DOCUMENTARY: The City Where Women Run The Nightlife - Nightlife & Clubs in Tbilisi. By Noemi Hatala and Rebecca Gin

Partying in Tbilisi is a political statement. Like Berlin in the early 90s, raves in Tbilisi have a social and political element that make them more than entertainment.

Clubbing has become a way for young people to rebel against the conservative regime in power. People with “radical” ideas about liberal politics or sexual identity are accepted in clubs and can act freely.

Tbilisi has five major clubs. Four of them are owned or co-owned by women.

This short documentary introduces these strong female characters who are running Tbilisi’s nightlife and are shaping the thinking of a new generation.

Producer, director, cameraperson, editor: Noemi Hatala
noemihatala.com
Cameraperson, consultant: Rebecca Gin
rebeccagin.com


The City Where Women Run The Nightlife from Noemi Hatala on Vimeo.

With Keta Gabunia (Owner of Mtkvaarze Club www.mtkvarze.com), Tamuna Axander (Owner of KHIDI www.khidi.ge), Naja Orashvili (Co-Founder of BASSIANI www.bassiani.com), Sophy Ebralidze (Manager of KHIDI www.khidi.ge), Nia Gvatua (Owner of SUCCESS BAR)

This Video Will Introduce You To The Women Behind Tbilisi’s Thriving Techno Scene (Source: electronicbeats.net)

'The City Where Women Run The Nightlife' is a new video that explores how women have built the city's current day techno scene.

Club culture is political everywhere, but it’s especially political in Tbilisi. There, clubs like Bassiani and Khidi provide free spaces for people to gather and explore ideas about liberal politics and sexual identity at odds with the country’s ultra-conservative government. (For more information about the government’s policies, read our exposé Behind Bars: Meet The Georgian Producer Making Music From Prison)

“There are five major clubs in Tbilisi. Four of them are owned or co-owned by women,” says Keta Gabundia, owner of the popular Mtkvarze club, in a new short video documentary called, The City Where Women Run The Nightlife.

The video, which is available in full above, examines the role that women have played in developing the city’s current club scene, and also explains the challenges they face moving forward in the wake of last year’s Government-instigated club raids and ensuing protests.

The City Where Women Run The Nightlife was made by Noemi Hatala and Rebecca Gin. More info can be found here.

Read more: Behind Bars: Meet The Georgian Techno Producer Making Music From Prison


Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/bassiani
https://soundcloud.com/khidi
https://soundcloud.com/search?q=mtkvarze

VIDEO: "Zinka Man" - Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili tells us about his new novel

THE MOVEMENT TV is a digital storytelling media platform founded in 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia on the basis of The Movement Theatre - the first independent theatre in Georgia, whose main direction is storytelling.

Our TV tells stories about people using cinematographic storytelling means and unconventional movement of a camera. We strive to uncover social-cultural topics beyond certain boundaries using contemporary media-technologies.

The goal of THE MOVEMENT TV team is to assist people to find their own way of storytelling. We talk to dozens of people on a daily basis and tell our audience the best stories we come across.

We believe that each person has the story that might be interesting for others to be shared with.

THE MOVEMENT TV works for its audience, while The Movement Production Studio serves both small and large companies by means of an innovative way of communication called storytelling.

No doubt the future of the media is digital and THE MOVEMENT TV is the first media company in Georgia to have made the first steps in this direction.

POLITIK: Offener Brief von Autor*innen und Verleger*innen zur Zusammenlegung des Buchzentrums und des Literaturhauses in Georgien

Am 3. Mai 2019 erklärte das Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Kultur und Sport, dass es einige Institutionen aus seinem Zuständigkeitsbereich fusionieren wolle. Zu diesen Juristischen Personen des Öffentlichen Rechts gehören das Georgische Nationale Buchzentrum und das Schriftstellerhaus, die in einer "Nationalen Literaturstiftung" aufgehen sollen.

Das Georgische Nationale Buchzentrum und das Literaturhaus blicken auf eine relativ junge Geschichte zurück, sind jedoch erfolgreichste Kulturinstitutionen in Georgien. Beide Institutionen setzen die Steuerzahlergelder nicht nur äußerst effizient sondern mit einem großen Gewinn für den georgischen Staat ein.

Die große Kompetenz und das uneingeschränkte Engagement der Mitarbeiterinnen des Georgischen Nationalen Buchzentrums hat den historisch größten Auslandserfolg der georgischen Literatur und Kultur ermöglicht. Das Schriftstellerhaus ist mittlerweile zu einem unverzichtbaren Kulturzentrum Georgiens geworden, dass tausende Literaturfreunde heranzieht. Dieser Erfolg war, in vielen Fällen, nicht der Unterstützung der Mitarbeiter*innen des Kultusministeriums zu verdanken, sondern geht auf einen harten Kampf für die Transparenz und die öffentliche Kontrolle zurück.

