Video Essay: The Soviet Jean-Luc Godard Hollywood Forgot
“Our very own Godard”
Often described as Latvia’s answer to Jean-Luc Godard, Rolands Kalniņš was a maverick filmmaker whose work redefined the limits of cinema under Soviet censorship. In this new video essay, we explore how Kalniņš carved out a defiantly creative path, focusing on his psychedelic rock musical Four White Shirts. His films fought for memory, music, and national identity, even when the state tried, in Kalniņš’s own words, to "erase them from history."
Klassiki Notes adapted my earlier essay Rolands Kalniņš: riding the Baltic New Wave with “Latvia’s Godard” published on the Klassiki Journal into a fantastic video essay on the great Latvian filmmaker. Watch the video below and read the full essay the video is based on here.