What do a brain scientist, an MP and a standup comic have in common?

On September 25, 2013, I teamed up with a brain scientist, a member of parliament, an architect, a standup comic, a prison official and a few others to talk about “borders” in Estonian society and how we can bridge them. Despite the speakers’ varied backgrounds, they all had a fresh perspective to share that stemmed from their own discipline and life experience. And our standup comic host, Stewart Johnson, kept us laughing all the way through!

Member of Parliament Liisa Pakosta questions assumptions

The event was the first in a series of seminars that is being put on by Estonia’s U.S. government exchange alumni NGO with fresh perspectives on social, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary issues. These alumni have participated in U.S. State Department funded exchanges such as Fulbright and the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) and are now teaming up to stimulate discussion in Estonian society on hot topics. The whole event felt like a TED Talk with short, intense presentations, lots of audience participation and cameras everywhere to capture the action.

Audience members kept the Q&A sessions lively 

The seminar kicked off with Jaan Aru (a neurosciences researcher at Tartu University) who proposed we cut open someone’s skull to examine where consciousness begins. Despite no volunteers from the audience he went on to talk about what is known and unknown about the human brain. He was followed by IVLP alumnus and Member of Parliament Liisa Pakosta who questioned our ideas of whether maternity leave and bans on youth labor are really the best thing for families and children. In the last talk of the morning, Fulbright Student alumnus and architect Ivan Sergejev discussed how buildings and built spaces create or bridge boundaries between people.

Neuroscientist Jaan Aru asks where consciousness begins 

The afternoon kicked off with IVLP alumnus and director of the Tartu Center for Creative Industries Raul Oreskin, who talked about the butterfly effect and how Estonian society can change as a result of small but impactful inputs. Mathematician Kristjan Korjus challenged the audience’s ideas about god, the brain and mathematics. And finally, Prison Department official and Humphrey Fellowship program alumnus Anne-Marika Maschorov talked about her work crossing borders and breaking stereotypes as a woman professional working in correction.

I was impressed with the range of topics and passion that our speakers brought to the dais, but the audience’s (mostly university students) enthusiasm was also contagious. By the end of the day, people were pretty exhausted, yet we’d all learned a whole lot more about our world, Estonia and the borders that we can overcome together. To learn more about the U.S. Embassy’s exchange programs and how you can apply, visit our website.


Blog post by Assistant Public Affairs Officer Alison Davis

American Documentary Takes Prize at Nature Film Festival

During Autumn, Matsalu National Park is a special kind of place. Moose roam around, wildlife is abundant and bird migrations are underway with crane calls and the chatter of gathering flocks in the Matsalu bay and reed beds. The air is full of the golden glow of birch trees preparing for the long winter.

Photo by Ago Ruus, Matsalu Nature Film Festivals, www.matsalufilm.ee

But last week it wasn’t only Mother Nature who was putting on a great show in Matsalu, the park also hosted the Matsalu International Nature Film Festival, in its 11th annual installment. For more than 10 years the park has also been a special place for nature documentary film makers and enthusiasts and this year was no exception! More than 280 entries came from 60 countries, of which 30 films were accepted for competition in two categories: Nature and Man and nature. This event has clearly arrived on the international map of film festivals. More than 10 films from the United States from a diverse group of American film makers made it into the program and we are proud to congratulate one American filmmaker, Director Sandy Patch, who won 1st prize in the category of Man and Nature. His movie “The Last Ice Merchant” was praised by the jury for showing the global implications of a changing world in a simple and humane way.

I really enjoyed being on hand for the launch of this year’s festival which featured performances by local musicians and a screening of a documentary on the life of Jacques Cousteau. To attend the opening night we travelled to the small western Estonian town of Lihula which is located on the edge of Matsalu National Park with a population of approximately 2500 and a history dating back to 1211. Films were also screened in Haapsalu, and the best documentaries were screened on the national broadcast TV channel, ETV, much to the delight of many nature fans in Estonia.

Film festivals are not only about the movies – the program also featured many workshops, educational programs and also an Earth Day exhibition on loan from the U.S. Embassy at the Lihula Library. On the first day of the festival, school kids gathered for the screening of a documentary about the lives of owls, followed by an owl-drawing workshop. The children’s whimsical owl drawings were then exhibited at screening venues in Lihula.

It’s great that I get to attend film festival’s like Matsalu as part of my job, but our partnership with Matsalu International Nature Film Festival speaks to something bigger: treasuring nature and our environment – something we all care deeply about. I hope to see you at the festival in 2014!

Post by Jane Susi, Cultural/Educational Assistant