Vor dem Hintergrund dieses großen, für georgische staatliche Behörden völlig ungewohnten Erfolges ruft die Initiative des Ministeriums, zwei unabhängige und erfolgreiche Institutionen zu fusionieren, unsere Zweifel, Sorge und Ärger hervor.

Die Begründung des Ministeriums, die Organisationen „zur Modernisierung und Verbesserung der Verwaltung, sowie gemäß den internationalen Standards und nationalen Prioritäten“ zu fusionieren erscheint uns unglaubwürdig und falsch.

Zur Unglaubwürdigkeit einer solchen Begründung trägt auch die Tatsache bei, dass diese Entscheidung des Ministerium ohne jeglicher Rücksprache mit den Leiterinnen und Mitarbeiterinnen des Buchzentrums und des Literaturhauses, ohne Konsultationen mit Schriftsteller*innen, Autor*innen, Übersetzer*innen und Verleger*innen, unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit getroffen wurde.

Modernisierung und Verbesserung der Verwaltung impliziert, dass diese Institutionen nicht modern und schlecht verwaltet werden. Dies entspricht keineswegs den Tatsachen. Weder internationale Standards noch die nationalen Prioritäten setzen eine mechanische Zusammenlegung voraus. Wenn man den für Kultur zuständigen Staatssekretär Giorgadze glaubt, liegen der geplanten Fusionierung auch keinerlei Sparnotwendigkeit zugrunde.

Die beiden Institutionen haben ihre Spezifika und Arbeitsfelder. Organisationelle Optimierung kann ihr mechanisches Zusammenschließen keineswegs rechtfertigen. Die sogenannte Fusionierung, die in Wirklichkeit nur ein mechanischer Zusammenschluss ist, bedeutet werde eine Verbesserung noch eine Stärkung der georgischen Literatur.

Als die einzig mögliche Erklärung bietet sich folgendes an: Indem das Ministerium lukrative leitende Funktion für unbeschäftigt gebliebene Funktionäre schafft, möchte es die Kontrolle über zwei politisch und administrativ unabhängige und erfolgreiche Institutionen mit administrative Kommandomethoden gewinnen.

Schriftsteller*innen, Autor*innen, Übersetzer*innen und Verleger*innen setzen sich für die Unabhängigkeit des Georgischen Nationalen Buchzentrums und des Schriftstellerhauses ein und fordern das Ministerium auf, die beiden Institutionen an der Ausübung ihrer erfolgreichen Tätigkeit nicht zu hindern. Unsere ausländischen Freunde und Partner, die eine hervorragende Erfahrung der Zusammenarbeit mit dem Buchzentrum und dem Schriftstellerhaus haben, sind mit den beiden Institutionen ebenfalls solidarisch.

VIDEO: Georgia: A Post-Soviet Fashion Boom | Compass. By Elfi Bereketli​ via @trtworld

Compass goes to Tbilisi to discover Georgia's fashion scene. Dubbed in the media as 'post-soviet' fashion style it's the latest hype in the fashion industry globally. How has the small country of Georgia given birth to some of the coolest designers in the 21st century? What is 'post-soviet' style? And is the 'post-soviet' label accurate in describing the latest fashion designs coming out of this unique country?


+++ Demna Gvasalia +++ Nino Mgaloblishvili +++ Djurdja Bartlett +++ Sofia Tchkonia +++ Tamuna Karumidze +++ Natalia Vat sadze +++ Lado Bokuchava +++ Lako Bukia +++ George Keburia +++

LIVE-RECORDING: "Be Yourself" by Nestan Bagration-Davitashvili

Nestan Bagration-Davitashvili: Voc, Piano, Synth, Beatbox
Live recording in Vox Ton analog recording studio Berlin by Francesco Donadello
Video: George Charkviani

Nestan Bagration-Davitashvili

Pianist, singer, composer
Growing up in a famous Georgian artist Ancestry royal family, was faced early on with the pianist in the world of culture, has many inspirations take in, process, and continued to develop artistically quickly.

First performances at age 5 years. She studied piano in Tbilisi, Georgia at the music school.

At the age of 16 you got the special prize "Discovery of Festival" at the Festival 'Margarita 96'

As a scholarship student of the Berklee College of Music in the U.S., she composed the first works.

Since 2007, she received a scholarship from the Yehudi Menuhin launched "live music now" and in 2009 Fellow of a DAAD scholarship. Critics wrote about her: "If the pianist Nestan Bagration-Davitashvili occurs, we see how" music borders "s passed by our ears, how to approach seemingly different genres of music at the end, come together, or also be attributed to their common ground. Nestan Bagration-Davitashvilis music is an open-hearted commitment to the origins of mankind. It needs no words, phrases or a specific language. Alone satisfy her syllables to express all human emotions of joy and pain. But one thing will lead like a red thread through the concert tonight: the highest intensity of her presentation.

"Their music does not quote, it is new. It takes in everything around us and includes it in a new way: noise, sound, music. Their energy comes from the stomach and catapulted himself through the heart and intellect. She sings, reads, plays … " And it is the comprehensive training and mental penetration because, Nestan Bagration-Davitashvili knows exactly what paths are going in the interpretation and music scene.

