This year’s film art program of the Outsider Art Festival offers strong emotions, empowerment, new points of view, beauty and mysticism.
The short films presented in the OAF film program are Village (Mika Ruohola), GEN Z trilogy (Kati Kallio & the Ihanat dance group), Karjalaine iäni (Anne Kalliola), as well as You Look Like a Thought From the Past and This May Be the End (both Miska Tuononen). The curators of the film art program have been Niklas Nyholm and Joonas Nyholm and mentor Ilona Ahti.
OAF interviewed the makers of Karjalaine iäni about the upcoming festival. The film is a fitting addition to the OAF’s repertoire, director Anne Kalliola describes.
“If anything, Karelians have been outsiders in Finland. Karelians are a landless nation in both Finland and Russia, and the position of the Karelian-speaking Karelians in particular has been bad. The language and culture have been tried to be erased, or at least their expression has been made very difficult. Nonetheless, Karelians and Karelian speakers have existed all this time, although the majority of the population did not know about them. In this way, Karjalaine iäni comes from outside of what is generally known,” says Kalliola.
“The film is driven by the texts collected from Karelian youth,” Kalliola explains. “In the texts, the youth describe the feelings evoked by the discovery of their own Karelianness and of the Karelian language”, Kalliola continues.
“Getting to know the history of the Karelians is a painful process for many young people. Hopefulness comes from the community and understanding that the experience of being an outsider is not caused by oneself – that there are others who feel the same way,” Kalliola describes, adding that the whole work group is excited to be part of the Outsider Art Festival.
“For once it’s great and safe to be an outsider!”
OAF Film Art Program at Oodi Central Library’s Kino Regina 19th of August. In addition, the films will be screened at the opening of the OAF at the National Museum on the Night of the Arts on August 17th. The events are free and accessible.
The films can also be watched online at the OAF Online Stage if you can’t make it to the live events!
Schedule will be announced later.
