Risto-Pekka Blom’s The Human Torch (2022, in featured image) and Anssi Kasitonni’s Le Saboteur (2022) were selected for the short film competitions of Black Nights Film Festival, held in Tallinn, Estonia, from November 11–27 2022. Both films will also be screened, with Anssi Kasitonni’s Deus ex Machina (2022) at Interfilm Short Film Festival Berlin on Friday, November 18 in the screening “Long Night of Weird Shorts“. Earlier this fall, The Human Torch and Deus ex Machina were screened in the short film competition of Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, held from October 19–23 in Switzerland and at Cyprus International Short Film Festival, held from October 8–14 2022.

In Tallinn, Anssi Kasitonni’s Le Saboteur will be screened in the Shorts Live-Action Competition 1 on Tuesday, November 15, at 19:00 in Apollo Kino Coca-Cola Plaza. In Le Saboteur, an ex-saboteur gets back in the game and every trick will be exposed! A short action film about the joint adventure of indie filmmaking – with all the special effects. Le Saboteur is distributed in collaboration between AV-arkki – Centre for Finnish Media Art and Raina Film Festival Distribution.

Anssi Kasitonni is a skateboarder and an award-winning artist from Sahalahti, Finland. He has worked in music, drawing and sculpture, but to many of his fans, the most beloved of his works are the short films he makes at his own farm. The films deal with age-old questions related to morality, love, death, generation gaps, sexuality and, of course, submarines. The ideas are epic, the films decidedly homespun. His movies create their own world that tells us something essential about ours. Kasitonni won the esteemed Ars Fennica Award in 2011.

Risto-Pekka Blom’s The Human Torch will be screened in the Rebels With Their Shorts competition II on Wednesday, November 23 at 17:00 in Apollo Kino Coca-Cola Plaza. We have acted according to the demands of society. We have followed the rules. We do not mock or belittle people different from us. But it is not okay to come here to upset the status quo, provoking all kinds of jeering at the hot dog kiosk. The Human Torch is a one-shot short film about a traffic crossing at night, where respectable people are waiting for the light to change. The film is about losing your sense of security in a world that is changing uncontrollably.

Risto-Pekka Blom graduated from technical education but never felt motivated to pursue a career as technician. For a few years he was looking for his purpose in life, until in the age of 27 he started a short course of Audiovisual Media and Expression, after which he graduated from Tampere Polytechnic School of Art and Media in 2005. Since then Blom’s video art and experimental short films have been exhibited in festivals and events in over twenty countries. His film Theme Park (2015) has won the Main Prize at Tampere Film Festival and Helsinki Short Film Festival in 2015.

Black Nights Film Festival, November 11–27 2022, Tallinn, Estonia

Interfilm Short Film Festival Berlin, November 15–20 2022, Germany

Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, October 19–23 2022, Switzerland

Cyprus International Short Film Festival, October 8–14 2022, Cyprus

AV-arkki has promoted and distributed Finnish media art since 1989. AV-arkki’s promotional efforts have made the artists’ participation in this event possible.