Nordic Toolbox film programmes

NORDIC TOOLBOX film programme I: Finnish Shorts 105'
The most recent, eccentric, and awarded films from Finland.

The Death of an Insect (Erään hyönteisen tuho), Hannes Vartiainen, Pekka Veikkolainen , FI, 2010, animation/  documentary / experimental, 7’
In a lifeless urban landscape where time itself has stopped its crawl, a mad ballet is commencing and a newly hatched butterfly is about to die. This tragic story was constructed using dead insects gathered from forgotten attics and tool sheds, between window panels and cobwebs. It combines a number of animation techniques from classic stop-motion animation to animated 3D models of x-ray CT-scanned insects.

The Illustrated City, Jan Andersson, FI, 2010, animation, 5’
The story of a wall. The film was originally made as a video installation to be shown at an animation exhibition. It features a wall which is filled with graffitis and then painted over. Over and over again. The film about the unrelenting fighting against street art.

How to Pick Berries (Miten Marjoja Poimitaan), Elina Talvensaari, FI, 2010, documentary, 19’
Visitors from a distant place appear in the misty swamps of Northern Finland. The locals grow restless - things are changing, secret berry spots are revealed. How to Pick Berries is an exploration of Finnish mind and the absurdities of global economy.

Sweet Mov(i)e, Jan  Ijäs, FI, 2010, experimental, 4’
Opposit sexes move to impress each other.

The Patient (Potilas), Misko Iho, FI, fiction, 17’

Graveyard shift of a guard gets an unexpected turn when he's driven into a conversation with an unusual patient.

Rubens of the North (Siuruan Rubens), Erkki Määttänen, FI, 2010, documentary, 29’
Kari´s video art is inspired by swamps in the village of Siurua in Pudasjärvi, local housewifes and their back seam stockings. The award-winning carver now displays his art on the YouTube website. He has filmed a thousand internet videos which have got ove ten million views. The fact that there are dozens of fan clubs all over the world indicate how popular these stockings videos are. The film mogul of Siurua produces one art video a day for the net. Kari puts himself on the line by romping about in the squashy swamp with his models, and doing modelling himself in his cabin that functions as a film studio.

The Tongueling (Kielitiettyni), Elli Vuorinen, FI, 2010, animation, 4'
Wooden knocks are echoing in a frozen landscape when a lonesome man is searching for a tongueling of his own.
 

A Place to Stay, Jesse Jokela, FI, 2010, spēlfilma, 20’
A human explorer crash lands onto a new planet also inhabited by humans - our planet. The injured woman needs to quickly send an emergency signal from the forest, but she faints and wakes up in a local man's house.

 

Tuesday, May 24, 18:00, ĢIT
20.00 NORDIC TOOLBOX film programme II: Nordic Shorts 100’
Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Icelandic shorts in shocking, horrific, melancholic, and upbeat hues.

 

Meat (Skinke), Johan Knattrup Jensen, DK, 2010, fiction, 13’
Psychological horror film about jealousy.

Jarmo & Jorma, Koss Carolin Koss, FI, 2011, fiction, 15’
Jarmo & Jorma are bound  to each other and share their miserable boring lives in Österbotten, a region in Finland where nothing ever happens. They try half-hearted to make their lives more exciting and meaningful, but it just results in more trouble and meaninglessness. The desparate seeking for thrills eventually puts the last thing worth living for to the test - their friendship.

Learner, Jardar Solli, NO, 2010, fiction, 11’
The 19-year-old boy, Fredrik drives with his drunken mother and little brother on a mountain road. In the car, the silence is cold and Fredrik tries to light up the mood by talking to his little brother in the back seat. The mother is in a bad mood and starts to pick on Fredrik. They argue and Fredrik suddenly turns the wheel, so that the mom spills red wine on her clothes. She orders Fredrik to stop the car by a river. When she is out of the car, Fredrik has an opportunity to escape.

Repressed (Förträngd), Jimmy Olsson, SE, 2010, fiction, 15’
Kristoffer is on a night bus with his girlfriend and another couple. When a very drunk young couple go on the bus, it reveals something of Kristoffer he had repressed.

