Where else you can see them?
TV and archives help between festivals

Selling tickets to the cinema at Tampere Film Festival 2004.

If you want to see short films outside film festivals, you have to go to some trouble. The markets are not exactly pushing short films forward to consumers. Instead, tv shows long films every day, movie theatres show bigger and bigger spectacles, and video and DVD shelves in stores and video rental shops are bending under the weight of feature films.

In Finland, we have a few festivals that have short films included in their programme. The most important ones are the Tampere International Film Festival and the DocPoint Documentary Film Festival in Helsinki. The Finnish Film Contact, a film distribution association founded by Finnish movie makers, organises once a year in Helsinki a short film and documentary film review called "Kettupäivät" ("Fox days").

But there is life outside the festivals, too. So where else can one watch short films? "Television is the most important distribution channel for short films at the moment", says archivist Mari Kiiski from the Finnish Film Archive.

The public channel TV1 has a programme place for 35-minute-long short films: Uusi Kino (The New Kino") on Sundays at 23.00. Last year, TV1 showed 70 short films, 42 of them Finnish. During a period of three months, from last November to February, Uusi Kino gathered about 70.000 viewers. "It is exceptional to have a specific program place for short films", says Sari Volanen, the producer of Uusi Kino. "In Uusi Kino, we show films of all types: animations, live action films, experimental films, dance films, documents. We both co-produce and buy films for Uusi Kino."

All over the country, there are more or less active film clubs. They sometimes include short films in their screenings. The film theatre Orion in Helsinki, owned by the Finnish Film Archive (SEA), shows short films now and then. SEA also rents theatres in other towns for its screenings, Niagara in Tampere and Diana in Turku among others.

Seldom for sale, try renting

If you want to choose which short film to watch, or if you are looking for a particular film, check out the library. According to the YLE Cassette and Disc Sales, libraries have bought short drama films for their collections.

However, the likeliest place to find a short film is the Finnish Film Archive, especially if you are looking for a Finnish film. It is the statutory task of SEA to file Finnish films. SEA only files foreign films if the distributors send the films to SEA themselves. The Archive mainly serves movie makers and researchers, but other persons interested in films are also welcome. At SEA, you can watch films against a service fee.

"If the movie is on film, a member of our staff has to come and show the movie. Watching a movie on video is easier for a movie enthusiast because it doesn't require the presence of a staff member", Mari Kiiski says. So far, not very many "laypeople" have wanted to watch films in the SEA Archive.

You may also get the film from the Finnish Film Contact. The association rents out movies as film and video copies for both communities and private persons.

It is usually impossible to find a place to buy the film. YLE Shop has only some short films for sale. "We would like to offer more short films, but so far they haven't sold very well. DVDs will introduce a new possibility: many programmes can be sold on one disc, like several films by one director. This should appeal more to the consumers", says Päivi Moore, head of YLE Export, the YLE department responsible for sales.

Perhaps the DVD will finally bring short films close to the viewers. As another option remains the Internet.

Facts: It is possible to see short films

- on television

- in festivals

- in special screenings in movie theatres

- in film clubs

- by borrowing from libraries

- by renting from the Finnish Film Contact

- in the Finnish Film Archive

- by buying a video or a DVD (still seldom available)

- on the Internet