On Friday last I attended one of DocPoint's seminars called AnimaDoc where truth and reality were explored in animated documentary. It was held in the theater at the exquisite Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. A special strand of seven films was programmed for the festival including Ari Folman's brilliant and searing (and Academy Award-nominted) Waltz with Bashir, Jonas Odell's Never Like the First Time! (which we saw at the seminar; a still from the film pictured), Odell's Lies (which just won a Special Jury Prize for Best International Short Film at this year's Sundance), Louise Wilde's My Friend Marjorie, Chris Landreth's Ryan, Zhenchen Liu's Under Construction and Dennis Tupicoff's His Mother's Voice.
Each of these animated nonfiction films deals with some pretty harsh realities (a son's murder, eviction from one's long-time home, the demons of the mind and spirit, and haunting memories) and this was the crux of the seminar. With Marjut Rimminen, Jonas Odell, Ville Rousu and Sami Laitinen, we explored the possibilities that using animation can open for documentary storytelling, especially with difficult, painful subjects, and what practical, as well as, artistic aspects can be explored, especially with today's technology and sophisticated software. At the closing, producer/director Sami Laitinen, the CEO of Stereoscape showed the first-ever Finnish S3D documentary. The borders between techniques and genres have become transparent enough to discover new and innovative ways to reflect "reality." In his book Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud says, "When you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face, you see a face of another; but when you enter the world of cartoon, you see yourself."
The sun poked its weak head out for about 15 minutes that afternoon so I rushed outside to get a dose on my way back to the Ateneum for a screening of Naisenkaari / Gracious Curves by Kiti Luostarinen from 1997. This film was part of a program to celebrate this year's Apollo Award winner, Epidem, an independent production company originally founded by film students in 1968 that for almost four decades has helped realize so much of what Finnish documentary is today, backing director-driven nonfiction films since the company's inception. Epidem was also the first Finnish production house to understand the demands of international funding, producing over 130 films, including those by directors Chris Marker, Iikka Vehkalahti (now commissioning editor for YLE and superstar producer), Pirjo Honkasalo and John Webster. The DocPoint Apollo award recognizes its amazing contribution and was bestowed at the opening ceremonies on Tuesday. Says Timo Korhonen in his catalog essay, "Epidem takes us back to the times when documentaries were less polished, when post-production sound work did not take weeks, and graphics were not unique works of art. When communication and the defense of the oppressed were key."
Luostarinen's film is, indeed, timeless in that the life cycle of a woman from infant to little girl, young womanhood to motherhood and on into old age is explored insightfully and boldly, never flinching away from the violence we do ourselves, both psychologically and physically, as we all collude to keep the myth of the perfect woman alive and well. (That still from the film, by the way, is a special effects trick and very convincing acting, but it is still incredibly shocking to watch). Surrounded by beautiful nature scenes, real women of all ages, shapes and sizes stand before us naked, ready to try and break the stringent chains of a culture that admires and celebrates only the young and beautiful, where, for many women, our aging faces and bodies have become the enemy we want to eradicate through denigration, invisibility and self-mutilation. Lusostarinen asks, "Why is everyone talking about how to stay young, and not about how to grow old?" Because no one wants to talk about it; that's why. It was nice to see a very diverse audience for this (packed house here, as was almost every screening I attended). There were equal amounts of men and women, ranging in age from early twenties to late sixties. But then again, the men were probably only there to look at some naked babes. Kidding.
That evening, the festival's guests were really in for a treat--we got to experience the authentic Finnish sauna, complete with running naked (albeit, towel-wrapped) in the snow to take dips into the freezing sea. I walked with a friend from the city center, a lovely 20 minute stroll through some of the gorgeous neighborhoods of this tiny burg, to the island of Uunisaari. (This incredible photo of the place is courtesy of guillaume's photo stream on flickr.) A wonderful dinner with flowing beer and wine was served and I got to sit and chat with Finnish filmmaker, Petteri Saario, whose new film, Sergei Verenseisauttaja (Sergei the Healer) I was to see the next day--more about that in my DocPoint wrap up post coming next.
After dinner, the women got the first turn to go get naked and sweaty in the sauna behind the restaurant, our guide into the world of Finnish sauna-ing courtesy of Finnish Film Foundation Managing Director, Irina Krohn. (The Finns do the saunas co-ed style since their hang-ups being unclothed in front of one another are nil and the sauna is so entwined in the culture, but they politely made concessions for the foreigners. Many Finns build saunas into the structure of their homes and some have more than one!) As for my own hang-ups, well, when in Finland. . . . I also let myself be flaggelated with a bundle of birch leaves (vihta) while lying prone on my stomach by Russian filmmaker, Alexandra Westheimer, director of the stunning Alone in Four Walls. I, myself, did not partake of running out into the snow to swim in the water. The sauna and whipping were enough stimulation for me. It was great fun watching the guys run across the big picture windows of the restaurant on their way to the water a bit later, though. Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night.
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