Wood of Value, Bjorn Bratberg NO, 2010, documentary, 16’
"Wood of value" is an observational documentary of a tree's journey from the forests of Norway to the metropolis of London. The annual tradition of transporting a Christmas tree across the North Sea has been running for more than 60 years in appreciation of British aid during the Second World War. The documentary depicts the journey and the people who assist the tree on its way.

Tord & Tord (Tord och Tord), Niki Lindroth von Bahr, SE, 2010, animation, 10’
Tord accidentally walks into the apartment next to his and discovers that Tord lives there, too. An adorable, animated, post-modern fable.

Gravity (Þyngdarafl), Logi Hilmarsson, IS, 2010, fiction, 19'
A tragi-comic film that deals with the concept of 'reality tunnels'. Superficially about friendship, love, space aliens, cocaine and being handicapped. Not necessarily in that order.

16.00 NORDIC TOOLBOX film programme III: Norwegian shorts 96’
The essence of Nordic gallows humour in a retrospective of Norwegian shorts.

Lonely Together (Alene Menn Sammen), Tround Fausa Aurvåg, NO, 2006, fiction, 14'
Thomas is being left by his girlfriend and becomes a victim of his own self-pity. When love suddenly appears in his life again, he realizes what it really is that he’s missing.

Eating Out, Pål Sletaune, NO, 1993, fiction, 4'
A black comedy about a man sitting alone in a rundown burgerjoint, enjoying his burnt fries and a burger. Suddenly a very extraordinary hold-up is disrupting the snackbar's owner in his cooking and the guest, who is right in the middle of his dinner...

Spandex Man, Bobbie Peers, NO, 2007, fiction, 14'
At the age of 35 Ben still works as a paperboy. In preparing for a reunion party he digs into the past and finds something that changes the future.

Merry Christmas (God jul), Eva Sørhaug, NO, 2002, fiction, 2'
Santa Claus is coming to town….

Roswell Enterprises, Janic F. Heen, NO, 2006, fiction, 10'
Christian (25) and William (24) are top graduates from elite educations in finance. They are both attending the final interview for a prestigious position in the renowned company Roswell Enterprises. By coincidence they meet in the men’s room just before the interview begins. Their life’s worst job interview has just begun.

Sniffer, Bobbie Peers, NO, 2006, fiction, 9'
In a society where everyone has the ability to fly, the citizens
anchor themselves to the ground via "gravitation boots". Devoid of sunlight and the open sky, the members of society go about their routine without any hope of personal gratification. One day, however, a man decides he has had enough attempt to challenge the status quo.
He quits his job, loosens his bindings, and literally takes off.

The Cubist (Kubisten), Joachim Roenning, NO, 2007, fiction, 8'
The Cubist is a story about a man who is so rigid that everything that is square is attractive to him. One day he meets a woman and realises that love's shape is round.

Medium Raw, Morten Hovland, NO, 2005, fiction, 8'
A gray man enters a steak house. He is cought in a seething scene instigated by jealousy bertween the chef and the waitress. It’s no longer only the meat that burns...

Pre-selection Jury, Rune & Erik Eriksson, NO, 2006, animation, 6'
This film is about the director's first reactions and thoughts of the pre-selection jury when a Tanjetsilms production is not selected for a festival.

The Croquet Match, Bobbie Peers, NO, 2008, fiction, 25'
A sidestep in the evolution process made it possible for Neanderthals and Humans to co-exist until our time. Due to a pandemic all humans are dead – all but one. We meet the last human being as he visits his coming family-in-law to participate in their annual croquet match.


18.00 NORDIC TOOLBOX:  IV MUU video art 45’

PERFORMANSSI 2011 is an event produced by the Artists' Association MUU - an artist run, Finnish interdisciplinary artist association, founded in 1987 to represent and promote new and experimental forms of art.  The event is a part of the official Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture program, and it culminates in a performance art festival held in Turku during the weekend 27–29 May 2011. The three-day festival includes performance evenings, site-specific performances, a sound art exhibition, video performances, workshops, curators’ seminars, lectures, public discussions, and a club held at the end of the festival. In addition the program includes the launch of Performanssipankki (‘Performance Art Bank’), a new database presenting the actual field of Finnish performance art. The databank will be launched both as a website, performanssi.com, and a catalogue. During 2011, the festival will also expand in the form of video performances to other European cities, including Hamburg, Helsinki, Riga, Tallinn and Tromso.
PERFORMANSSI 2011 festival features a number of national and international artists from the field of contemporary performance art.
The video works are selected through the international open call organized by the Artists’ Association MUU.

