DocPoint draws an audience of nearly 30,000

The 9th DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival closed on Sunday, its films and events drawing over 27,000 festival-goers, of which 22,000 in the cinemas alone. The side event DocPoint Tallinn which was organized for the first time, was also a success with its 2100 visitors. What attracted the visitors of DocPoint Helsinki most were the premier screenings of Finnish documentary films.

The opening film, Joonas Berghäll’s and Mika Hotakainen’s Steam of Life, filled the 700-seater Bio Rex with documentary fans. Afterwards the film that has already become a phenomenon, received a 15 minute round of standing applause as first in DocPoint’s history.

Another great moment of this year’s DocPoint was the Tempo silent film concert, which also gathered a nearly full hall of attendees. The Five Corners Quintet’s improvised jazz accompanied the works of production company Aho & Soldan, featuring a modernizing Finland in the 1930’s.

The new Finnish documentary films truly brought the audience to cinemas, as In the Shadow of Doubt, Auf Wiedersehen Finnland, and of course, Steam of Life, were all sold out, with The Perfumer, Portrait of a Man, Into Eternity, Iceberg Shadow and The Magnetic Man coming in close.

Seminars on American independent film and the state of Finnish film were also a great success, and audiences were quick to find their way to the Meet the director meetings at the festival bar Painobaari, Nicolas Philibert being the most popular on Saturday.

The youth and children’s documentary film event DOKKINO was organized on the 25th-29th January. The main theme of DOKKINO 2010 was family. The event gathered an audience of 2100 pupils from 52 different schools. The industry funding, distribution and networking event, DocPoint Encounters, which was organised for the first time, garnered much praise from participants.

DocPoint will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year, until then, thank you.

Additional information:

Sanna Paakkanen
Press Coordinator
press@docpoint.info