Anssi Kasitonni’s Masa (2009, in featured image) and Maija Tammi’s The Problem of the Hydra (2020) will be streamed at THIS IS SHORT online short film festival in June. THIS IS SHORT is a collaborative project by the European Short Film Network. It is a central access point for mainly European short films: with joint programming, shared programs, and one common gateway to the online presentations of four European film festivals, thus creating a joint online festival experience.

Anssi Kasitonni’s Masa will be streamed from June 3–10 in the “Nordic Fun-Noir” programme curated by the Norwegian Minimal Short Film Festival. In his nest, a technologically surprisingly advanced and creative guinea pig plots his getaway plans, which always run into the impenetrable wall of his owner’s love. Masa features electric gadgets, bodybuilding, Steve McQueen and surprisingly long monologues spoken in guinea pig language.

Anssi Kasitonni is a skateboarder and an award-winning artist from Sahalahti, Finland. He has worked in music, drawing and sculpture, but to many of his fans, the most beloved of his works are the short films he makes at his own farm. The films deal with age-old questions related to morality, love, death, generation gaps, sexuality and, of course, submarines. The ideas are epic, the films decidedly homespun. His movies create their own world that tells us something essential about ours. Kasitonni won the esteemed Ars Fennica Award in 2011.

Maija Tammi’s The Problem of the Hydra will be streamed in the New Point of View competition programme from June 13–17. The Problem of the Hydra is an experimental documentary film about the practical and metaphysical problems a small fresh-water polyp, known as Hydra, has caused since the 1700s to the present day. Contrary to most animals, Hydra vulgaris does not age – at all.

Maija Tammi (b. 1985) is a Finnish artist and Doctor of Arts, whose photographs, videos, and installations examine the borders of disgust and fascination, science and art. Tammi’s work has been exhibited in Paris, Berlin, Rome, London, New York and Tokyo, and she has four published books. Tammi currently holds the honorary title Artist Professor and a grant for 2020–2024.

THIS IS SHORT, April 1 – June 30 2021, Online

More information: THIS IS SHORT