International Students Made a Documentary on Lithuania

VMU students of the course on Integrating Oral History in Journalism have made a documentary titled Dreams for Lithuania, which is a positive look at the future of Lithuania.

The students were supervised by the course’s lecturer Prof. Dr. Robert Van Voren. “I think the outcome is fantastic and very much worth watching. It is a positive message from Lithuania in a time when news is often so gloomy and depressing”, the professor said.

The film‘s authors, international students Nienke Bos (Netherlands) and Junhyup Kwon (South Korea), interviewed a number of Lithuanians, including VMU Assoc. Prof. Audronė Nugaraitė, author of the project Jauna Opera (Young Opera) Žilvinas Tarvydas, organizer of Baltic Pride Vytautas Valentinavičius and others.

The interviewees complimented Lithuania for its beautiful nature but said it could be more open-minded, both in politics and in social life. According to Prof. Dr. Audronė Nugaraitė, in the future we should uphold the same values we do now. “The main things important to our community are to be moral, trustworthy, respectable, etc. I hope that it’s not a thing of the past, it must be in the future as well”, the lecturer shared her hopes.

Rolandas Vytautas Lingys, guide at the Kaunas 9th Museum, noted that many Lithuanians oppose globalisation, but we should become open-minded and tolerant in the future, just like the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was several centuries ago. “My dream is a multicultural and open-minded country. And it‘s not so unusual for Lithuania, because from the historical perspective, it was that kind of country in the 17th century, with lots of cultures living together”, Lingys explained.