Festival News on Wednesday
1. Sayoko´s Heart Beats for Animation
2. Rake Works Like a Dog
3. Mirrors Reflecting the Past

- I used to hate animation, declares Sayoko Kinoshita in a subdued voice. It is a radical statement from a woman who has worked with animation for 30 years and dedicated 12 years of her life for founding the Hiroshima Animation Festival. How did the former film hater end up in the jury of the Tampere film festival international competition?

Sayoko smiles and explains: After finishing the arts school in the 60s she worked in an animation studio, where she had to draw the same characters over and over again. Fed up, she wanted to create her own characters, her own art, so she started making independent films with her husband Renzo. After their film about the Hiroshima bomb got noticed they started their long work for founding the film festival.

Art, not business

- My big dream is to make animation known as art, says Sayoko. The Hiroshima festival was founded to develop "the world of animation". The first festival took place in 1985 and at present Sayoko is organizing the sixth one. Sayoko and Renzo still make their own films but the festival takes a big part of their time and energy.

- It is important that young talents get exposure and get to develop their skills. Sayoko says she understands maybe too well the situation the filmmakers are in: it is rough to send your work to be criticized. However, empathy has to move aside because quality is most important. This woman never forgets her task - promoting short films.

text: Sanna Koskinen
photo: Mikko Keinonen
translation: Marjo Kuusto


Back to the List of Contents
Back to the Selection Page

A day before the beginning of the Tampere Film Festival the organizers and volunteers are still busy with work. Rake is tagging films in the Pakkahuone reel room.

- It is the same thing every year, the autumn is peaceful and a week into the new year everybody notices tons of work still needs to be done, says Raimo Silius alias Rake, one of the founding members of the Tampere Film Festival.

The first festival was organized in 1970.

- It started out as an underground thing, an audience of around 1000 to 2000, and in some screenings police checking we didn't let minors in.

Rake joined the Selection Committee in 1978 for thirteen years, and for the past ten years he has been in the Board of Directors.

An internationally
esteemed festival

There are no big fiascos in the history of the Tampere festival.

- In the beginning of the 80s we showed too many long films and our image deteriorated. Sometimes a screening has been delayed by an hour and a half but we have never had to cancel any. Last year we made the decision of taking the sci-fi films into the festival too late, and in each three screening one of the films was missing.

Rake says he's partial to testify for the good sides of the festival but goes ahead anyway.

- It is still a small event but we have managed to gain status as one of the most esteemed short film festivals in the world.

- Like in previous years this year too we have a couple of big theme series, but personally I'm especially happy about the small series we have had, like this year's screenings of three Ubu animations and the Love Goddesses film anthology.

text: Mikko Niiles
photo: Mikko Muranen
translation: Marjo Kuusto
Back to the List of Contents
Back to the Selection Page

Researcher Lauri Tykkyläinen looks for and restores treasures for the Finnish Film Archive. He started his work in 1973, when he joined a project of saving old nitrate films. The project had started in 1972 and was supposed to be finished in ten years, but the schedule was too tight and the work is still going on.

Enthusiastic work

Lauri Tykkyläinen clearly enjoys his work, he talks about the subject volubly.
- The work is not over when an old film has been copied. We always try to improve the quality, so the work is continuous. An important part of the work is done when planning how to work the material. The final work is done using a laboratory technique which depends on whether the original material has been preserved as a whole or in some other form. We don't choose the material to be saved based on the contents, but on the quality - bad quality that is - of the copy.

Detective work

Tykkkyläinen's work isn't confined to the material in danger of being destroyed.
- We look for and file all kind of things that have to do with films. Texts and scripts are also a piece of film history.

In 1984 a bill was passed that entails the filmmakers to send a copy of each film to the Finnish Film Archive. Tykkyläinen however needs to look for old nitrate copies.

- This is like detective work. The best place to find material is from those who ordered the film, but sometimes films can also be found in estates and junkyards. Often people think that attics and storerooms of old film theatres would be good places to find films but they aren't. A lot of inflammable nitrate copies have been destroyed.

- Old films were a burden because there wasn't much room to store them and because they were inflammable. Some were also destroyed in accidents.

Aho & Soldan offer experiences

The Finnish Film Archive series presents five films by Heikki Aho and Björn Soldan.
- Aho and Soldan were and still are higly valued professionals. Their short films are fresh and spontaneous and I'm sure the audience will not be disappointed.

Tykkyläinen thinks these films are like mirrors reflecting the past.

- For the youth of today the films tell about the old times and they will love the nostalgia in them. Older people again will want to see how well the films depict the time of their youth.

text & photo: Kirsi Pelttari
translation: Marjo Kuusto

Back to the List of Contents