Sami van Ingen’s Flame (2018) was awarded with Optical Sound Award at Flatpack Festival, held from April 30 to May 6 in Birmingham, UK.
The jury, consisting of Jani Lehto (composer and sound designer, Finland) & Bobbie-Jane Gardner (composer and producer, Birmingham) communicated the following statement: “We chose Flame because out of all of the entries (which were of a high standard) we were unanimous in voicing how both the sonic and visual content were arresting. The score and cinematography were mesmeric and hinted to a melancholy that captivated our interest and crept into our bones.”
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).
Flatpack Festival, April 30 – May 6 2019, Birmingham, UK
More information: Flatpack Festival