Milja Viita‘s experimental documentary Seafearers (SKÖNÄRIT) will compete at Archivio Aperto, taking place in Bologna, Italy from September 26–30, 2025.

Archivio Aperto is a festival dedicated to the rediscovery of small-format film heritage — private, amateur, experimental, artist’s cinema — and their contemporary reuse. The 18th edition of Archivio Aperto is dedicated to all forms of liberation, past, present, and future.

Seafearers (2025) is a collage film about seafarers based on archival footage shot around the globe by sailors themselves. ‘Skönäri’ is old Finnish sailor slang, meaning a seafarer. The script is based on the logbooks, letters and telegrams the filmmaker obtained alongside the footage from a small Finnish port town called Rauma. Through the tragic true-life story of a young sailor, Jalmar Yrjänen, the film portrays the life of those working at sea at the mercy of the natural elements, while also touching upon themes of colonialism and globalization.

Milja Viita is an artist and filmmaker based in Porvoo, Finland. Her works often deal with nature or natural science observations, and they convey a strong personality in relation to the wider social phenomena. In 2022 she was chosen to release the 6th Contemporary Art Project by Lönnström Art Museum. Viita’s experimental film Animal Bridge U-3033 won the Risto Jarva Award at the Tampere Film Festival in 2019. She is an alumni of Art University Helsinki, where she teaches filmmaking today.

Archivio Aperto
September 26–30, 2025
Bologna, Italy

More information: Archivio Aperto | Seafearers