Milja Viita

The protagonist of this documentary, that takes the audience from underneath the blazing sun to the middle of icebergs and through the seven seas, is Jalmar “Jallu” Yrjänen. He is a young seaman from Rauma, Finland, whose fate was to be swallowed by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean as the only fatality of the shipwreck of his vessel, the M/S Mercur, on 8 December, 1925. Milja Viita’s collage film combines primary source material such as letters and logbooks with archival film footage shot between the 1960s and the 1990s. The authentic footage lets us have a glimpse into the day-to-day life of seafarers far from their home ports.

A minimalist film about time, infinity and the life cycle, created in the spirit of William Blake. Shot with Bolex and hand processed on Film Farm in Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada, during the summer 2018.

Bambi is a study on the surface of original Disney classic with the same title. The film is created by using high tech microscope (´Field emission scanning electron microscope, SEM) and by shooting the original Bambi again with Oxberry 1700 Optical printer. What is discovered is the “skin” of the film itself, the focus is on one scratch on the surface of the gelatin emulsion.

People on Sunday is filmed with a hand-cranked camera familiar from silent films and the early films of the Lumière brothers. The flickering images and shimmering light produced by this old technology also characterize Viita's film. People on Sunday refers in its title to the German classic Menchen am Sonntag (1930), which is a well-known example of the impact of historical events on the later interpretation of a film. The inexorable passage of time and the beautiful fragility of life are central themes in both films.

A year in the life of a wildlife bridge over a busy highway in southern Finland, showing the animals crossing over and the traffic flowing under.

When Rauli Badding Somerjoki wrote the song “Lights” in 1975, he sent it to Elvis, the king of rock’n’roll. Badding waited for an answer from the King, whom he hoped would perform his wistful tune. Strange things started happening in Somero when potatoes started popping up in curious shapes.

Buddy, an old stray cat in Toronto, had managed to conquer a small territory of his own in the center of the city. The filmmaker met Buddy’s gaze every time she went out. She befriended her neighbor and captured his last autumn with her old 35mm hand cranked movie camera. Delight at Robert St. is a visual poem about the everyday moments that shape our lives.

Black and white film about breasts, how they grow and ooze milk.