Niina Suominen’s What Time Is? (2020, in featured image) and Elian Mikkola’s Aries (2020) will be screened at the new Péripheries Experimental Film & Video Festival. The Boston-based festival will be held online from April 10–15 2021.
The essence of our time under the magnifying glass. The starting point was to create a visually interesting and intense, kaleidoscopically abundant work that could be set together with the pioneering electric composition of Jukka Ruohomäki (b.1947). The sound material was created in 1970 with the DIMI-synthesizer designed by Erkki Kurenniemi. The film material (16mm) was shot and developed by the director with the exception of the found footage war imagery. What time is? places the experience of time in the centre of contemplation. The human figures act as reference points for meditation on the passage and ending of time. The images of war function as universal symbols reflecting the inherent violence in human nature through all eras. The work gives us a chance to reflect on the transient nature of time and the relationship of the viewer to the conflict-ridden epoch in which we live.
Niina Suominen (b. 1973) has graduated from the Arts Academy at Turku in 2004. She also has an education of a blacksmith, animal nurse and a forest worker. She works as a film director and media artist using traditional animation techniques requiring hand-work. Her works have been shown widely at the festivals both in Finland and abroad. She lives and works in Southwest Finland.
Aries consists of a single window frame; a portal. As the circular nature of time begins to reveal itself, a new decade begins.
Elian Mikkola (b.1990) is a queer filmmaker and media artist currently based in Montréal, Canada. Originally from Turku, Finland, Mikkola holds a BA in Journalism from Tampere University and an MFA in Media Production from the University of Regina, Canada. Their film Magdaleena premiered in 2020 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Mikkola’s award winning debut film SAARI (2016) was selected to the student program of TIFF ‘s Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival in 2017. Mikkola works between digital and analog film mediums. As a trans -and non-binary identifying person, Mikkola often times refers to their gender experience through their art.
Péripheries Experimental Film & Video Festival, April 10–15 2021, Boston & online
More information: Péripheries Experimental Film & Video Festival