DocPoint NYC: Finnish Doc Week

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 08 June 2011 07:31

Written by L E Shannon

Finnish Documentary Film Week, or DocPoint NYC, runs June 9 - 13, 2011 at Scandinavia House, 92YTribeca and MoMA in Manhattan and UnionDocs in Brooklyn, New York City.

DocPoint, Helsinki’s documentary film festival and the largest documentary film festival in the Nordic countries, celebrates its 10th birthday in 2011 and returns to New York with a comprehensive program of new Finnish films, as well as a cross section of films ranging the past ten years of the festival’s history.

The program also presents works of celebrated lifetime achievement award winners such as Pirjo Honkasalo and Markku Lehmuskallio.

Panels and discussions will be held with Finnish and American filmmakers.

Some of the films are:

The Face of Death / Kuoleman kasvot
dir. Kiti Luostarinen
A skeleton travels through the film with the director, who volunteers as a nurse in a hospice. She keeps a diary in which she records unanswered questions, and shows life evolving towards death.

The Future Is Not What It Used to Be / Tulevaisuus ei ole entisensä (2002)
dir. Mika Taanila
This is a film about Erkki Kurenniemi, the pioneer of Finnish electronic music, who built a studio for electronic music in the University of Helsinki. He is remembered not only for what he did in the early days of experimental Finnish music, but also for the scandalous band Sperm in the late 1960s. His work also included experimental movies, media art and video installations.
 
The Real McCoy (1998)
dir. Pekka Lehto
"Andy McCoy is the founder of Hanoi Rocks, which is the most successful rock band in Finland. His life has been a blend of success and mishap, of triumph and loss. He is a romantic rock’n’roll icon. This partly fictionalized documentary explores both the creative force that nurtures his talent and the destructive force that obscures his life."

Reindeerspotting - Escape from Santaland / Reindeerspotting - Pako joulumaasta (2010)
dir. Joonas Neuvonen
The director had been a drug user when he trained his camera on his friends. This film depicts one of them, a user of Subutex and other substances, who dreams of an ordinary life somewhere else.

Shadow of the Holy Book / Pyhän kirjan varjo (2008)
dir. Arto Halonen
The Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul) was written by dictator Saparmurat Niyazov as guidance and law for the citizens of Turkmenistan. Ruhnama restricts freedom of speech as well as human rights and, despite the dictator’s death, the book is still a significant influence in the country. International corporations have started translating the propaganda-filled book, which has paid off in significant agreements with the dictatorship. But questions arise about the moral responsibility and obligations of large corporations.
 
War Children / Sotalapset (2003)
dir. Erja Dammert
During World War II, nearly 80,000 Finnish children were evacuated to the neighboring Scandinavian countries, the largest child evacuation in the world. The survivors recount their experiences and memories as they coped in a strange land without their parents, and archival material supplies further history.

The DOKKINO Event will be presented for the audience in New York City. A film screening showing thought-provoking short documentaries targeted to junior high school and high school students will be organized in Scandinavia House on Friday June 10th at 12pm. The program consists of six Finnish short films, some of them made by professionals, but some also by Finnish youngsters during filmmaking workshops organized by DOKKINO. 

The Panels include:

Documentary Distribution Today – Options for connecting with audiences range from signing with a traditional distributors and sales agent to acting as your own distributor or doing a bit of both. This panel reviews the landscape to help filmmakers and producers map out a path for their films.

Documentary Salon: Doc Power with Erja Dammert –  the role of documentary in the changing world.

For more information go to http://tour.docpoint.info/films.

DocPoint NYC - Finnish Documentary Film Week
June 9 - 13, 2011

Scandinavia House – The Nordic Center in America
58 Park Avenue
New York City
www.scandinaviahouse.org

92YTribeca
200 Hudson Street
New York City
www.92YTribeca.org

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York City
www.moma.org

UnionDocs
322 Union Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.uniondocs.org

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