New Documentary Films and Videos in Our Archive / Fall ’21


Featured image: Lauri Astala: Sketch for the Last Map (2022)


Discover these recent acquisitions in our online archive! For professional preview, please register to see the full-length versions.

Sami Ala: How It Was? (2022, 12:34)

Sami Ala: How It Was? (2022)

Four people who lived in the same apartment building at different times tell what it was like to live in the house. They tell about their apartment and the spaces they knew and the spaces they were aware of but never visited. Are all places, spaces ultimately mere states of mind?

Lauri Astala: Sketch for the last map (2022, 12:50)

Lauri Astala: Sketch for the Last Map (2022)

In the core of Sketch for the Last Map, overlapping translucent indoor and outdoor spaces relate to the multi-layered and placeless world in our digital era. Many faces of cities – private spaces, less “public” realities, cleared, restricted or fenced off out of sight – stay excluded from maps and the stream of images. The work was shot in several cities in Belgium, South Korea, India, France, Turkey and Uruguay.

Flis Holland: Subserotic Bulge (2021, 17:42)

Flis Holland: Subserotic Bulge (2021)

In 2019 an iron meteorite was filed to dust, stirred into cream, and fed to 36 people. Flis’s uterus was rife with tumours soon after. Their belly swelled as a fleshy block pushed its way out at astonishing speed. From the first poke of a finger, to WebMD, to x-rays, every diagnostic tool came up short. But Flis’s telling of it is rather different to the medical notes. The video asks about diagnosis, and how certain people’s testimony is dismissed as unreliable. From meteorite falls to trans* experiences of the medical system, it’s a documentary that slips into sci-fi – and it’s not always clear which part is which. Headphones recommended if screened online!

Paula Lehtonen: Morrison & Friends (2021, 26:50)

Paula Lehtonen: Morrison & Friends (2021)

Documentary videoart piece Morrison & Friends depicts interspecies communications between humans and an alpaca. Morrison alpaca works with animal-assisted activities and alpaca therapy, visiting nursing homes with his trainer Tarja Jokinen. As a therapy animal, Morrison is used to interacting with people and he is not intimidated by people working behind cameras. This made it possible to create an environment in the studio where the participants seemingly simply needed to be present. Having all these beings spending time together was the basis for Morrison & Friends.

Minna Långström: Photosphere (2021, 16:38)

Minna Långström: Photosphere (2021)

Photosphere revolves around the connection between a Hollywood studio film laboratory and a solar observatory during the era of celluloid filmmaking. It portrays Sara Martin, a solar astronomer who used film as research material up until the end of the 1990’s when it was abandoned for digital video. Photosphere combines archival footage from the film laboratory (Pathé Laboratories in Hollywood Hills) with the film footage Martin and her colleagues shot of the sun, as well as shots of the astronomer setting up her solar telescope in her garden.

Sari Nordman: Building a Tower to Frame Plastic Waste (2021, 11:17)

Sari Nordman: Building a Tower to Frame Plastic Waste (2021)

The video documents the making of an interdisciplinary installation Tower. Tower reflects on climate change and the biblical story of the Tower of Babel – a story of greed and the value of cultural differences. Combining sculpture, video, archiving and community participation, the work highlights interviews of people of diverse backgrounds sharing their personal experiences with climate change. The stories transcribed in English are available as an additional attachment.

Okku Nuutilainen: Free (2014, 05:04)

Okku Nuutilainen: Free (2014)

A goose lives in an old greenhouse. Brief moments of its life are captured on 8 mm film and a female voice recounts its story. As we hear footsteps approaching in the snow, it is unclear what it means for the goose. What happens to an animal when it is no longer useful? 

Azar Saiyar: My Home (2022, 12:00)

Azar Saiyar: My Home (2022)

“A bee stung me on my finger. It happened yesterday in the yard of a kindergarten, even though I am not in kindergarten anymore.” Fragmented memories of childhood and adulthood blend together in a song that an unknown narrator is humming. In a sixties TV show children are learning a new game. Someone is waiting in the hallway for a permission to re-enter the classroom. Everything is set. Everything is nailed.

Salla Tykkä: Europe – Europa (2021, 43:51)

Salla Tykkä: Europe – Europe (2021)

Europe is a cinematographical study on the power and position of the auteur. It reveals how the means we use for describing and documenting the world simultaneously contribute to its change and reconstruction.


AV-arkki is a non-profit artists’ association. It was founded in 1989 and now has over 250 Finnish or Finland-based artists as its members. AV-arkki’s main purpose is to distribute Finnish media art to festivals, events, museums and galleries within Finland and internationally.