Your analysis skills are overwhelmed their intuition in every way. It has to develop in recent years, their own personal style that can be difficult to define. Thus, their interpretations are genre independent today, marked by high, stirring Intensitet. Currently lives and works Nestan Bagration-Davitashvili in Berlin, Germany

soundcloud.com/nestanbagrationdavitashvili
nestanbagrationdavitashvili.com
vimeo.com/nestan
More here: kulturgeorgien.com

VIDEO: Live@wilight - Nika Machaidze (Nikakoi) & Gogi Dzodzuashvili 2015

Nika Machaidze and Gogi Dzodzuashvili's live on the birthday of Artarea artarea.tv

CONCERTS IN TBILISI: 3615 Mort Subite - Georgian tour. Brass Band, Funk, Jazz from Paris & Grenoble, France.

3615 Mort Subite, a group of French brassband musicians playing brass music inspired by New Orleans Brass Bands, funk, jazz and french chanson.

For the occasion of the wedding of one of our members in Tblissi, we are preparing a tour in Georgia from May 4th to 10th, 2019. Our group is bringing together musicians and the repertoire from two different brass bands: La Mort Subite (The Sudden Death) from Grenoble and The 3615 Brassband from Paris.

Fanfare La Mort Subite

facebook.com/LaMortSubite.Grenoble

fanfarelamortsubite.wixsite.com



The sudden death, fanfare of Grenoble:
soundcloud.com/The sudden death, fanfare of Grenoble
facebook.com/LaMortSubite.Grenoble

The 3615 brass band, Parisian brass band:
soundcloud.com/3615brassband
facebook.com/3615BrassBand

Upcoming concerts in Georgia, Tbilisi: 3615 Mort Subite - Georgian Tour
4 May Concert at Amodi
5 May Concert at Backstage76
10 May Concert at Tbilisi Gate Gallery

POLYPHONY: The Song Hunters - Suppression and Survival. By Sam Lee via @BBCRadio4

Podcast >> bbc.co.uk
 
Singer and song collector Sam Lee travels to Tbilisi to explore the ancient polyphonic folk songs and sacred chants of Georgia. He discovers a nation where singing is in the blood.

With some of Georgia's finest singers and musicologists as his guides, Sam is introduced to the ritualistic folk songs that are said to the control the weather and even cure the sick. He is invited to a feast, high on a mountainside above Tbilisi, where he meets the Chamgelianis - a singing family from the remote region of Svaneti who are keeping the tradition of age-old pre-Christian folk songs alive.

At the beautiful Kashveti Church in the heart of Tbilisi, Sam meets singer and ethno-musicologist John Graham who introduces him to the liturgical chanting tradition. These orthodox Christian chants feature sacrosanct melodies that are said to have been passed down by God and transmitted orally over the centuries.

Bordered by powerful neighbours including Russia and Turkey, Georgia has been attacked and invaded persistently over the centuries, its traditional songs suppressed. Sam learns that, under Soviet rule, sacred chanting was banned in Georgia and chanters threatened with exile and even death. Practitioners were forced to go underground from the early 1920s.

The tradition might have died out entirely were it not for the efforts of a single monk who buried manuscripts containing the forbidden sacred songs in order to keep them safe. Many years later, following the end of the Soviet stranglehold, the buried manuscripts were rediscovered and became the backbone of a chant revival that has seen Georgian singing spread around the world.

Presenter: Sam Lee
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4

CITY TRIP: Tbilisi's Soviet Concrete Walking Tour with Brutal Tours @BrutalTours in Georgia

A Walking tour through the capital of Georgia, spiced up with more concrete and soviet architecture than you could probably handle!

Tour Runs Daily 35 EUR

Brutal Tours loves urbex, brutalism and soviet architecture. Join the people on a journey to places you won't find in other travel programs

FB facebook.com/brutaltours

FB-Group facebook.com/groups/brutaltours

Instagram instagram.com/brutaltours

Website brutaltours.com

Email: brutaltours@gmail.com

VIDEO: Robert Atwater & Rusudan Khizanishvili. Opening of the exhibition

Robert is a North American fine art photographer, printmaker, and book artist from New York. Rusudan is a painter from Georgia, Tbilisi.

Ussiaugu tee 20, Vaskjala, 75313 Harju maakond, Estland
9X43+V9 Vaskjala, Kreis Harju, Estland www.kultuur.rae.ee +372 5551 2898

BERLIN: Die Filmemacherin Lana Gogoberidse am 1. Mai zu Gast im Arsenal mit ihrer Autobiografie "Ich trank Gift wie kachetischen Wein"

Am 1. Mai ist die georgische Regisseurin Lana Gogoberidse im Arsenal zu Gast. Unter dem Titel "Ich trank Gift wie kachetischen Wein" ist soeben ihre Autobiografie auf Deutsch im Mitteldeutschen Verlag erschienen. Gleichzeitig veröffentlicht das Arsenal gemeinsam mit der Filmgalerie 451 Lana Gogoberidses Film RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE (Einige Interviews zu persönlichen Fragen, UdSSR/Georgien 1978) auf DVD.