Balck Hole, Heini Aho, 2010, 2'
A room with a black hole on the wall. A person throws black clothes and objects. Clothes and objects seem to disappear into the black hole for a moment, but they fall on the floor by gravity. Slowly they form an image of landscape or a still life.

En Obra (Building Site), Paola & Luis Fernando Chaves Olarte, 2011, 9'
"Many building sites are currently happening in the streets of Bogotá – Colombia. People are getting crazy and the city is a complete chaos. Many of us complain about the situation, about seeing places in our city that look as if they were destroyed by a bomb. But if we look closer at this ‘disaster’ there seems to be something going on. Moving through cement, sand and plastic the body senses the materials in these constructions talking and making visible a space in transformation. Bricks and tubes loaded with memories of the present that is being written in the future sidewalks, streets and avenues.All these changes in the city`s infrastructure cost a lot of money, mostly because of the corruption involved in the administration of the works. Most of the money that we as citizen are losing, because some guys robbed, could be used to built places for life and art, such as theaters, galleries, concert halls or outdoors stages. That is the city we really need, a city with scenarios where we can dance with the chaos. This video-performance is about a city in process of transformation dancing with the body of a citizen."

Jan Hakon Erichsen: Seek and Destroy, Jan Hakon Erichsen, 2011, 4'
A leather armchair is shot with a bow and arrow, hung from the ceiling and then slaughtered like a wild animal. We can only see the hunters hands and feet, while he executes his actions with disturbing, cold determination.
 
The Great Non Figurative 'K', Heidi Kilpeläinen (HK 119), 2007, 5'
"The Great Non Figurative 'K' (Just Before The Apocalypse)" is a documentation of a live performance at The Café Gallery Projects 2007. "Extend Your Neck" was an exhibition about performance art curated by Giuseppe Mistretta and Clare Shallcross. Length of the original performance was 15 min. The title inspires a nonsensical 'K' pop scene with references to the movements of Dadaism and Bauhaus. Works by Kilpeläinen draw on fascination with Constructivism, trashy pop star fame, cult sci-fi, technology, genetic engineering and the use of music, image and performance as a means of communication. She produces performances and video works primarily through a hand-crafted, DIY process.

Transformance, Nina Kurtela, 2010, 10'
The concept of Transformance is primarily based on relation between body, an execution of performance, within a context of architectural transformation that will take shape in form of experimental film like as an autonomous work for itself.

Plañideros (Mourners), La Favorita colectivo, 2011, 4'
Plañideros is a performance made during exhibition DOLORES. DOLORES, emerges as an exploration of nostalgia through a series of works that cover many disciplines. Photography, performance, installation and sound design, make up this exhibition which raises the possibility of generating in the viewer a reflection of their own tears.
A Plañideros was a woman who was paid to go to mourn at the funeral of a person.
The characters in the performance play the role of mourners of the present, through which we cry (more than the loss of a loved one) the loss of different values, personal fears, the world situation, the lack of order for the ideas, emotions, desires. The mourners used to carry a glass to store their tears. In video characters instead, use tissues to forma a kleenex landscape of tears on the floor. None of the assistants knew in advance of the performance, until they entered the exhibition.

Voyage, Antti Laitinen, 2008, 4'
In his performative video piece, Voyage, Antti Laitinen rows a palm island.

King Nothing, Paul Wiersbinski, 2008, 7'
In the near future contemporary art has become a matter of supply and demand. The cabaret of a sadistic curator, greedy collectors and mindless audience is making its way through a blockbuster exhibition of the latest art star. The illusion of endless profit has become reality and the more real it becomes, the more we believe in everything we are told.