Elina Saloranta‘s film A Letter from Elli (2019) is part of DINAMO’s short film screening programme Exposure/Obscurity at the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The video is based on a letter written by the Finnish singer Elli Forssell-Rozentāle in August 1909. By its structure, the letter is an appeal for help, and since it begins with the words “Dear People”, it can be seen as being addressed to the whole of humanity. The aim is to get viewers to reply to Elli in their minds, to join her in seeking “some source of light”.
Elina Saloranta is a Helsinki-based artist, who works mainly with the moving image. In her doctoral thesis Genre pictures and experiments in writing, she explored the interaction between image, word and sound, and in her postdoc research she engages in correspondence with the past. She studied film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA 2001), and her video pieces have been shown in festivals like Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival, Love & Anarchy (Helsinki International Film Festival) and Oberhausen Film Festival.
A Letter to Elli is included in the screening DINAMO: Exposure. For this programme, DINAMO members were invited to share works which consider – metaphorically or literally – themes of ‘exposure,’ including considerations of photographic/cinematographic exposure; exposure in the sense of being seen, being revealed or being vulnerable; matters of illumination, enlightenment, transparency (literal or metaphorical). Central to these twin prompts is an interest in issues of free speech/freedom of expression and artistic and intellectual freedom contrasted with considerations of censorship, oppression and suppression of the free flow of ideas.
DINAMO: Exposure
Friday 30 January 2026 | 16.45 – 18.17 KINO 3
Monday 2 February 2026 | 14.45 – 16.17 KINO 3
The other part of the programme is titled DINAMO: Obscurity.
DINAMO – Distribution Network of Artists’ Moving Image Organizations is an international coalition for distribution organisations supporting and promoting artist’s moving images.
Several of AV-arkki’s artists’ films will also premiere at the IFFR 2026, read more here.
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. If you want to hear the latest news from our distribution, subscribe to our newsletter!