Laura Horelli’s Jokinen and Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s Studies on the Ecology of Drama have their world festival premiere in the ambitious Forum Expanded programme of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). The festival is held from February 9–19.
Forum Expanded is the main showcase of daring and experimental moving image at Berlinale. This year’s title, “The Stars Down to Earth” is taken from the essay by Theodor Adorno in which he scrutinizes the role of the irrational in mass culture. The selected works search for alternative approaches to the surrounding reality.
Laura Horelli’s Jokinen tells the migration story of a Finnish communist August Jokinen. He became known for a show trial against racism organized by the American Communist Party in Harlem, NY in 1931. The USA immigration authorities arrested Jokinen soon after, and he was deported and moved to Petrozavodsk, USSR in 1933.
Laura Horelli (b. 1976, Helsinki) lives in Berlin and works with experimental documentary video. Her works have been exhibited at Venice Biennale (2001, 2009), Manifesta 5, (2004), ARS 11, Kiasma (2001, 2011), Galerie Barbara Weiss (2011) and Badischer Kunstverein (2014). In 2011, she received the Hannah Höch Prize for Young Artists.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s short film Studies on the Ecology of Drama is an artwork about methods of presentation as a path to other living creatures. It questions the anthropocentrism of the film language and aims at the new balance between humans, animals and plants.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (b. 1959) is a video artist, director and photographer who lives and works in Helsinki. She acted as the professor of Time and Space Arts at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2007–10. Her work has been shown at Tate Modern, MoMa, Jeu de Paume, Neu Nationalgalerie as well as at many other venues across the world. She received the AVEK-award for important achievements in the field of audio-visual culture (1997), honorary mention at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) as well as the Artes Mundi Prize (2006). She was awarded with the Pro Finlandia medal in 2005 and since 2009 she also holds the title of Academician of Art.
Forum Expanded / 67. Berlin International Film Festival, February 9–19
More information: Forum Expanded