The Waterfowl People (Veelinnurahvas)

Veelinnurahvas - The people of the water bird

Directed by Lennart Meri
A documentary about the history and linguistic ties of the Finno-Ugric, and Samoyedic peoples. Speakers of the Kamassian, Nenets, Khanty, Komi, Mari, and Karelian languages were filmed in their everyday settings 50 years ago. The footage was shot in Altai Krai, the Nenets Okrug, Khantia-Mansia, Uzbekistan, the Komi Republic, Mari el, Karelia, and Estonia. The first documentary in Lennart Meri’s “Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Gentium Fenno – Ugricarum”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2637876

The exhibition presents photographs of Lennart Meri’s travels to Finno-Ugric peoples between 1969 and 1988 and recollections of Enn Säde, sound designer of four of Meri’s films, interspersed by Meri’s own comments. The designer is Peeter Laurits.

Lennart Meri’s (1929–2006) mission was to tell the ancient story of Estonians and their kindred peoples, seeking an answer to the question of who we are, where we are coming from, and where we are heading. “Silverwhite”, published in 1976, discusses the past of the Estonians and Baltic-Finnic peoples.

Films about our kindred peoples: “The Waterfowl People” (1970), “The Winds of the Milky Way” (1977), “The Sounds of Kaleva” (1985), “The Sons of Torum” (1989), and “Shaman” (1977/1997). These were perhaps the first internationally acclaimed films about Finno-Ugric peoples, introducing their ancient customs, rituals, folk poetry, and ethnography, and suggest exciting hypotheses. The film groups, consisting of ethnographers, folklorists, artists, and writers traveled to Finno-Ugric peoples between 1969 and 1988.
https://estinst.ee/en/fotonaitus-veelinnurahvas-lennart-meri-filmirannakud-1969-1988-tamperes.