LT Kino 2026: Common Days – Lithuanian Home Movies, 1960–1970

A talk and screening exploring everyday life in Soviet-era Lithuania through rediscovered amateur and home movies.

Presented by Meno Avilys, the event will feature a selection of newly digitised Lithuanian amateur and home movies from the 1960s, introduced by Ona Kotryna Dikavičiūtė, curator, semiotician and Artistic Director of Meno Avilys, offering a rare glimpse into everyday life in Soviet-era Vilnius.

Shot on analogue 8mm film, these intimate recordings capture children playing in courtyards, families and friends gathering, walks through the city and trips to the countryside. Soviet monuments and propaganda posters appear alongside ordinary moments of daily life, revealing how people maintained a sense of community and created their own ways of living within the constraints of the system.

Shot on analogue 8mm cameras, the silent films will be accompanied by an original score composed by pianist and silent film accompanist Viktoras Orestas Vagusevičius. The screening features footage from the archives of Laimis Janutėnas, Albinas Šukelis, Gerimantas Tarvydas, and an unknown Vilnius family.

Guest presenting:
Ona Kotryna Dikavičiūtė is a curator, semiotician and researcher working with moving images and audiovisual heritage. She is the Artistic Director of Meno Avilys, an independent audiovisual culture and heritage organisation based in Vilnius, where she oversees the Cinematheque and a VOD platform dedicated to Lithuanian documentary cinema and early video art. Her curatorial and research work explores overlooked film histories, amateur filmmaking practices and the ways archival images offer alternative perspectives on personal and collective memory. (ltkino26)