GEGENkino Festival, held in Leipzig from April 6–16, dedicates its second weekend to Finnish experimental filmmaker Mika Taanila. The extensive programme consisting of short and feature-length films and a live performance takes place in Luru-Kino and UT Connewitz, the oldest film theater in Leipzig.

The programme starts with a short film screening on Friday April 14 at 20:00 in Luru-Kino. The screening includes five short films: Futuro – A New Stance for Tomorrow (1998), RoboCup99 (2000), Six Day Run (2013), Optical Sound (2005) and the world premiere of Delay of Game (2017), an anaglyph 3D film portraying an ice-hockey game in the 1950s Helsinki. This will also mark the first 3D screening in Luru-Kino.

The short film selection is followed by the screening of Tectonic plate (2016), a feature-length camera-less film about the fear of flying, and Taanila’s new short film The Sad Song of Hard-Edged Transition Wipe Markers (2017).

Taanila: Sad Song of the Hard-Edge Transition Wipe Markers (2017)

On Saturday April 15 at 21:00 GEGENkino will present in UT Connewitz the German premiere of SSEENNSSEESS performance. Mika Taanila projects on a triptych of three screens with the help of four 16mm projectors and one video beam. The pictures of the loops derive from science films of the 1950s, which were made in the phonetics department of the University of Helsinki and which were digitally processed and alienated by Taanila. The performance includes live accompaniment by the legendary psych rock band Circle. The performance is paired with Taanila’s music videos Swissair: Hermafrodiitit (1986) and Kiila: Verbranntes Land (2002).

Taanila: Swissair: Hermafrodiitit (1986)

The second short film programme is screened on Sunday April 16 at 20:00 in UT Connewitz. The programme includes The Zone of Total Eclipse (2006), A Physical Ring (2002), Future Is not what it Used to Be (2002) and Spindrift (1963/2013), Taanila’s reconstruction of Erkki Kurenniemi’s and Jan Bark’s pioneering computer animation.

Taanila: The Zone of Total Eclipse (2006)

The last screening of the homage is the German premiere of Taanila’s and Jussi Eerola’s feature-length documentary film The Return of the Atom (2015).

GEGENkino, Leipzig, April 6–16

More information: GEGENkino

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.