Estonia joins euro club in New Year
BBC – DEPOPULATION IN LATVIA
Duration: 2:47
August, 2010
Reporter – Damien McGuinness
Camera, edit – Janis Laizans
Client – BBC World News
PACKAGE FOR FRANCE 24 – HAPPY FINNS
Duration: 2:32
Helsinki, Finland
September, 2010
Reporter – Markus Meyer
Camera, edit – Janis Laizans
Client – France 24
EURONEWS, 2.11.2009
Twenty years after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, today Latvians are facing another battle… for economic survival.
Reporter: Valerie Zabriskie
Sound: Gunta Gasuna
Camera: Janis Laizans
THE XINHUA NEWS AGENCY, 28.07.2009
Title: New Wave Festival, Latvia
Duration: 2:20
Jurmala, Latvia, 2009
Camera, edit – Janis Laizans
Client – Xinhua News Agency
CNN Back Story of My iReport 16.03.2009
iReport for CNN 10.03.2009
RIOT IN RIGA
Hundreds of youths destroyed police vehicles, smashed windows and looted stores in Latvia’s capital on January 13 when an anti-government protest turned into a riot.
The violence, after a peaceful protest by thousands calling for early elections in a country which last year had to seek a multi-billion economic rescue deal, was the worst seen since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
Title: Riot In Riga
Duration: 4:15
Riga, Latvia, 2009
Camera, edit – Janis Laizans
Client – Thomson Reuters
ICE HOTEL
Made entirely out of ice, it is located in the village of Jukkasjarvi, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. The unspoiled nature that surrounds the Ice Hotel creates magnificent impression of a palace. The River Torn flows through this unique wilderness, covered with a meter thick ice layer. It is the best source of clear ice for the art and design that originates here. The Ice Hotel itself spans over some 4 000 square meters.
Every year the Ice Hotel is built differently. Various artists come each year to create ice art, and to design and built special ice apartments, in order to welcome the first visitors in December. From mid April, the Ice Hotel roof starts to drip. By the first of may, the hotel is closed.
Title: Weekend in Ice Hotel
Duration: 4:48
Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, 2007
Director, camera, edit – Janis Laizans
Text – Anna Vekmane; Voice – Charles Fletcher
Client – Northener Scandinavia AB – Weekend In Europe
LA TOMATINA
Once a year, the little village of Buñol, near Valencia, experiences its ‘hour of fame’ with the la Tomatina festival.
Tomatina is an annual tomato fight held on the last Wednesday of August and is a tradition, which started around the 1940s as a bit of friendly banter between friends. In the following years this practice was banned by the authorities, but due to popular demand was given official recognition in 1959. It has since become the world’s biggest food-throwing party.
Title: Tomatina Festival
Duration: 5:19
Buñol, Spain, 2007
Director, camera, edit – Janis Laizans
Text – Zane Lapsa; Voice – Charles Fletcher
Client – Northener Scandinavia AB – Weekend In Europe
STAG WKND
STORY: It’s time now when British stag parties cross also the new EU member states. Latva’s capital Riga is not an exception. Authorities of Riga and Latvia are embarrassed about the huge number of Britons over the weekends. The cheap airlines have doubled their number. On the flight of Friday evening 80 % of passengers are men, 90% of them already being quite dizzy. The discussions have arisen within the society- how those tourists distort the image of Latvia? Is sex tourism flourishing in Latvia? In searching for answers some people conclude that stag parties create problems for Britons themselves and their image, not for Riga. As Latvia is neither the first nor the last country over which the drunken Britons hurtle over.
Title: Stag Wknd
Duration: 3:10
Riga, Latvia, 2005
Janis Laizans - director, camera, edit
Client – n/a
