Juris Podnieks. independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/arts--something-for-everyone-juris-podnieks-was-the-film-makers-film-maker-brave-tireless-driven-by-the-urge-to-bear-witness-to-the-inhumanity-of-the-soviet-system-a-channel-4-season-of-his-work-shows-that-he-was-also-extremely-gifted-1491369.html Vija asked me yesterday: How did he die? when I was telling her for 100th time of the story of Latvias fight for Independence and the Riga Barricades (https://youtube/watch?v=fm_ZD50KqqE&list=PLF27A9A47C5F6B3D1) and the cameramen (who died in the fight) of Juris Podnieks. One year after Latvia regained its Independence, Podnieks died. Its 22 years, and I still feel pain that this man is dead, and by so simple of an accident as a scuba diving accident. I was already well-acquainted with Podnieks from a copy of his documentary: Do You Hear Us? (jps.lv/en/4/45/), which my relatives had painstakingly given my family in the later 80s. Juris Podnieks, who documented Soviet atrocities in places which no one had the courage to document, and then died so simply while diving in a lake. Or so I thought. When I searched with the help of Google, I learned that Podnieks death was not as simple as my Riga travel guide told me some years ago. He went diving, yes. His son was in the boat while he dived. He drowned, maybe. His body was found 8 days later. His scuba equipment was found to be defective. There was an investigation that lasted many years. Then the records of the investigation vanished. Some people think that the Soviet Omon (Black Berets) had something to do with it, since Podnieks so successfully filmed them. Some think that his successful film business created some enemies. And interestingly (to me, that is), the Wikipedia that has the most info on Podnieks is not the Latvian version or the English version, but the Russian version. Maybe the new reality I learned of his death fits the man better, but its still painful. We need people like this in the world.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 04:57:51 +0000