Before Flying Back TO THE Earth
- Before Flying Back TO THE Earth
A poetic, unsentimental film about the resilience of the human spirit 
- Author about the film
“Anybody setting out the journey in the children’s hospital starts it here and in the similar way. The first examination, waiting, a folder full of documents and a trip up to the third floor. In the beginning, everyone, consciously or not, tries to avoid the department on the third floor by getting lost in the labyrinth of the corridors or even pressing the wrong button in the elevator.
Yet, later on, nearly everyone will confirm the experience of my own and my family and agree that the cancer department was the place where not only the major hardships of our lives have awaited us, but also the place where we have spent our brightest and most meaningful days.
Days that we were given to get ready, hope and wait for our fateful flight:
- Back … Home … to Us …to the Earth”.
Arunas Matelis 
Awards
A selection photo from LA, Arunas Matelis in awards ceremony for the dox "Before Flying Back to the Earth" form Directors Guild of America
Winner dox - Arunas Matelis and presenter of award, Aaron Eckhartwww.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Av_kpJZAU&feature=related
Fiction winner master M.Scorsese with cinema grandee and presenters S.Spielberg and Di Caprio
A.Matelis even first time documentary by East and Central Europe filmmaker, received Directors Guild of America Award for The best DOC 2006
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngK3tLRPVSE&feature=related- “A testament to the power of documentary storytelling.” – Leipzig film festival jury statement
- "It's one of the very few films in the world, which received 10 awards within less than one year of screening"- Respublika, daily
- BEFORE FLYING BACK TO THE EARTH 2005
"Pries Parskrendant i Zeme"
(52' min, colour, digi betacam, stereo) - "Main awards in Amsterdam and Leipzig festivals for one documentary - it's the same like main awards in Cannes and Venice for the same fiction film. Such success have simply never happened"- Sergey Miroshnichenko, Emmy winning Russian director, presenting the film for the audience of Moscow film festival
- “Every detail is carefully chosen, composed and edited, constituting a great poetic work, full of emotion, love and respect.” – DOX Magazine
- "Matelis does not demand anything – just to have a glance beyond the limits of your personal world. The film makes you do that. And it is no longer possible to avert your eyes from that light.” - weekly “Literature and Art”
- a TAG/TRAUM production in coproduction with NOMINUM
and cooperation with ZDF/arte
supported by Filmstiftung NRW, Lithuanian Ministry of Culture,
Lithuanian Fund for Culture and Sports , Discovery CampusDirector Arūnas MatelisDirector of Photography Audrius Kemezys
Music by Kipras Masanauskas in coop. with Arunas Matelis
Editor Katharina Schmidt
Photos by Eglė Mėlinauskienė in association with A.Matelis , A,Kemezys Sound crew Jonas Maksvytisin association with Viktoras Juzonis
Assistants Director Mindaugas Mozūraitis , Giedrė Beinoriūtė, Gintas Smilga , Andrius Trukanas
Production manager Algimantė Matelienė
Line producer Cornelia Volmer
Producers Gerd Haag, Arūnas Matelis
Commissioning editor Doris Hepp
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