Short Film Series Screening – Helsinki Outsider Art Festival

Tickets

Cost: Free
Find tickets: here

Agenda:
5:25 PM - 5:30 PM Opening words
- Karjalaine iäni (Karelian Voice)
Directed by Anne Kalliola
- Kylä (The Village)
Directed by Mika Ruohola
- You Look Like a Thought From the Past
Directed by Miska Tuononen
- GEN Z - trilogia (GEN Z - trilogy)
Directed by Kati Kallio & Dance Group Ihanat
6:55 PM - 7:00 PM Closing words

The film screening presents four film-makers from Finland: Mika Ruohola, Kati Kallio, Anne Kalliola and Miska Tuononen. OAF’s inclusive artistic team has curated a collection of short films featuring Finnish outsider arts from Helsinki City suburbs to Karelian rural areas. In addition, the films highlight various artistic approaches and storytelling techniques by performance arts, silent film, poetry and dance. The event includes online artists meet & greet after the films and the films are also accessible online on OAF Online Stage at https://outsiderart.fi/en/online-stage-en/

*Please note: Films are in English or in Finnish with English subtitles

Film-makers / Artists:
Kylä (Mika Ruohola) Mika Ruohola is a journalist and movie maker from Vantaa. Kylä (Town) is Ruohola’s second film. It tells the story of Puu-Vallila, the old art of the Vallila district of Helsinki that is still filled with wooden buildings. Kylä delves deep into Puu-Vallila’s rich history and its endangered condition.

GEN Z - trilogia (Kati Kallio & Ihanat-tanssiryhmä) Kati Kallio & Dance Group Ihanat (“The lovelies”). The series of short dance movies called GEN-Z stars young disabled dance artists Sofia Johansson, Vappu Virkkula and Minttu Heinonen. The movie project is a joint effort of Riina Hannuksela and Elisa Lejeune, who lead the dance ensemble Ihanat, and the dance artist and movie director Kati Kallio. At the centre of the project is enabling the young dancers to participate in the creation of the work all the way from writing to performing.
GEN-Z diversifies our understanding of this particular generation by bringing forth dancers who rarely have the chance to represent their generation. In the films, these dancers come to be seen in the way they want to be seen. The movies aim to break the stereotypical understanding of dancers and they offer relatable role models to everyone, but especially to young people like Vappu, Sofia and Minttu.

Karjalaine iäni (Anne Kalliola) Anne Kalliola is a photographer, videographer and graphic designer, who has explored Karelian identities before in her project Katoamispiste (fading point), which deals with transgenerational memory. At the festival, we will see Kalliola’s new film series, Karjalaine iäni (The Karelian Voice), that explores the realities of being a young Karelian person in Finland today. The Karelians are a cultural and, in some cases, linguistic minority traditionally residing in eastern Finland and western Russia. Karelians and speakers of the Karelian language have been in Finland for as long as Finns, but their culture and language have received no legal recognition. Both the culture and the language are endangered, and the Karelian community, including young people, are continuously working to revitalize the Karelian language and raise awareness of the Karelian culture.

The film series is comprised of five short movies that depict five stages of finding one’s Karelian identity: Homecoming (kotihmyöštymini), searching (ečindä), pain (kibu), community (yhtehistö) and pride (ylbevys). The original idea for the film war was born when members of the organization Karjalaiset Nuoret Šuomešša – Karjalazet Nuoret Suomes (Karelian Youth in Finland) got together and wanted to create something, from youth to youth. Maura Häkki, Milla Tynnyrinen and Sivi Ihalainen collected texts from young Karelians and compiled them into five stories. The short movies star young Karelians and are, all in all, made for Karelians by Karelians. Häkki is known for their Karelian activism on TikTok. Tynnyrinen works in the Karelian language revitalization project of the University of Eastern Finland and as a part-time language teacher in an adult education centre. Ihalainen dreams of writing a book in the Karelian language."

You Look Like a Thought From the Past (Miska Tuononen) Miska Tuononen is an emerging transgender writer and director. His films are filled with vintage aesthetics, vivid colours and a great sense of beauty. The use of dialogue in his films is often minimal or non-existent. The films of Tuononen convey strong messages of life, environment and inner healing with little words and plenty of feeling.

Tuononen has presented his short films in several movie festivals abroad and in Finland at festivals like The Silent Movie Festival of Forssa, Kettupäivät, Digital Art Festival at Kuopio and at the Uneton48 competition.
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