Programm am Mittwoch, 1. Mai, 20h im Kino Arsenal

Buchpräsentation

„Ich trank Gift wie kachetischen Wein“ mit einer Lesung von Katharina Rivilis, zu Gast: Lana Gogoberidse In Lana Gogoberidses Autobiografie korrespondieren Erinnerungen auf ganz besondere, persönliche Art und Weise mit der georgischen Geschichte sowie der Weltgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Gogoberidse wächst in einer Welt voller Brutalität und Unsicherheit auf. Die stalinistischen Säuberungen zerreißen ihre Familie. In der Zeit des Großen Terrors wird ihr Vater 1937 als 'Feind des Volkes' hingerichtet und ihre Mutter zu zehn Jahren Lagerhaft verurteilt. Besonders der Verlust der Mutter bildet eine tiefe Zäsur in Gogoberidses Leben, den sie auch immer wieder in ihrem künstlerischen Schaffen thematisiert. In der Tauwetterzeit nach Stalins Tod studiert sie Film am Gerassimow-Institut für Kinematographie in Moskau. Ihren internationalen Durchbruch feiert Gogoberidse mit RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE, für den sie mehrere Preise erhielt.

anschließend Vorführung RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE Einige Interviews zu persönlichen Fragen Lana Gogoberidse UdSSR/Georgien 1978 georg. OmU 94'

Sofiko geht ganz in ihrem Beruf auf. Als Journalistin interviewt sie unterschiedlichste Frauen zu ihren Lebensbedingungen und Wünschen. Dass ihr eigenes Glück und ihre Familie dabei zu kurz kommen, bemerkt sie zu spät. Feinfühlig erzählt Lana Gogoberidse in dokumentarisch anmutendem Stil und mit dynamischer Kameraführung von der Verzahnung des Privaten und des Politischen, die sich auch in den Erinnerungen Sofikos an die Mutter fortsetzt. Mit seinem Fokus auf die alltäglichen Kämpfe einer emanzipierten Frau und der Reflexion über weibliche Lebensentwürfe gilt der Film als einer der ersten feministischen Filme der Sowjetunion.

 

Facebooklink facebook.com/Lana Gogoberidse in Berlin

Website: arsenal-berlin.de

EXHIBITION: Guram Tsibakhashvili’s photographic retrospective of 90s #Georgia to launch new #Tbilisi exhibition space. via @agenda_ge

Artists Lado Burduli and Irakli Charkviani photographed in Tbilisi in 1992, with the city bearing traces of damage from the civil war. Photo: Guram Tsibakhashvili

Guram Tsibakhashvili - "Winter is left behind"
Address: Barnovi Art House, Rustaveli Avenue N18, III floor
Exhibition April 24 - May 31
Opening: April 24, 19:00
working hours:
From Tuesday to Saturday - 12: 00-20:00
Sunday - 12:00-18:00

The fake country was collapsing.
Under Gorbachev, we already knew that it was inevitable.
Just like every other change, it was a painful and necessary change. Except that we were unaware of the pain that still laid ahead, so at first we just rejoiced.
Once, Mamuka Tsetskhladze came to me. He had a way of sugar-coating pills. He offered me to hold an exhibition, to see how many of us were around in fall, and then how many would still be here in March, when winter would be over. And the exhibition was titled conveniently: Wintering Over.

Guram Tsibakhashvili
Twenty-five years after this exhibition, Guram Tsibakhashvili is traveling through time to describe this momentous period in Georgian history, in which the newly established state is struggling to cope with war, starvation, and the cold, on one hand, while contemporary art is springing up to blossom in the country fresh out of the Soviet Union, on the other.

Wintering Over Is Over is a conventionality filling the author with hope that that trails and tribulations are dead and buried, and the art inspired by the then controversies is now part of history. Still, this exposition gives rise to occasional questions like what have we inherited from the 1990s? What has changed in these 25 years? Has anything changed at all, or is it just wintering over that is over?
 
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[agenda.ge] A display of photographs illustrating a vital and tumultuous moment in Georgia’s history will become the opening event of the Barnovi House of Arts, a new exhibition space in downtown Tbilisi on Wednesday.

Photographer Guram Tsibakhashvili, referred to as “one of the most outstanding figures in Georgian contemporary artists” by propaganda.network, will bring a selection of his works reflecting the social and political events following the Georgian independence in the 1990s.


"[The photographs illustrate] a newly born state struggling against war, starvation and cold [...] while contemporary art begins to unexpectedly flourish in the wake of the country’s freeing itself from the Soviet Union,” a preview for the show says."

Tsibakhashvili has titled the exhibition Winter is Left Behind, as a reflection of an idea of leaving behind the troubles of the era but still having to face questions including “what has changed 25 years later?” and “what is the legacy of the 1990s?”




