ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
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The ninth edition of Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF), will happen in the small coastal town of Harstad in the Arctic Northern Norway, 7 - 10 November 2024. It gives a great opportunity to experience engaging and groundbreaking film and moving images made in the Arctic and internationally, and to hear talks and take part in interesting discussions and workshops. We celebrate film - through past, present and future - and explore our society through all the artistic expressions of film. The festival has an exciting combination of conventional film and 'moving images'; video-art, experimental film, time-based installations and sculptures, and explore the space where cinema and gallery meet. It is all set in the spectacular Arctic scenery: fjords, mountains and stunning Northern Lights, and you can experience the historic but now very modern town of Harstad; its people, museum, gallery, cafés, restaurants, and boutique shops. The perfect setting for an intimate film festival with both an experimental and an Arctic edge.
The festival is based on the fact that the relatively short history of film is now starting to measure up to a considerable size, and that our identity is now intertwined by film, as we meet it through TV, the internet, the cinema, galleries, our Smartphones etc. We can now reflect several generations back in time using film archive. At the same time film reflects forward, through the exploration of artistic expressions using new technology, as Virtual Reality and video mapping. Film today is a very powerful artistic expression, as can be seen by the fact that in some countries, film directors and visual artists within the moving image are imprisoned because of their works. The festival therefore takes an explorative approach to the whole range of artistic expressions through film, throughout history, to see where our different stories fit in, especially the Arctic story which seldom is looked at. How are our stories expressed through film and seen in relation to the rest of the world? The combination of conventional film and moving images allows an exploration of the touchpoint between these, which again is a seldom explored territory.
The festival hopes to be an inspirational and engaging arena for the general public, and students and professionals within both the film and art world. Current topics in film and the arts will be discussed, with a different main topic every year, all set in a broader social, political and cultural context of the Arctic and the surrounding world. This will be facilitated by showing films and moving images of high artistic quality, and a broad programme of discussions, talks and workshops.
All the above makes Arctic Moving Image and Film Festival (AMIFF) unique among the other film festivals in Norway. The aim is to create interesting discussions and to be a source of inspiration. Also, for those unfamiliar with people in the Arctic and how they live, visiting the film festival and seeing film from the Arctic will be an ideal way in.
The title of AMIFF 2024
VÁLMMAS ON IT is the title of the Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF) 2024. It is created by the chief curator for AMIFF 2024, Kjetil Berge. Here is his curator text:
“VÁLMMAS is a Sami word and means “I'm on the move, ready”. ON IT is an English expression, which means to actively address a problem, as in: “I’m on it!”
VÁLMMAS ON IT, is an affirming expression, meaning being prepared for action and taking action at the same time. The future is always in the present and carries our histories. The title is a starting point for a conversation on making, thinking and acting together in the here and now.
VÁLMMAS ON IT, AMIFF 2024 is the third of a series of art events from a queer perspective connecting potential allies between divergent groups and affiliations.
The first exhibition BEND IT, in 2022 at Atelier Nord co-curated with Ida Lykken Gosh was a group exhibition celebrating the queer, their co-players and speculative co-conspirators.
Event number two, BEND IT, MAYBE ( film festival AMIFF in 2023) The film festival focussed on group belonging via recent Norwegian immigration history and web-based exploration of identity through avatars.
VÁLMMAS ON IT is composed of two languages opposite in usage and recognition placed side by side. The first part is in Sami. A transnational language group almost eradicated. The second in English which no longer represents only English culture. Started by colonisation it is continuously spreading and expanding its global reach.
Norwegianization, the destructive consequence of the Norwegian state's policy towards the Sami culture has made the Sami and other minority languages decline in use. In the Sami area where AMIFF takes place, it has almost disappeared.
Art is always a useful political tool which can be pushed for gain and is infinitely adaptable. It can be used to justify difference, and provide groups and affiliations with symbols and cultural narratives to underpin their uniqueness. It can also perforate walls of separation and create affiliations across dividing lines.
History has been determined by the division of space, into private property, nations and empires and has led to a colonisation of time. What if we think about the present as a moment that we share, on Earth, with our different histories, experiences and identities? How shall we free our time now? “ - Kjetil Berge