ARTISTIC FREEDOM, CENSORSHIP AND SELF - CENSORSHIP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY OF LATVIA

Abstract

The concept of censorship associates with authoritarian regime; however, it is not unequivocally, i.e., also in a democratic country there may be obstacles that create barriers for artistic self-expression and limit the artistic process by stimulating the topicality of self-censorship. Also, in Latvia the parliamentary democracy creates legal framework that formally excludes the ideological censorship of creative process and artistic creativity. Simultaneously, the society’s attitude towards artistic expressions, as well as dominant ideologic values among various groups of society and within the country may create critically condemnatory or supportive framework for certain expressions of art. The main aim of this article is to find out how the artists of today comprehend and explain manifestations of artistic freedom, censorship, and self-censorship in Latvia nowadays. Eighteen in-depth interviews involving the Latvian directors of the films were conducted in the framework of FARP “The art of nationalism: Social solidarity and exclusion in contemporary Latvia”. In general, the study (1) reveals multi-shaped manifestations of censorship in the creative activities and dominant conditions in which it forms; (2) allows to follow up the sources of self-censorship for artistic activity, and (3) draws conclusions on the conditions and barriers of creative freedom in Latvian society.