Film critic and journalist Giorgi Gvakharia and screenwriter Tamuna Melikishvili putting up posters

outside the Cinema House in Tbilisi in 1990. Photo: Guram Tsibakhashvili.

While the photographs take up the space of the newly launched exposition venue, the photographer will also unveil an illustrated book bringing together around 250 of his works.

The photos selected for the publication are found on its pages along with essays by author Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, recipient of Saba and Iliauni literary prizes in Georgia and winner of the Goethe Institute Prize for her work in literature and translation.

Known for her works including novels Who Killed Chaika? and Berikaoba, Kordzaia-Samadashvili was also selected for the New York Public Library’s list of 365 Books by Women Authors in 2017.

On his part, Tsibakhashvili is known for his documentary photographs — exhibited in dozens of solo and group displays in Georgia and abroad, from the Writers' House of Georgia in Tbilisi to the Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York.



Tsibakhashvili worked with author Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili on a book combining photographs with essays,

set to be presented at the exhibition’s opening. Photos: Guram Tsibakhashvili Georgian National Book Centre.

He also was co-founder of a number of pioneering photography institutions in the South Caucasus, including the Tbilisi Photographers’ Housing (2007) and the ‘Visual Bank’ (1985), and has led workshops at events including the Frankfurt Forum of Photography.

The Barnovi House of Arts is described as a space focused on developing contemporary art for “cultural convergence” in the region while “reinforcing historical narratives” and sparking “new creative impulses”.

Organisers of the venue aim to discover and present both local contemporary artists and creatives with contribution in historical legacies.

The display Winter is Left Behind will receive visitors between April 24-May 31 at 18, Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.

The Barnovi House of Arts is a modern oriented oriented space that will promote cultural approximation in the region, strengthening historical narratives and creating new creative impulses.

The Barnovi Arts Foundation will be oriented on the development of local contemporary art as well as the discovery and coverage of historians with historic value.



DOCUMENTARY: Georgia on the Move - A Country between Europe and Stalin | DW Documentary

Writer Davit Gabunia travels through his native Georgia to visit the grave of his cousin, who was killed in the war against Russia in 2008. He gives us a profound and moving picture of how his country ticks.




Davit Gabunia [rowohlt.de]
Facettenreiches Spiel aus Abstoßung und Anziehung: Davit Gabunias raffiniert konstruierter und spannender Roman „Farben der Nacht“. Katrin Hillgruber [tagesspiegel.de]
Auf eine Zigarette mit... Davit Gabunia [fr.de]
Davit Gabunias Roman. Zimmer mit Aussicht auf einen Umsturz. Von Tilman Spreckelsen [faz.net]
Davit Gabunias Blick hinter Georgiens Vorhänge [wn.de]
Davit Gabunias Debütroman handelt von den Monaten vor dem Machtwechsel 2012 in Georgien [literaturkritik.de]


Writer Davit Gabunia travels through his native Georgia to visit the grave of his cousin, who was killed in the war against Russia in 2008. He gives us a profound and moving picture of how his country ticks.

On his journey, Davit talks to demonstrators in the capital Tbilisi, the curator of the bizarre Stalin Museum and with a convinced Stalinist who would like to see the statue of the Soviet dictator returned to its plinth in the city from the industrial wasteland where it was dumped. He also visits places that have a great personal meaning for him. Davit’s cousin Shalva died in the Georgian-Russian War of 2008 and he visits the grave in his hometown of Poti on the Black Sea for the first time. For ten years, he didn't dare come back here. Born in 1982, the writer looks at the conflict in his home country through the lens of the so-called "administrative frontier” between Georgia and the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia has occupied South Ossetia, which is internationally recognized as part of Georgia, ten years. Davit meets an old farmer's wife and learns how the conflict here affects her everyday life. There’s lots of material for Davit's black notebook, where he meticulously notes down everything that happens during the journey and so creates a panorama of contemporary Georgia.

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DOCUMENT: Heidi Tagliavini report on the August 2008 Five Day War between Russia and Georgia. Briefly commented by Andreas Umland

Andreas Umland is surprised that this Report on the August 2008 Five Day War between Russia and Georgia: Independent International Fact-Finding Mission [pdf] is often referred to as supporting the claim that Georgia is to be blamed for the war. The most important passage of the report from page 20 seems to be:

