Marja Helander’s Risto Jarva awarded short film Eatnanvuloš lottit – Birds in the Earth (2018) will be screened at Seattle International Film Festival and in the international short film competition of Kortfilmfestivalen Grimstad.
Held from 17.5.–10.6., Seattle International Film Festival is among the top North American film festivals. Helander’s short film is included in the screening “Through Her Indigenous Eyes“, screened on Sunday, May 27, at 15:00.
The 41st Norwegian Short Film Festival Kortfestivalen Grimstad will be held from 13.–17.6. The competition screenings of Eatnanvuloš lottit – Birds in the Earth take place on Friday, June 15, at 10:00, and on Sunday, June 17, 14:15.
Birds in the Earth is a short film based on dance. The main characters are two young Sámi ballet students; Birit and Katja Haarla. The movie tells a beautiful and a bit melancholic story through their dance performances. It´s about the nature in Sápmi, the youth, the dance. At the same time, it examines the deeper questions of the ownership of Sámi land and the Sámi’s rights in today’s Finland, the Sámi being the indigenous people of Scandinavia and Kola peninsula. The contradicition between nature and modern lifestyle is blurred with humor.
Marja Helander: Eatnanvuloš lottit– Birds in the Earth (2018)
Marja Helander was born in Finland in 1965. She lives and works in Helsinki. After originally training as a painter at the Lahti Institute of Fine Arts from 1988 to 1992, Helander then pursued her interest in photography and graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999. In 1994 she was one of the ten finalists of the Fotofinlandia-competition. Since then she has presented works in solo- and group-exhibitions both in Finland and abroad, with many shows in Scandinavia, including the Hasselblad Center in Göteborg, BildMuseet in Umeå, Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall in Copengahen, Galleri F15 in Moss, Norway and in Nuuk, Grönland, and internationally further afield in Canada, The Art Gallery of Hamilton; South Africa, Johannesburg Art Gallery; and Mali, The 7th African Photography Biennial. Helander’s work explores the question of identity with regards to her Sámi background, the Sámi being the indigenous people of Scandinavia. Recent work has focused on landscape in which dark, mysterious views are portrayed without people. These examine the modern union between nature and mankind as not harmonious, but dark.
Seattle International Film Festival, 17.5.–10.6.2018, U.S.
The 41st Norwegian Short Film Festival Kortfestivalen Grimstad, 13.–17.6.2018, Norway
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