Mika Taanila was the curator of the Theme program for the 60th Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in Germany. Entitled “Memories Can’t Wait – Film without Film” the series featured nine individual programs and one special program for children. Altogether 38 cinematic works were shown during May 1–6, 2014.
Hans Scheugl: zzz – hamburg movie (1968) courtesy of the artistErnst Schmidt jr: Hell’s Angels (1968). photo: Daniel GasenzerErnst Schmidt jr: Hell’s Angels (1968). photo: Daniel GasenzerErnst Schmidt jr: Hell’s Angels (1968). photo: Daniel GasenzerJosef Dabernig: Ticket Count (2014) courtesy of the artistSandra Gibson & Luis Recoder: Stations of Light (2014) photo: Daniel GasenzerMarko Vuokola: RGB LIght (1996/2014) photo: Daniel GasenzerVALIE EXPORT: Abstract Film No. 2 (2014) photo: Mika Taanila
Spindrift is 1966 short film by Jan Bark and Erkki Kurenniemi, reconstructed in 2013.
Spindrift was a project initiated by Swedish composer/musician Jan Bark. In 1965 he proposed SVT to produce an experiment for a new kind of “music for black and white TV”, exploring audiovisual synesthesia. Bark’s friend Erkki Kurenniemi programmed the animations with Pace TR-48 analogue computer at Helsinki University’s Department of Nuclear Physics where he was hired as an assistant while being a student at the same time. These animated sequences were then shot directly off the computer screen, some of them treated with optical printer later on.
Spindrift was completed in 1966 and premiered at Computer Music Seminar, Dipoli, Espoo on the 28th of October 1967 on 16mm film print. On the 15th of December 1968 it was broadcasted by SVT. No further screenings are known.
The screening print and the negative of Spindrift are no longer at SVT archives. They are lost, most likely destroyed accidentally in the early 1970s.
The reconstructed film is a not the definite form of what Bark and Kurenniemi achieved. The editing is based on the surviving 16mm positive ”work copy” film reel, which has been cleaned and re-scanned. The soundtrack is compiled from the two 1/4” unedited tapes containing music composed for the film, edited now on the basis of Bark’s hand-written “mixing process chart”. This reconstruction of sound and image was done with the help of Bark’s work diaries, laboratory notes and reminiscences of people who were involved in the making or saw the film screened in 1967.
The short film Six Day Run is screening at Underground Film & Music Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland on 15–19 October 2014. The screening is part of international short film program “Documentary Shorts”.
The short film SIX DAY RUN is screening at the competition of the 10th Reikäreuna Festival in Orivesi. The “Competition 1” program takes place twice, on Saturday 6 September at 16:00 at Asema and on Sunday 7 September at 10:00 at Taiston sali.
A rare screening of The Double – Russian Industrial Music and Low Tech Videos (1993, 50 mins) takes place at MY Sound Of Music festival in Salzburg, Austria, on Saturday the 4th of October, 2014 (Das Kino, 19:00). After the screening Anton Nikkilä will give a short talk about the first wave of Russian underground music videos of the early 1990s. He will also show and discuss recent political Youtube music videos from Russia, and answer questions from the audience.
Made in 1993 and originally entitled Kirjoituksia kellarista – venäläistä teollisuusmusiikkia ja low tech -videota the program features a short documentary introduction by Anton Nikkilä and Mika Taanila shot during their trip to Moscow, followed with a selection of perplexing Russian music videos 1989–1993. The program was commissioned back in the days by MuuMedia Festival in Helsinki and Finnish YLE TV1 broadcasters.
The short film Six Day Run is screening at Sandviken’s Kulturnatta event on 13 September, 2014, distributed by Av-arkki. The screening “Finsk videokonst” starts in Kulturcentrum at 22h and features eight other contemporary short films from Finland.
The video installation My Silence is part of Society Acts – The Moderna Exhibtion 2014 at Moderna Museet Malmö in Sweden. The exhibition features 38 contemporary artists and artist groups from, or based in, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Curator: Andreas Nilsson.
Ihminen ja tiede (“Man and Science”, 2011, b/w, 37 seconds) screening as part of “Schriftfilme: Schrift als Bild in Bewegung”– a large exhibition of lettrist cinema at The National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Lithuania 10 October – 9 November 2014
