Mark Soosaar

Mark Soosaar (b. 1946) is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer of documentary films. He studied at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow from 1965 to 1970 and worked at Estonian Television and Eesti Telefilm from 1970 to 1978, where he created a dozen documentary films, including Golden Carriage, Kihnu Woman and Earthly Desires. From 1978 to 1991, he worked at Tallinnfilm, with notable works such as Estonia’s First Citizen and The Home of Butterflies. In 1987, he founded the Pärnu Documentary Film Festival. He has taught filmmaking in the USA, Mongolia, and Pärnu. Soosaar’s films have received international recognition, with retrospectives held in Paris, Berkeley and New York. He has been awarded the Order of the White Star, IV Class, and the French Order of Merit.