THE MAMMOTH HUNT
In-Person Screening: Thursday, November 7, 7 pm
Director Aistė Stonytė will present a Q&A following the screening.
Virtual Screenings: November 8-17
The Mammoth Hunt (Mamutų medžioklė)
Aistė Stonytė, 94 min, Lithuania 2024
In Lithuanian with English subtitles
New York Premiere
In 1968 Lithuania, the collapse of the communist regime is still 21 years away — but dissent is already growing. In that year, acclaimed theater director Jonas Jurašas directs a scandalous, avant-garde, allegorical and thinly-veiled anti-Soviet production entitled “The Mammoth Hunt.” The performances play to packed houses, until word gets back to Moscow. Soon the play is condemned as anti-Soviet and abolished from the repertoire, leading Jarasas and his family to leave the country for America (eventually to Sarasota) to continue his career. But within its cancellation is another act of defiance — two months after its final performance, a cast locks themselves within the theater to film the play. Filmmaker Aistė Stonytė’s The Mammoth Hunt revisits the history of the production, gathering recollections from its surviving participants and attempting to track down the secretly recorded film, while also following Jurasas’ new life in the U.S. and his return to Lithuania in a post-Soviet world. In doing so, Stonytė tells an incredible story of creativity, bravery, and the life of a talented theater director.
Festival & Awards History
Silver Crane award for Best Documentary at the Lithuanian National Film Awards
Director bio:
Aistė Stonytė was born in Lithuania. She holds a BA in Journalism and an MA in Public Relations at Vilnius University and a second MA is in Directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She is currently studying for her PhD at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Aistė has created over 300 portraits of the most famous Lithuanian cultural figures for the Lithuanian National Television. These series have won numerous awards for the best cultural series in Lithuania. In 2024, she released her first feature-length documentary, The Mammoth Hunt, which won the Silver Crane for Best Documentary at the Lithuanian National Film Awards.