Images of harmony
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Combining theorizing and documentary filmmaking, Harmony and Rupture project investigated the relation of the documentary film tradition and the welfare state project. As an artistic research project, it also aimed at catalyzing new filmmaking approaches and methods of making visible such invisible and abstract societal phenomena as unraveling the Nordic welfare state ideals. The societal tensions and crises may not be as visually dramatic as they were when the paradigms of social documentary were defined, and therefore the documentary filmmakers face a challenge: how such abstract transitions as neoliberalisation, unraveling the commitment to the Nordic welfare state ideals or to the overall shared sense of belonging be cinematically captured? How can the current polarization of society be portrayed in film? The documentary film tradition mostly relies on the serious and solemn, but could absurdism, parody or black humor more accurately capture the complexities of the present crises we are experiencing?
Participants: PI Susanna Helke (Associate Professor), Elina Hirvonen (MA-student), Reetta Huhtanen (doctoral student), Timo Korhonen (post doctoral researcher), Jouko Aaltonen (post doctoral researcher), Markku Heikkinen (filmmaker), Jussi Lehtomäki (MA-student). The project was finalized in January 2022.
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FilmS/Images of Harmony and Rupture project:
Boiling Point (2017)
Author, documentary filmmaker and MA documentary film student Elina Hirvonen’s film Boiling Point (2017) captures the current climate of polarization in Finland. As part of an extensive impact campaign related to the project, over 700 pop-up screenings with discussions were organized in different parts of Finland as well as in other countries. The film and the related campaign explore the ways documentary film can create and enable a shared space for societal debates and dialogue in this polarized era. see more
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Ruthless Times - Songs of Care (93 mins. 2022)
Directed by Susanna Helke Script: Susanna Helke, Markku Heikkinen Composer: Anna-Mari Kähärä Producer: Timo Korhonen Road Movies LTD. A documentary film with choral tableaus about the elderly care crisis in a Nordic welfare state. Ruthless Times – Songs of Care is a documentary film with choral tableaus juxtaposed with documentary episodes, capturing with its dark humor and poignant moments, the experiences of those working in the field: a care worker is blacklisted for revealing malpractices in her unit, the retirees of a remote municipality witness the privatization of their care services, robots roam the halls of care homes and nurses are relegated to remote-care call centers. The care-workers’ anonymous testimonies are composed into choral songs; elderly citizens sing impudent songs playing with the economic jargon of our time. What cannot be talked about, has to be sung! Discussion forums
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Publications
Helke, S. & Viitanen, Essi (eds) Repeämän kuvat: Dokumentaarinen elokuva ja hyvinvointivaltion murtumia Espoo: Aalto ARTS Books. 424 p. (Aalto-University Publishing Series ART + DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE; vol. 2022, no. 1)
Repeämän kuvat etsii taiteellisen ja tekijälähtöisen tutkimuksen näkökulmasta vastausta kysymykseen, millaisin keinoin dokumentaarinen elokuva voi tehdä näkyväksi hyvinvointivaltion murrosta. Millaisin ehdoin dokumentaarinen elokuva on yhteiskunnallista tai poliittista?
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Cinema, Fossil Modernity and the Ecosocial Crises of the Anthropocene.
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