"The Georgian allegations of a Russian invasion were supported, inter alia, by claims of illegal entry into South Ossetia of a large number of Russian troops and armour, prior to the commencement of the Georgian operation. According to Georgian answers to the Mission´s questions, the process of building-up of Russian forces in South Ossetia had started in early July 2008, continued in the course of August and included troops and medical personnel, tents, armoured vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery and artillery guns. This process allegedly intensified in the night of 6 to 7 August and in the late evening of 7 August. Georgian allegations of Russian military build-up in South Ossetia prior to 8 August 2008 were denied, however, by the Russian side. According to the Russian information provided to the Mission, the first Russian units entered the territory of South Ossetia, and Russian air force and artillery began their attacks on Georgian targets at 14.30 on 8 August, i.e. immediately after the decision for an intervention was made by the leadership of the Russian Federation. The Mission is not in a position to consider as sufficiently substantiated the Georgian claim concerning a large-scale Russian military incursion into South Ossetia before 8 August 2008. However, there are a number of reports and publications, including of Russian origin, indicating the provision by the Russian side of training and military equipment to South Ossetian and Abkhaz forces prior to the August 2008 conflict. Additionally there seems to have been an influx of volunteers or mercenaries from the territory of the Russian Federation to South Ossetia through the Roki tunnel and over the Caucasus range in early August, as well as the presence of some Russian forces in South Ossetia, other than the Russian JPKF battalion, prior to 14.30 hours on 8 August 2008. Also it seems that the Russian air force started its operations against Georgian targets, including those outside South Ossetian administrative boundaries, already in the morning of 8 August, i.e. prior to the time given in the Russian official information."

The message seems to be that there was an ongoing covert Russian paramilitary or military invasion of Georgia before the war's start (naturally denied by Russia). Should have Tbilisi reacted, as it did, militarily or not?

More: EU Report On 2008 War Tilts Against Georgia [rferl.org]

#GEORGIANWINE: The first Qvevri Marani and Museum is opening on the grounds of the Plumpton Agricultural College, Wine department - 7th of April 2 pm

Press release. Written by Mako Abashidze

Building Qvevries in Plumpton, UK, Photo: Mako Abashidze

First Qvevri Marani and the Georgian Traditional Winemaking Museum shall be launched in the UK. This project is supported by the Plumpton Agricultural College Wine Department.

The Museum of the Qvevri History and Traditional Georgian Winemaking is sponsored by the SHUMI Winery.

SHUMI winery is sending the artefacts and the Qvevri winemaking tools for the museum display and shall be curating the exhibition.

Henry Mchedlishvili, Georgian by origin, living in Britain since 90th, founder and the Director of the Artisan Cru winery (first English Qvevri Wine), has started to work on this exciting project 18 month ago. Harvest from 2017 had an excellent results- “Artisan Cru” wines are now listed in London restaurants and boutique wine shops.

“For me it’s a great responsibility and honour to work with the Plumpton College wine department. Plumpton Marani is unique collaboration of traditional Georgian Qvevri method wine production from English grapes.” Henry Mchedlishvili, Founder, Artisan Cru.

The Museum sponsored by the “SHUMI WINERY” and the Marani shall be open for the public visits; guests shall have an opportunity to taste SHUMI qvevri wines as well as an Artisan Cru English Qvevri Wines and the Plumpton wines made from the local grapes.

Main purpose of this project is to promote traditional Georgian winemaking technology in the UK and worldwide and to give opportunity to wine department students to learn about the ancient Georgian Qvevri winemaking history. This project is managed and supported by the British Georgian Chamber of Commerce and the National Georgian Wine Agency.

The official opening of the SHUMI Sponsored museum of the Qvevri and Traditional Georgian Wine Making is scheduled in April 2019.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 15th of January, 2019, between the Artisan Cru, Plumpton College and The British Georgian Chamber of Commerce.

Principal at the Plumpton College, Jeremy Kerswell visited the Marani, expressed his support and enthusiasm about this project and signed the MoU.




Photo by Mako Abashidze

As a part of this project Plumpton College is planning to launch a winemaking scholarship through which a year 2 Plumpton BSc (Hons) Viticulture and Oenology student will be selected to carry out a vintage in a SHUMI winery in the following harvest. During the Plumpton student’s stay in Georgia, he/she will link up with a Georgian wine student (subject to the SHUMI selection process). The two students will return together to Plumpton by the beginning of October, and make wine in the Plumpton Marani under the supervision of Sarah Midgley, Plumpton’s winemaker. The Georgian student will be invited to attend classes at Plumpton free of charge.

Importance of the project:

Plumpton Marani and the Qvevri Museum is a unique opportunity for the students of the winemaking department to learn about the Georgian qvevri method, which had been added to the world heritage list of the UNESCO.

This is an excellent opportunity to promote and educate students and visitors about the Georgian Traditional Wine making.

Facts about the Plumpton College Wine Department

Plumpton College Wine Department is a leading educational body in the UK.

The transformation of Plumpton from a small agricultural college to a training ground on the international wine map has taken place alongside the growth in both reputation and commercial prospects of English wine.

A high proportion of the undergraduates and postgraduates at the Plumpton College Wine Centre are people seeking to switch careers and move to the wine industry.

History

Plumpton College started offering wine production courses in 1988 with the arrival of Chris Foss, the current Wine Division Manager. Chris’ mother is from Bordeaux and his family had a vineyard in the Entre-Deux-Mers region. When he first arrived, there were only two rows of vines, and Chris started teaching six students in a classroom located in the Poultry Department, making wine in Demi-Johns with bought-in grapes.

