The film Transit by Lauri Astala has been selected for the International Competition of the 31st Hamburg International Short Film Festival (IKFF), taking place in Hamburg, Germany between June 9 and 15, 2015.

In Transit, documentary shots of New York are altered by camera movements, angles and framing. This builds up a new fictitious urban space, whose visual familiarity stems from the history of film. The theme of Transit revolves around the collective visual ideas and notions of the urban environment.

Lauri Astala (b. 1958) lives in Helsinki, Finland and Avalon, France. He has studied in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and Chicago Art Institute. Astala is one of the most distinguished media artists in Finland. He makes sculptures, videos and installations, that concentrate on our concepts and experiences of space and the ways in which cultural structures shapes them. His works have been presented at numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1989, including Eyebeam in New York (2013), Gallery Heino in Helsinki (2008, 2012), Helsinki Art Museum (2010) KUMU art museum in Tallinn (2008) and Institut finlandais in Paris (2008). In 2007, Astala was awarded with the Finnish State Prize for Visual Arts.

For all selected films for IKFF 2015: http://festival.shortfilm.com/en/selected-films-2015

IKFF on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalesKurzFilmFestival?fref=ts