Gints Zilbalodis un Pēteris Tenisons

Gints Zilbalodis – the name behind the animated film Flow. And if you say Flow, you mean Gints Zilbalodis. Right now, the two are inseparable.

Gints Zilbalodis was born on 13 April 1994 in Riga. He is an animation artist, director, sound designer, and composer. At just 30 years old, he has already accomplished a great deal in his own distinctive way, having created nearly 10 animated short films. Among them are Priorities (2014), which was screened at 46 international film festivals and received an award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF); the short film Oasis (2017), which earned a Special Jury Prize at the National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps; and his first feature-length animated film Away (2019), which won the main award in the Feature Film Contrechamp category at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. He continues to find his own ways of doing things and speaks about the "freedom of a beginner" – the freedom that comes from working alone, distilling the unknown to its essence, and discovering how to resolve it. Later, when working in a team, this experience enables him to explain clearly and succinctly what is needed and how to achieve it. Today, Gints Zilbalodis has already received numerous awards, including some of the most prestigious – Lielais Kristaps, the César Award, the Golden Globe, and the Academy Award (Oscar). One might think – what more could there be? Yet this reinforces the belief that, going forward – whether working alone or, as in his latest animated film Flow, alongside a diverse team of specialists – whatever he creates will be a work of the highest artistic calibre.

Gints Zilbalodis was born into a family of artists spanning several generations. His father, Gints Zilbalodis, is a metal artist and designer; his grandfather, Indulis Zilbalodis, was a stained-glass artist and interior designer; and his great-grandfather, Roberts Zilbalodis, was a theatre set designer His mother, Dace Zēģele, is a painter.

Gints Zilbalodis studied at Janis Rozentāls Riga Art Secondary School, where he specialised in multimedia design. Remarkably, he created his first independent animated short film at the age of just eight. He has almost always worked alone, guided freely by his own observations, feelings, intuition, and experience. After completing art school and mastering the fundamentals of his specialty, he chose not to continue at the Art Academy of Latvia, where students are required to complete assignments in the order set by the instructors. Instead, he set out to work on the projects he chose, creating animated short films one after another. Guided by his own inner sense and conviction, he worked at his own pace, in his own way, using software available online, learning everything he needs by himself and creating every element of the film on his own – the characters, their relationships, the environment, the sounds, the music, and the story. Everything entirely in his own way. Without text, without dialogue, without explanations – at least so far, including Flow. In his next animated film, there will be text. Who knows what else awaits.

Pēteris Tenisons

Born on 18 October 1985 in Riga.

"[…] his responsibility was to work closely with the director to create the film's scenes – that is, to follow the script, construct the story on screen, arrange the environment, characters, and camera movements as a rough layout, which Belgian and French colleagues later worked on in detail during the animation process. In fact, Pēteris' work on this film was most directly connected to his ability to understand how Gints Zilbalodis thinks – a kind of stepping into his skin to realise the shots as the director imagined them," writes Ieva Augstkalna in Kino Raksti, offering her professional assessment. In fact, this reflects the entire making of Flow and the collaborative work under Gints Zilbalodis' direction. Everyone knows their role and their task, giving their all – sometimes even accomplishing what seems impossible – to achieve what the film requires: the shaping of characters and background, movement, shot composition, the texture of natural sounds and the musical score, and the visual and emotional structure of the film's overall narrative (without dialogue, without a single word!), including its rises, falls, and resolutions.

Pēteris Tenisons is a native of Riga, but he considers himself to have grown up in Dzērbene, Cēsis Municipality – amidst the beautiful, wide-open fields of Vidzeme, in close contact with nature, and through work with his parents at the Juveri home by Lake Juveris. Born into the family of artist Modris Tenisons, Pēteris attended a school with an English-language focus, while his brother and sister studied at a crafts school. At first, he had no intention of pursuing a career in art, although he had always drawn and redrawn on his own. By the time he finished secondary school, however, it was clear that he would study animation. He applied to a college in Canada, enrolled, and began studying 3D animation, but had to discontinue his studies due to financial constraints. Seizing the opportunity to continue his studies closer to home, he enrolled at a college of the University of Wales in the United Kingdom, where he studied screenwriting and other film-related disciplines. He earned a Bachelor's degree in screenwriting and visual semiotics. He then joined his brother, who was working in Cambodia at the time, and spent five years there with trackers of poachers and loggers, capturing extensive footage while travelling by motorcycle and helicopter. "I realised that there are no limitations or hierarchies one must obey […]. All opportunities are open – you can do anything you dare, if you're willing to put in the work," the artist admits. He proved this vividly by gathering and photographing materials to create, "from cover to cover", the national cookbook Culinary Traditions in Cambodia, which the royal family has used as a diplomatic gift and which was recognised as the best fundraising book in Asia (2014). Over time, he realised that, as exciting as these adventures were, they could not occupy his entire life. Pēteris Tenisons has now been back in Latvia for almost 10 years. He has a family and the responsibilities that come with it. Every free moment is spent together in Kuldīga, by the Venta River, and on the sandbanks of the Riežupe. "Being present, observing nature through the seasons and the years, is what I need. This isn't a story about fly fishing, but about how to spend time learning and cultivating the ability to truly see the world around you."

Pēteris has taught himself new technologies and a variety of software, creating works in three-dimensional environments. He has also achieved a great deal in graphic design, worked as a consultant on screenwriting and film post-production, designed brands, and created music videos. Among other projects, he designed the white T-shirts featuring the dark grey cat for the Flow team, created the film poster, and, together with Gints Zilbalodis, designed the Flow postage stamp and, most recently, a silver coin for Latvijas Banka.

Rūta Muižniece
Master of Arts