Lithuanian film student wins documentary prize

Promised Bread, which Žavinta produced, directed and photographed, is an observational documentary exploring the life of an elderly woman in rural Lithuania.

Žavinta, 22, from Lithuania, said: “I simply wanted to show people how rural life or less modern living conditions can only make your spiritual and emotional life complete. The main character portrayed grief, which I tried to capture using the images of her struggle in everyday life.”

Having thanked her lecturer Simon Aeppli for his assistance with her project, Žavinta said she’d been developing the idea for about six months before going ahead with filming.

“I rented some equipment and went to Lithuania with few ideas that have been narrowed down. It was only me capturing the images and recording the interviews because I wanted to get closer to the character. After the shoot my editor and I tried to arrange the footage we had. At the end, the final piece was made in post-production,” she said.

Her prize, which was awarded by TV presenter Lucy Worsley, was a year’s subscription to the professional software suite Abode Creative Cloud.

Since graduating, Žavinta has been working on observational documentaries in developing countries, with her ambition being to get her work screened on National Geographic.

“It was a surprise at first for the nomination, but I am really honoured to be recognised for my work,” said Žavinta.

Film Production at UCA Farnham has a long history of producing award winners, with other recent alumni successes including Dominic Mitchell and Mark Towns, who collected TV Craft Baftas for their work on BBC3’s In The Flesh and Channel 4’s Educating Yorkshire, respectively.

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