Elian Mikkola’s Man Made (2022) was selected for the Competition Hybride at Festival Silhouette, held from August 25 – September 2 2023 in Paris, France. Man Made will be screened on Saturday, August 26, at 15:15 in Parc de la Butte du Chapeau Rouge.

Man Made is a repurposed narrative of a boy who gets introduced to the wonders of life by a beautiful shining trumpet. But the struggle to be oneself has only begun. Utilizing found 16mm footage and both digital and analog manipulation techniques, the filmmaker pierces conventional masculinity with a transformative queer gaze.

Elian Mikkola is a Finnish Moving Image Artist (of Karelian descent), and a white settler currently based between Treaty 4, Regina, and Montréal (Tiohtià:ke), Canada. Originally from Turku, Finland, Mikkola holds a BA in Journalism from Tampere University. They completed their MFA in Media Production in 2019 at the University of Regina. Mikkola works closely with both analog and digital images and their hybrid extensions. Their work explores themes such as memory, spatial dependences and queer belonging. Mikkola’s work has been showcased in several film festivals in Canada and internationally. Their debut film SAARI (2016) was selected to TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival student program in 2017 and their latest two films premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 and Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2021. Mikkola has been a part of La Lumière Collective based in Montréal and a current board member of the Queer City Cinema.

Festival Silhouette, August 25 – September 2 2023, Paris, France

More information: Festival Silhouette

AV-arkki has promoted and distributed Finnish media art since 1989. AV-arkki’s promotional efforts have made the artists’ participation in this event possible. If you want to hear the latest news from our distribution, subscribe to our newsletter!