The Wine Division now has four principal activities: Four full-time undergraduate courses in wine business and production (delivered in association with the University of Brighton) attended by over 100 students. These are the only undergraduate courses in wine delivered in the UK, and the only such courses delivered in English in Europe. 20% of students come from outside the UK and graduates can be found in many wine-producing areas, all over the world.

The WineSkills industry training project, delivering courses all over the UK to around 500 students a year. These consist of the highly successful Principles of Vine growing and Principles of Winemaking programmes and one-day workshops and masterclasses. The latter are delivered by experts with international reputations.

A commercial wine production facility, Plumpton Wine Estate, producing around 30 000 bottles of wine a year in a fully equipped commercial winery, from 8 hectares of vineyard, much of it recently planted.

More: Traditional Georgian Winemaking Museum and 8,000-year-old heritage introduced in Plumpton. Posted on March 26, 2019 by Tamar Chikviladze

SHORTFILM: Dinola - film which are based on a true story in Georgia Svaneti. By Mariam Khatchvani

Director Mariam Khatchvani
Film Producer Vladimer Kacharava

In the cold mountains of Georgia, a widow is forced to marry another man and leave her life and child behind.

Dinola is a child living in the village of Ushguli, in Georgia. Her father has just died, and the whole village is taking part in the funeral ceremonies. Her little friend asks if her mother has already left, but the girl says no, and doesn’t even understand why she would do such a thing. In fact, though, that’s the cruel fate that awaits her: as per the local tradition, the first man to forcibly impose his will to marry the widow, will have every right to take her away – and the child will be left behind, alone and abandoned.

Based on the true experience of director Mariam-Bakacho Khatchvani (მარიამ ხაჭვანი)’s grandmother, this short film wants to give a voice to the lives of thousands of women in the region of Svaneti, Georgia, one of the remotest parts of the continent, where, until only fifty years ago, this cycle of abandonment was repeated continuously. In addition to being an act of social protest, Dinola also opens a window onto places unknown to most people, uncovering traditions and customs that have hardly ever been narrated to an international audience.

This foray into a new world is unsettling and fascinating at the same time: the blinding white of the snow-covered landscape and the stark contrast of the medieval houses that stand dark upon it are visually striking. It takes just a few frames to feel the atmosphere of this hard and traditional people, witnessed in a solemn moment of mourning, all wearing dark clothes and accepting their inescapable reality in a dignified silence.

It’s the personal and participated yet highly stylized direction that raises this short above the usual account of social issues. It ‘s rare to find this kind of careful historical and social reconstruction combined with such a unique aesthetic. We take part in the excruciating pain of the mother, we are moved by the despair of the abandoned child who tries to follow in the footsteps of her mother in the midst of the snow, but we are also overwhelmed by the beauty of the place that’s presented before our eye, an almost alien land that appears to be suspended in time.

Dinola, presented in competition in many international festivals, was recently nominated for Best Short Film at the European Film Awards. This film is another example of the power that lies in the short film medium, managing to convey information about traditions and showing remote places almost completely unknown to most people.

We interviewed the director to find out more about this world and what inspired her to tell this story.

Hi Mariam, can you tell us more about the ‘Svanish Law’ you mention at the end of the film? Is it still in effect?

There used to be a tradition that if a woman became a widow, she had to get married to whatever man asked to marry her, regardless of love or her free will, because had she refused to, the man would threaten to kill her family. If the woman got married for a second time against her will, the dead husband’s family would not allow her to take her child with her, because they didn’t want their grandchild to grow up with another family, as it was considered absolutely shameful in the village. Dinola takes place about 80 years ago, when my grandmother was a child, but this ‘law’ was still in effect until about 40-50 years ago, and now things have changed – but not so much.

So the story portrayed in Dinola is very personal to you, is it exactly what happened to your grandmother? Yes, this story is about my grandmother. When she was a child, her mother left her and when she woke up and was looking for her mother, she went outside barefoot on the snow and followed her mother’s footprints crying. When she told me her story, it was so shocking to me that I decided to make a film as close to an actual documentary as possible, to show the real difficulties in the mother-children relationship that time, because it was the same for everyone living in that area…That’s why when I was a shooting the short I did my best to put real emotions into the film. My grandmother is 90 years old now and when she saw Dinola, she told me that she found it very funny that the child in the film is wearing socks, as she was barefoot…

What are your motivations as a filmmaker?

I wanted to show the world how interesting my culture is, because no one knows about Svaneti, where I was born, even some Georgians…

What are your plans for the future? Are you gonna make a feature film inspired by Dinola?

