Short films by Henna-Riikka Halonen, Hannaleena Hauru, Mika Taanila, and Helena Öst are selected to the Nordic Short Film Competition of Minimalen Short Film Festival, held in Trondheim from January 23–28.
Mika Taanila‘s Delay of Game (2017) is included in the competition programme 1, screened on Wednesday, January 24, at 13:00, and on Thursday, January 25, at 19:00. Delay of Game consists of a nocturnal outdoor ice-hockey match revisited. On Thursday, January 14th, 1954 the weather in Helsinki was mild, only minus two degrees Celcius. Finnish National Team vs. Wembley Lions (UK) in an anaglyph 3D film.
Hannaleena Hauru‘s The Ice Hockey Film by Heidi (2017) will be screened in the competition programme 2 on Wednesday, January 24, at 21:00, and on Thursday, January 25, at 15:00. In the short film, Heidi’s fantasy about hockey player Lauri Mäntyvaara is continuously failing. The film studies the encounters of optical and haptic cinema, and the change in the power structures of the cinematic gaze.
Hauru: The Ice Hockey Film by Heidi (2017)
Helena Öst‘s A Home in Memory (2016) is included in the competition programme 5, the screenings of which take place on Friday, January 26, at 11:00 and on Saturday, January 27, at 19:00. A home in Memory examines the relationship between identity and the surrounding space. What is it like to abandon a home which carries traces from several generations? The short film shows an almost 300 m2 apartment in the very centre of Helsinki and how it is being emptied, picture by picture. Visually, the film consists of still photos only. On the sound track we hear two sisters discussing, the sounds of the apartment and the surroundings.
Öst: A Home in Memory (2016)
Henna-Riikka Halonen‘s Placeholder (2017) is screened in the competition programme 6 on Friday, January 26, at 15:00 and on Saturday, January 27, at 21:00. The video comments on a thought experiment where virtual non-living material ( i.e. objects) transform into self-aware beings capable of imitating humane action, telling stories, seducing. Placeholder imagines the moment when AI comes of age. Multiple tabs, and proliferating windows give Placeholder a desktop’s point-of-view as it explores developments in biogenetics, 3D printing of skin and organs and new research into historical models of AI, such as Eliza and the Turing test. In Halonen’s kaleidoscopic new work, created entirely from found footage, open source and animated imagery, a lack of empathy from other human beings has made us to seek comfort from the voice and touch of the machines.
Halonen: Placeholder (2017)
Minimalen Short Film Festival, 23.–28.1.2018, Trondheim, Norway
More information: Minimalen