Elina Oikari’s Govadas (2018) and Risto-Pekka Blom’s Interceptor (2018) were selected for the international competition of Curtacinema – Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, held from October 24–31.
Elina Oikari’s Govadas will be screened in the International Competition 1, on Thursday, October 25, at 17:00; on Friday, October 26, at 19:30; and on Monday, October 29, at 21:00.
Govadas explores the contradiction and harmony between humans and nature through Sámi poetry. The cyclical perception of time among the only indigenous people living in the European Union is presented in the work as unfolding forms and layers based on the archive material from the 1940’s and the super 8 mm film footage from 2010’s. Govadas creates a kinetic meditation on time, memory, landscape and the ruptures between them.
Elina Oikari is Helsinki-based filmmaker and visual artist. She received M.A. from the Aalto University Documentary Film Studies (2014). Oikari has made short films especially for film concerts in collaboration with musicians, composers and conductors. Oikari emphasizes experimental connections between image and sound in her works whose themes are related to the classics of dramatic literature, experiences of otherness and the generational experience of the people born in the 1980’s. Her works have been screened internationally at various film festivals and music events.
Risto-Pekka Blom’s Interceptor is included in the International Competition 2, screened on Thursday, October 25, at 19:30; on Friday, October 26, at 17:00; and on Tuesday, October 30, at 21:00.
Interceptor is a short film alluding to a historical event. In 1989, an unknown person halted the column of armored troops at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. On the previous day, a demonstration that originated as a student protest, was violently suppressed by the army. In democracies, the use of brutal force has been replaced by structural violence, where the power is centered around a small economical elite pursuing their own interests. The main purpose of the political system is to maintain these power structures.
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.
Curtacinema – Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, October 24–31 2018, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
More information: Curtacinema