Making Waves’s Creative Freedom Through Cinema program continues to examine the relationship between art and politics in Eastern Europe, with a spotlight this year on films from Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. Georgia is experiencing something of a cinematic renaissance thanks to recent festival hits Blind Dates and In Bloom, whereas Moldova is a place rarely seen on screen—although it has given us Oleg Mutu, one of the most acclaimed cinematographers in the world, who has worked with such esteemed directors as Cristian Mungiu and Sergei Loznitsa. Both countries are represented in this year’s program with films about survival in the harshest conditions: George Ovashvili’s Corn Island, winner of the top prize in Karlovy Vary, and Igor Cobileanski’s The Unsaved, which benefits from Mutu’s impressive camerawork. Moldovan director Pavel Cuzuioc (whose documentary Digging for Life screened here in 2011) will present his brand new short Raisa featuring Cristina Flutur (Beyond the Hills). Special thanks to the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

The screenings will be accompanied by a panel conversation with filmmaker Pavel Cuzuioc and political scientist and Georgia expert Lincoln Mitchell, moderated by documentary filmmaker and human rights activist Mona Nicoară.