Seminars at DocPoint 2010

Students of the Aalto University film school present:

Free Cinema happening

"Being Finnish is embarrassing. In Finland, films are made with an imaginary 'domestic mass audience' in mind, with the expected results. Bitter critics who ruin the chances for Finnish cinema, investors who try to play it safe and end up stifling the creative process, and producers who don’t trust filmmakers all get their share of the blame. Everybody’s waiting for a new Kaurismäki like the second coming of Jesus.

Enough with the bullshit! Self-fulfilling prophecies and tired old attitudes will not get us out of the quagmire of inbred bitterness! Films need to be made for people, not for 'Finns.'"

This is the starting point for the discussion on the current state and the future of Finnish cinema at DocPoint’s opening seminar. In addition to a panel discussion spiced up with video inserts, the programme also includes live performances. Speakers at the seminar include producer Markus Selin, young filmmaker Miika Ullakko, Film commissioner Kaisu Isto from the Finnish Film Foundation and film critic Kalle Kinnunen.

Tue 26th of Jan, 1pm–4pm

Ateneum Hall, Ateneum Art Museum. Entrance from Ateneuminkuja. The language of the event is Finnish. Free entry.

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Polish Documentaries through the Eyes of Marcel Łoziński

Ranking among the world’s top documentary filmmakers, Marcel Łoziński is a veteran of Polish cinema, who has been working in his home country since the 1960s. In his two-hour lecture Łoziński tells about his way of making documentary films and to explain how the political situation in Poland has influenced the country’s documentary film production and his own work from the 1970s to the 2000s. Explanations are given to issues such as why only four of the twelve films Łoziński directed before the year 1980 found their way into theatrical distribution in their original form during the era of censorship. The event will be opened by director and producer Jarmo Jääskeläinen.

Łoziński is one of Poland's most internationally acknowledged documentary filmmakers. He has won awards at the Leipzig, Oberhausen and San Francisco film festivals, to mention but a few. Łoziński has also made a significant contribution by teaching many of the rising Polish documentarians whose films are featured in DocPoint’s Polish Heart programme.

Thu 28th of Jan, 2pm–4pm

Kiasma Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Mannerheimintie 2)
The language of the event is Polish, with Finnish translation. Free entry.

Jarmo Jääskeläinen's article on Marcel Łoziński: http://www.docpoint.info/en/node/1631
Marcel Łoziński retrospective at DocPoint: http://www.docpoint.info/en/2010_Marcel_Lozinski

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Defining Borders and Taking Risks:
Comments on immigration, helping and inadvertent civil disobedience

No individual gain.
No personal connections.
And still I aid other people.
Why?

In DocPoint’s main seminar, individuals tell other individuals about voluntary work done for the benefit of other people. What makes one reach beyond one’s own family and circle of friends? What makes one take risks and bear unpleasant things for other people? How to choose the recipient of help? What ethical questions arise from helping people? How does helping change the helper? What are the limits for helping?

Even if the laws work against immigrants, the homeless, problem youths and prostitutes, can the citizens work for them. What looks like civil disobedience or radical activism to some, is brotherly love to others. Come and hear what a person having hidden a deportee, a documentary filmmaker, a foster parent and a priest working with homosexuals have to say, when they are given five minutes.

After the initial interventions, there will be a panel discussion on what an individual citizen can do for immigrants, followed by open discussion.

The seminar is organized together with Into Publishing and Demos Helsinki and it is chaired by Hanna Nikkanen/fifi.voima.fi
 
Sat 30th Jan, 12pm–2pm

Ateneum Hall, Ateneum Art Museum. Entry from Ateneuminkuja. The language of the event is Finnish with Finnish Sign Language translation (in cooperation with the Finnish Association of the Deaf). Free entry.

The short film Found (dir. Paramita Nath, 6 min.) will be screened as part of the seminar.
 

SHORT SPEECHES (5 MIN.):

Juha Suoranta is an educationist, a non-fiction writer and a professor at the University of Tampere. He offered a hiding place for Ashraf Sahil, an Afghan refugee waiting for deportation from Finland.

Berni Goldblat is a Swiss documentary filmmaker working in Africa. Goldblat has directed the film the film The Hillside Crowd, which will be screened at DocPoint.

Marja Kaskela is a foster mother and a developmental director at Pesäpuu Helsinki, centre of expertise of child welfare.

Jaana Partti is a priest for the parish of Kallio. Her fields of specialty are confirmation, congregational work and work with sexual minorities.

Jaana Kauppinen is the CEO of Pro-tukipiste – an organization advancing the basic and human rights of people having worked and working in the sex industry.

Ari-Pekka Korkalainen is a volunteer and a peer worker at the No Fixed Abode NGO (Vailla vakinaista asuntoa ry), which strives to enhance the living conditions of those living in shelters.

Heikki Hursti is the CEO of Charitable Association (Laupeudentyö ry) – a Finnish Christian NGO which donates cloths and food to people in need. Hursti has previously worked e.g. as a youth worker and as a pastor for the Pentecostal Church.

Pauliina Seppälä is a member of volunteer based Refugee Hospitality Club founded in 2009 as a reaction to the public discussion on a new, heavily opposed asylum seeker’s reception centre in Punavuori, Helsinki. RHC aims to enhance the cooperation between the residents of the centre and other people living in Helsinki.

PANELISTS:

Juha Suoranta (see above)

Tommi Laitio is a researcher specializing in identity politics and media. At Demos Helsinki he conducts a future-oriented course for decision makers about movement and migration.

Katja Tuominen is student of aesthetics and women’s studies and an activist at Free Movement (Vapaa liikkuvuus) – a network working against emigration hostile politics by giving legal counselling and organizing media campaigns, as well as helping people in need for accommodation.

Father Heikki Huttunen is a priest for the Finnish Orthodox Church and the head secretary of the Finnish Ecumenical Council, which in year 2007 published a guide for improving the treatment of people applying for asylum in Finland.