
Sami van Ingen’s Flame (2018) was awarded with special mention for short film in the international competition of Art Film Fest, held in Košice, Slovakia, from June 15–23.
The jury communicated the following statement:
“Scattered pieces of a lost film: images become distorted, the material a last witness of an era long forgotten. This abstract audiovisual work builds on impressive artistic vision in which film heritage and history form an urgent presence. The Special Mention for a short film goes to Flame.”
Flame is a fractured melodrama, based on damaged frames from the last minutes of the only remaining nitrate reel of the lost feature film Silja – Fallen Asleep When Young (1937) directed by Teuvo Tulio. All screening prints and the negative of the film were destroyed in a 1959 studio fire. A sequence from the middle of the film was found at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris in 2015.
Sami van Ingen is a veteran in alternative Finnish film, who has worked as an artist, lecturer and curator since the late 1980s. He lives and works in Helsinki. Van Ingen finished his doctoral studies in the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2012. He often uses random or found materials in his works. His works have been seen in many national and international exhibitions and festivals over the years, including Tbilisi Triennial (2012), Kunsthalle Helsinki (2005) and Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland (2002).
Flame has previously won the Best Film by Audience Jury Award at Fronteira International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Brasil, and with a diploma of merit in the national competition of Tampere Film Festival. It will also be screened in the official programme of both Karlovy Vary and Edinburgh International Film Festivals in the end of June.
Art Film Fest, 15.–23.6.2018, Košice, Slovakia
More information: Art Film Fest
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.