DocPoint’s Aho & Soldan Award goes to director Kiti Luostarinen

DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival is proud to present documentarist Kiti Luostarinen with the Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award for her long, successful career. The festival will honour the awardee by screening a selected retrospective of her work. DocPoint will be held on the 26th –31st January 2010, and the award will be handed to Luostarinen during the opening ceremony at the Bio Rex cinema on Tuesday, the 26th of January at 6:30 pm.

The Aho & Soldan Award has been handed out by DocPoint since the festival’s first year 2002 as a tribute to pioneering Finnish documentarists Heikki Aho and Björn Soldan. Criteria for receiving the award include a remarkable life's work, contributing to the Finnish creative documentary film and a successful long-lasting career as a documentary film director.  The previous award winners are Markku Lehmuskallio (2002), Lasse Naukkarinen (2003), Pirjo Honkasalo (2004) and Peter von Bagh (2005).

Kiti Luostarinen studied social psychology and pedagogics, but through her hobbies in painting and poetry, was driven towards making movies in the early 1990s.  Throughout her career, Luostarinen has, in her own very personal style, dealt with themes relating to the most universal, as well as the most intimate moments in human life; her works are united by her curiosity and her immense respect for life. Luostarinen’s documentaries offer the viewers a unique opportunity to look at the significant moments of their own life and to identify emotions of their own. Vutti Vuugle (1991), is a daring plunge into the world according to a child, a theme that Sanokaa mitä näitte (1993), her first feature-length documentary, continues to explore. Strong feminist views are exposed in Naisenkaari (1997), exploring femininity and a woman’s relationship to her own body, while Kuoleman kasvot (2003) portrays death as a beautiful, austere moment. Her latest film, Palnan tyttäret (2007) delves into the identity building process of an adopted child.

In honour of Kiti Luostarinen’s Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award, DocPoint will be screening a series of her films.

The Aho & Soldan Award: Kiti Luostarinen

Vutti vuugle (1990, 17 min), 28 January 5 pm, Maxim 1
Sanokaa mitä näitte (1992, 53 min), 27 January 5 pm, Ateneum-sali
Kodinkonetanssi (1992, 16 min), 30 January 5 pm, Ateneum-sali
Omat askeleet (1998, 16 min), 30 January 5 pm, Ateneum-sali
Se oikea – tarinoita rakkaudesta (1999, 53 min) 28 January 5 pm, Maxim 1
Kuoleman kasvot (2003, 53 min), 31 January 5 pm, Ateneum-sali
Palnan tyttäret (2007, 70 min), 29 January 5:30 pm, Ateneum-Sali

Q&A and live performance:
Kiti Luostarinen, winner of the Aho & Soldan Award

Kiti Luostarinen will tell of her work and answer questions from the audience at the screening of her films Omat askeleet and Kodinkonetanssi at Ateneum-sali. During this special event, dancer Ulla Koivisto will perform her act from Kodinkonetanssi live, and long-time colleagues of Luostarinen will be heard, as well.

Saturday 30th January, 5 pm–6:30pm
Ateneum-sali, Ateneum Art Museum (Kaivokatu 2). Entrance through Ateneuminkuja. The event is in Finnish and will be held after the screening. Tickets are 6.50 €, available at DocPoint’s resellers.

Winners of DocPoint awards 2002-2010

2010: (Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award) director Kiti Luostarinen
2009: (Apollo Award) production company Epidem
2008: (Apollo Award) movie business multi-talent Jörn Donner 
2007: (Apollo Award) documentary researcher Ilkka Kippola
2006: (Apollo Award) director, producer, founder of Dokumenttiprojekti Jarmo Jääskeläinen
2005: (Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award) director Peter von Bagh
2004: (Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award) director Pirjo Honkasalo
2003: (Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award) director Lasse Naukkarinen
2002: (Aho & Soldan Lifetime Achievement Award) director Markku Lehmuskallio