The 50th Tampere Film Festival is held between March 4 and 8. The oldest and largest short film festival in the Nordic countries is AV-arkki’s main associate in Finland. A total of 12 works by AV-arkki’s artists were selected for the National Competition. This year, AV-arkki presents a retrospective and a masterclass of Pilvi Takala, the next representative for the Finnish Pavilion in the Venice Biennial.
AV-arkki together with the Tampere Film Festival presents a two-part retrospective of the works of Pilvi Takala. Takala’s works take the form of performative interventions in which she explores certain communities and spaces in order to address social structures and to test the norms and realities governing behaviour. Takala’s performance style is objective, but the performance pieces reveal the social embarrassment resulting from the subtle or obtrusive breaking of boundaries.
The first screening takes Takala from a dance hall to the gates of Disneyland where she is not admitted in because of her Snow White dress. The security services’ sense of humour is also tested in Takala’s intervention at the European Parliament. In the piece Committee the power is handed over to 11 children from London who Takala invited to spend the prize sum of the Emdash Award, which is normally used to execute a work of art for the Frieze art fair. The screening takes place on Thursday, March 5, at 14:00 with a rerun on Friday, March 6, at 16:00.
The second screening, Pilvi Takala Masterclass, on Saturday, March 7, at 20:00, articulates emotional structures in working environments. In the performance Players Takala plays a community of poker professionals, whereas Drive with Care and The Stroker, both familiar from international festivals, explore how individual boundaries are negotiated in communal work environments. In connection with the screening the programme coordinator of AV-arkki, Tytti Rantanen, interviews Pilvi Takala. The interview will be conducted in English.
12 films by AV-arkki’s artists selected for the National Competition of Tampere Film Festival
Salla Tykkä‘s feature-length documentary film Untitled (White – Alps) (2019) will be screened in the National Competition screening 7. The NC screening 8 includes last year’s Risto Jarva laureate Milja Viita‘s new experimental short film When We Are Nothing Left (2020) and Maija Blåfield‘s documentary film The Fantastic (2020). Pilvi Takala‘s latest short film If Your Heart Wants It (Remix) (2020), Niina Suominen‘s experimental animation What Time Is (2020), and Minna Rainio‘s and Mark Roberts‘s documentary film To Teach a Bird to Fly (2020) will be screened in the NC screening 9.
Risto-Pekka Blom‘s short fiction Canary (2020) and Jan Ijäs‘s documentary film Waste no. 4 New York, New York (2019) are included in the NC screening 10. The NC screening 11 includes four new films by AV-arkki’s artists: Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki‘s Fill the Screen (2019), Vesa-Pekka Rannikko‘s Multi-Faith Prayer Room (2019), Harri Larjosto‘s “Bee Garden” (2019), and Jonna Kina‘s Akiya (2020), recently premiered at Berlinale Forum Expanded.
Our artists’ short films in other screenings
This year, one of the main themes of the 50th Tampere Film Festival is dystopia, explored in two screenings. The first of them on Thursday, March 5, at 16:00, includes Hannaleena Hauru‘s comedy Mercy All the Way (2014). The second screening on Friday, March 6, at 18:00, and on Saturday, March 7, at 22:00, includes Jaakko Pallasvuo‘s and MSL’s Fruits of the Loom (2019) and Patrik Söderlund‘s Realms (2018). Hannaleena Hauru and Jaakko Pallasvuo will attend a panel discussion on Thursday, March 5, at 18:00.
Jan Ijäs‘s short documentary film Ghosts (2009) is included in the 60th anniversary screening of ELO Helsinki Film School on Saturday, March 7 at 18:00. Elli Vuorinen‘s animation Sore Eyes for Infinity (2016) will be screened in the Midnight Mov(i)es 2 on Wednesday, March 4 at 22:00 and on Friday, March 6, at 20:00. Risto-Pekka Blom‘s short film Theme Park (2015) is included in the Tampere specific screening Rake Special on Friday, March 6, at 12:00, and on Saturday, March 7, at 14:00.
The industry events of the festival includes a discussion where peer reviewers discuss art, applications and evaluation. The discussion takes part on Friday, March 6, at 10:00 with e.g. Maija Blåfield and Tellervo Kalleinen. The discussion will be held in Finnish.
The 50th Tampere Film Festival, March 4–8 2020, Finland
More information: Tampere Film Festival