Maarit Suomi-Väänänen’s and Jan Ijäs’s short documentaries selected to IDFA

Maarit Suomi-Väänänen’s Miniscpectacles Albuquerque Straight (2016) and Jan Ijäs’s Time Capsule (2016) are selected to International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam through AV-arkki’s distribution. Held from November 16–27, IDFA is the world’s largest documentary film festival.

The films are screened at Paradocs, the special programme exploring the borders between film and art, truth and fiction, and narrative and design.

Maarit Suomi-Väänänen’s Minispectacles Albuquerque Straight visits a man and a lynx on the Route 66. Minispectacles is a series of one minute works, cinematic haikus, filmed with pocket camera.

Maarit Suomi-Väänänen works as a filmmaker and media artist. Her absurd and original award-winning works are shown in exhibitions, at festivals and on TV over 35 countries. A number of her earlier works have also been screened at IDFA: A Bit Scary Really… (2007), Up and About Again (2009), Minispectacles 1–3: Touché, Douche, Souche (2010), and Log Head (2015).

Still from Jan Ijäs: Time Capsule (2016)

Jan Ijäs’s Time Capsule is a short documentary film about a Belgian artist Louis de Cordier who bought piece of land above the snow level from Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain. De Cordier has now built an underground library and a seedbank for non-genetically modified plants. The location at a height of 2000 metres above sea level, small temperature fluctuation, and dry climate slow the erosion of time.

Media artist and filmmaker Jan Ijäs (b. 1975) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. Ijäs works with documentary, fiction and alternative film. The films of Ijäs deal with serious and difficult social themes, like migration into foreign and hostile societies. Ijäs’s films have been shown widely abroad by over a hundred film festivals and as installations in museums and galleries.


International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, November 16–27

See more at: IDFA


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.