
The Human Torch (2022) by Risto-Pekka Blom and The Swirl (2022, in featured image) by Helka Heinonen are screened in Shorts Mexico – Mexico International Short Film Festival. The festival is held in Mexico City. The Human Torch, which is included in the International Live Action Competition, will be screened on Monday, September 12 2022 at Biblioteca Vasconcelos. The Swirl by Heinonen is part of Experimental International Showcase and will be screened on Saturday, September 10 at 6:30 PM in Centro Cultural Futurama.
The Human Torch is a one-shot short film about a traffic crossing at night, where respectable people are waiting for the light to change. The film is about losing your sense of security in a world that is changing uncontrollably. We have acted according to the demands of society. We have followed the rules. We do not mock or belittle people different from us. But it is not okay to come here to upset the status quo, provoking all kinds of jeering at the hot dog kiosk.
Risto-Pekka Blom graduated from technical education but never felt motivated to pursue a career as technician. For a few years he was looking for his purpose in life, until in the age of 27 he started a short course of Audiovisual Media and Expression, after which he graduated from Tampere Polytechnic School of Art and Media in 2005. Since then Blom’s video art and experimental short films have been exhibited in festivals and events in over twenty countries. His film Theme Park (2015) has won the Main Prize at Tampere Film Festival and Helsinki Short Film Festival in 2015.
The Swirl examines boundaries on the turning point of growing up. At the end of the school year, a 12-year-old girl gets an exceptional gift from her teacher, a trip up north. They travel together. As an adult, she re-examines her experience. The work studies sensitively the complex experience and telling it as a story.
Helka Heinonen is versatile visual artist, media artist and film maker. She is especially interested in themes of growing up, youth, time, relationships, narration and nature. She combines both narrative and experimental elements in her work.
Shorts Mexico – Mexico International Short Film Festival, September 1-30 2022, Mexico City.
More information: Shorts Mexico.