Query Language) queries to the EFD database.

The database shows that during the 30 years since 1992, 242 people graduated from the film curriculum at the BA level and 31 people at the MA level in 2005-2009 (later, the MA transformed into an international curriculum taught in English).

• The first cohort, admitted in 1992, specialised in fiction film directing (later, this course was informally called "Iho-boys", because the head of the department was cinematographer and director Arvo Iho).

• The second cohort, 1996, specialised in documentary film directing. Cinematographer and nature filmmaker Rein Maran became the head of the department. There were four years between the first two cohorts, after which the admission became biannual.

• The third cohort, 1998, specialised in educating sound recordists.

• The fourth cohort, 2000, specialised in cinematography. It was the last course with a single specialisation, and this was also the last admission for the four-year curriculum for many years to come (a four-year curriculum was re-established in 2016).

• In the fifth cohort, admitted in 2002, the general film arts course. Cinematographer and director Jüri Sillart became the head of the department. Because the Bologna 3+2 system provided for more general study at the bachelor's level, the name of the curriculum changed to film arts, within which it was possible to combine electives to create a rudimentary specialisation (e.g., directing, editing, cinematography).

• The sixth cohort was admitted in 2004. The Baltic Film and Media School (BFM) was established in 2005, merging with the former Tallinn University film department and Concordia University’s media department (and its international media BA).

• The seventh cohort was admitted in 2006. Five specialisations were created (directing, cinematography, editing, production, sound), with separate pre-selection and entrance exams per each major track. A system of professional supervising teachers began to take shape, three of whom still teach – sound designer Tiina Andreas, cinematographer Mait Mäekivi, and producer Anneli Ahven.

• The eighth cohort was admitted in 2008. During this course, Jüri Sillart prepared a semi-open 3+2 combination of BA and MA courses, and a large number of students from this group entered the MA directly after graduation.

• The ninth cohort was admitted in 2010. The sixth major, screenwriting, was added that year. In 2011, Jüri Sillart died unexpectedly at the beginning of the school year, and Tiina Lokk became the head of the film department.

• The tenth cohort was admitted in 2012, and in 2013 Elen Lotman became the head of the film department.

• The eleventh cohort was admitted in 2014. Shortly before (in 2013), a nationwide higher education reform took place, and Estonian language education became exempt from paying tuition fees. As a result, the entire group of film students could study for free for the first time.

• The twelfth cohort was admitted in 2016. A four-year study program was restored, whereby the volume of internships and specialised subjects increased significantly.

• The thirteenth cohort was admitted in 2018. Veiko Vaatmann became the head of the film arts curriculum, and one more specialisation module was opened for production designers (it was part of another curriculum, but its study process was integrated with the film arts curriculum)

• The fourteenth cohort was admitted in 2020. There were no significant changes in the curriculum, but the huge challenge was how to maintain contact teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The fifteenth cohort was admitted in 2022, and a seventh speciality, for production designers, officially became part of the curriculum, with the renowned production designer Eugen Tamberg as supervisor.

• By the time of the writing of the current article, the sixteenth cohort had been admitted in 2024.

The collective leadership of the current curriculum is formed from the supervisors who have joined the faculty over the years: Tiina Andreas (sound), Mait Mäekivi (cinematography), Anneli Ahven (production), Peeter Simm (directing), Madli Lääne-Metsalu (editing), Andris Feldmanis (scriptwriting), Eugen Tamberg (production design). It is worth mentioning that it is quite rare in the world that actively practising filmmakers also teach filmmaking on a regular basis. As both careers require commitment and time (and are opposites – teaching has a regular and rigid schedule, while filmmaking is seasonal and requires long periods of intensive work), few people are able to do both at the same time. Therefore, lecturers in film schools are often either filmmakers who have finished their active careers and are dedicated to teaching or, on the contrary, active filmmakers who attend workshops sporadically but do not tutor students constantly. In BFM film arts course, in addition to the aforementioned supervisors, the students are regularly taught by a host of guest lecturing filmmakers (Tanel Toom, Kaur Kokk, Katrin Kissa, etc.), and over the years, a large part of Estonian filmmakers have participated in the admission and graduation committees.

EFD data shows that since the first cohort was admitted, of 1,749 students who have completed the film curriculum have participated in making films; adding in student films, the number of participations is 5,446 (again, this is not the number of films or the number of participants, but the number of participations, meaning one film can have multiple different participations in case a student worked in different positions in the crew).

Key findings I. Film Industry and Film School are Intertwined

Figure 1 shows the share of student films from all films produced in Estonia (excluding amateur films). The number of student films in relation to the rest of the film production is significant, even reaching 66% in 2014 (this table contains all student films produced in Estonia, including also those produced in other curriculums in Baltic Film and Media School and its precursors, e.g. audiovisual media BA and film MA). There has been a steady growth in the number of student films over the years, and a significant increase can be observed after the establishment of Tallinn University Baltic Film and Media School (BFM). From the period of 1912-1940, EFD had no student film entries, in 1940-1991, there were 34 and in 1992-2018, there were 1143. This shows that during Soviet times, despite the fact that Estonian filmmakers graduated from VGIK regularly, the number of actual student films produced in Estonia was insignificant (most of the films from VGIK were done with multinational student crews from all over the Soviet Union; the Estonian Film Database lists mostly the ones produced in Estonia and in Estonian language). The establishment of film education in Estonia exploded the production of student films to such a scale that they surpassed most other types of films: from the overall volume of Estonian film production in the period of 1991-2018, student films are the second largest number at 1144 (trailing 1470 documentary films).

Figure 2 shows the proportionate participation of Estonian language film arts curriculum students and alumni in the Estonian film industry over 30 years ("film industry" means all films made in Estonia during the year, except for amateur and student films). Again, a significant increase can be seen around 2005. Since the mid-2000s, stably, approximately half of the films produced in Estonia have been made with the participation of film arts curriculum alumni.

Over these three decades, the number of graduates of the film arts curriculum has also been steadily rising, as can be seen in Figure 3. There are two causes for this increase: one reason is that more students were admitted as the number of specialisations that were taught was growing (thus also more students were able to graduate). The other reason is that out of those who were admitted, more students remained in the school and achieved graduation. By the mid-2000s the prestige of filmmaking as an occupation was growing, while Estonian society and film industry were stabilising, giving students more opportunities to do films and focus on studying. The stark reality of the early 1990s is truly characterised on this table, showing how the precarity of what the society was facing, was also in the core of the film education. It is a period of the almost complete disintegration of the film industry following Estonia regaining its independence from the Soviet Union, as summarised by Margit Tõnson:

At the beginning of the 90s […], the state-subsidised Tallinnfilm, a film studio that kept the entire Soviet Estonian film industry afloat, collapsed. What followed is well known – Tallinnfilm was "dispersed", everyone started to dabble on their own. Feature film production in Estonia did not wake up from its Sleeping Beauty slumber until the end of the 90s, thanks to the state funding starting to work […]. (Tõnson 2008).

The more general trend of the entire Estonian film industry (Figure 4) shows that the overall number of people engaged in the production of Estonian films during the last 30 years is also steadily rising. Source: EFIS database.