I am working on the feature film project, DEDE, it will be focused on the woman’s life. It’ll be like a counterpart to Dinola, and the main character will be the mother of the child. The movie will be about love, traditions and the crazy, interesting and difficult life in Ushguli. Located in Svaneti, the mountainous area of Georgia, Ushguli is called the hat of Europe, because it’s the highest settlement in this continent, you can feel like touching the sky, winter lasts eight months and at during that time roads are blocked, and people became ruthless because of this strict environment and extreme conditions. I will start shooting in August, I’ll cover four seasons in the film, I want to make it like a documentary, with regular people from the area, not actors, to achieve more realism as possible. My village is the so beautiful, it is a paradise for me and this is why I think the Ushgulians never leave the area despite the hard life.

Flavia Ferrucci (Source: goodshortfilms.it/dinola)

In deutsch: filmfestivalcottbus.de

VIDEO: The Gokieli Sisters Duo - Elisabed Gokieli (flute) and Anano Gokieli (piano) are playing Carl Reinecke, Francis Poulenc and Otar Taktakishvili

Carl Reinecke: Sonate e-moll "Undine". IV- Finale

Francis Poulenc: Sonate pour flûte (flûte et piano). III.Presto Giocoso

Otar Taktakishvili: Sonata for flute & piano. II mov (ოთარ თაქთაქიშვილი. სონატა ფლეიტისა და ფორტეპიანოსთვის. მე-2 ნაწილი )

VIDEO: "The Last Jew in the Village". By Rufat Asadov

"Последний еврей в деревне" (Russian version): https://youtu.be/JlBEKoFt59g



Abandoned village. This is a village founded by mountain Jews in Azerbaijan in the 19th century. There is a Jewish cemetery near the village. An old man is working at the grave. He is watering a sapling and wiping the grave-stone. This is Meyer. He is the only Jew who stays in the village. There are his father's house, a small plot of earth and a household... He knows everything about this village. He remembers the persecution of the rabbinate in Soviet time, and the troubles of the 1941-1945 wartime, and the post-War years. He is a real living history of this village, and the only nexus between the Past of this Jewish village and the Present time. His parents and his wife and his neighbours as well are buried in this cemetery. He is all time looking after the graves, for they are not to be overgrown with weed and the grave-stones are not to be destroyed... He knows the life story of every Jew buried here indeed!

ELECTRONICS: Gogi Dzodzuashvili - Without You

Gogi Dzodzuashvili is one of the most famous and talented Georgian musicians. He produces music mostly under name Post Industrial Boys. Current track is not part of any of his albums.



This fantastic sound was done by greatest Georgian music artist Gogi Dzodzuashvili, specially for magic fashion show of Lasha Devdariani & Guga Kotetishvili in Rooms Hotel/Tbilisi. 11.10.2014.

PUBLIC LECTURE: Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus regional office presents: Florian Mühlfried's "Moments of mistrust in South Caucasus". via @Boell_SC

On December 7, 2018, Heinrich Boell Foundation's South Caucasus organized a public lecture with social anthropologist Florian Muehlfried.

Moments of mistrust in South Caucasus is his article, published at Heinrich Boell Foundation's website. You can read the article here: Moments of Mistrust in the South Caucasus [ge.boell.org]

Facebook: facebook.com/hbf.caucasus

Twitter: twitter.com/Boell_SC

Website: ge.boell.org

VIDEO: Whetstone Presents - Wild Grapes - GeorgianWine from Giorgi Natenadze

Wild Grapes is a vinous journey through the Republic of Georgia, the birthplace of wine, presented in three distinct acts. For more than 8,000 years, wine has permeated Georgian culture, and Wild Grapes, hosted by Whetstone founder and former sommelier Stephen Satterfieldrfield, is an exploration of the ways in which this considerable legacy has endured throughout the millennia.



Whetstone Founder Stephen Satterfield visits the Republic of Georgia, the cradle of wine, to explore its origins and the ways in which it continues to permeated the culture today.

More: Whetstone PRESENTS: Wild Grapes [whetstonemedia.co]

Our debut film, Wild Grapes is a vinous journey through the Republic of Georgia, the birthplace of wine, presented in three distinct acts. For more than 8,000 years, wine has permeated Georgian culture, and Wild Grapes, hosted by Whetstone founder and former sommelier Stephen Satterfield, is an exploration of the ways in which this considerable legacy has endured throughout the millennia.

Act 1: About 45 minutes north of the Turkish border, we visit Giorgi Natenzahe, a preservationist and winemaker stewarding a 400 year-old grape vine, the oldest known in the world that continues to produce wine.

In Act 2 we travel to Pankisi Gorge, a Muslim village on the Chechen border at the valley floor of the Caucasus Mountains. at Leila’s Guesthouse, a local b+b, we eat extraordinary Chechen cuisine prepared by the talented namesake proprietor, Leila Achishvili. During the stay, she describes the region’s complex history as a recruitment hub for Islamic militants, including a devastating story about the loss of her own sons.

In Act 3 we visit the village of Lagodekhi to experience the most quitessecitial of all Georgian holidays, Easter Sunday. In Georgia, the holiday is commemorated with successive days of feasting culminating with a cemetery picnic in which the entire village comes to celebrate with friends and family past and present.