"When there is nowhere to go, nowhere is home"

Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact.

Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the film follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey. Human Flow is a witness to its subjects and their desperate search for safety, shelter and justice: from teeming refugee camps to perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders; from dislocation and disillusionment to courage, endurance and adaptation; from the haunting lure of lives left behind to the unknown potential of the future. Human Flow comes at a crucial time when tolerance, compassion and trust are needed more than ever. This visceral work of cinema is a testament to the unassailable human spirit and poses one of the questions that will define this century: Will our global society emerge from fear, isolation, and self-interest and choose a path of openness, freedom, and respect for humanity? Amazon Studios and Participant Media present, in association with AC Films, Human Flow, a film directed by Ai Weiwei.

Human Flow is produced by Ai Weiwei, Chin-Chin Yap and Heino Deckert and executive produced by Andrew Cohen of AC Films with Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann of Participant Media.

Length 2t 20min. Documentary. Director: Ai Weiwei, 2017. Rating: 15 år Språk og tekst: Engelsk ProduksjonsDistributør: Nordisk Filmdistribusjon

Jason Havneraas and Kjetil Berge are doing a collaborative project during AMIFF 2020, where they retrospectively summarize their production from the High North over the last seven years. This in the form of an installation in the foyer of Harstad Kino during the entire festival 15 - 18 October, as well as a short film program with a conversation with the artists and curator Kristian Skylstad. The work will be joined together with a new video work, produced in Harstad, especially for AMIFF 2020, and which will be presented at the opening of AMIFF on 15 October.

Jason Havneraas (b. 1978) is an artist who works with photography, video and film. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, lives and works in Oslo. He took his BA in Photography from the University of Plymouth, UK, and his MFA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Trondheim. He has had a number of solo, duo and group exhibitions, including the Photo Gallery, Oslo, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Noplace, Oslo and The National Portrait Gallery, London.

Kjetil Ingvar Berge (b. 1957) is a Norwegian visual artist who works with video, photography and sculpture. He was born in Ølen, lives and works in London, Great Britain, but also spends a lot of time at Kvalnes in Lofoten. In 2006, he participated in the Havana Biennale in Cuba. Selected solo exhibitions are Oslo Kunstforening in 1997, Galleri MGM in 2001, LAUTOM contemporary in 2010 and the artist-run gallery Noplace in Oslo in 2013. He has his education from the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1987-1989), Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa i Portugal (1984-1985) og Bergens Kunsthåndverkskole (1982-1986). He has been purchased by The Arts Council in the United Kingdom, the National Museum in Oslo, Jyväskylä Art Collections in Finland, Oslo Municipality's art collections, the Embassy in London and the Norwegian Cultural Council.

Film and media scientist Monica Mecsei will look at how different perspectives on historical and cultural points of view establish different types of meeting points that weave together past and present. Monica Mecsei will give a lecture and show a program with Sami films by Elle Sofe Sara and Sara Margrethe Oskal. This collection of recent films reflects on Sami identity. Elle Sofe Sara is a festival artist at the Festival in Northern Norway in 2021. Elle Sofe will be in conversation online as part of the event.

Monica Mecsei works with Sami film in film and cultural historical perspective, and she has a doctorate in film studies from NTNU. As a university lecturer at NTNU, she has taught a number of film and media studies subjects. Sami film has seen remarkable growth in recent years, especially after the establishment of a Sami film center in Kautokeino in 2007. The growth includes a marked increase in the number of film productions and female directors. The increased production volume has given variation in the film narratives.

Director Elle Sofe Sara :

Biegga savkala duoddara duohken lea soames (The wind whispers there is someone behind the tundra) 2007

Juoigangiehta (The yoiking hand) 2011

Sámi Bojá (Sami boy) 2014

Giitu giitu (Thank you Lord) 2019

Ribadit (Pulling the belt) 2019

Director Sara Margrethe Oskal:

Beaivvi Nieida (Daughter of the Sun) 2018

Language and text: Sami and English.

Playing time 1h. Directed by: Elle Sofe Sara and Sara Margrethe Oskal Nationality: Sami Age limit: 15 years

We have the pleasure of inviting you to the dance film «Kalde Mønster», directed by Sigurd Johan Eide who is a professional dancer grown up locally to Harstad. The film is a result of Bygda Dansar's project in Troms; "Arctic Takt". The performers, dance material and music are from Troms, and it was filmed in Øverbygd.

“Almost three years have passed since Arctic Rhythm - The village dances Troms, came to make young people aware of their own unique intangible cultural heritage, namely the folk dance from Troms. In these 3 years, the project has visited many schools, danced with several hundred young people, held 16 dance gatherings, made one performance, and now we look forward to taking you into the dance film «Kalde Mønster».

The film is an episodic short story film where the interaction between the young people in the film is central, both as fellow human beings and dancers. Closeness, rhythm and the power of dance are the key elements. The action is substantiated with quotes from older sources and interviews about dance in Troms and the surrounding areas. ” - Kalottspel.no

Music by Benjamin Mørk, and the trio Julie Alapnes, Kristian S Olstad and Mariann Torset. Director: Sigurd Johan Heide, Camera: Eirik Heim / CruxFilm, Editing: Marte Aasen Production year: 2020. Playing time: 37 min.

Plastic Ocean Stop plastic pollution. Be part of the solution. A Plastic Ocean is an award-winning feature length documentary brought to you by a group of dedicated scientists, film-makers, social entrepreneurs, scholars, environmentalists and journalists, that explores the fragile state of our oceans and uncovers alarming truths about the consequences of our disposable lifestyle.

A Plastic Ocean documents the global effects of plastic pollution and highlights workable technologies and innovative solutions that everyone - from governments to individuals - can do, to create a cleaner and greener ocean. A Plastic Ocean has been selected for screenings at international conferences and festivals around the world including at the Smithsonian Institute and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, where the film was seen by former US President Barack Obama and environmentalists Sylvia Earle and Jane Goodall.

English language only.

Artist talk with Crispin Gurholt and art professor Nicolas Siepen in Galleri NordNorge Sunday 18 October 11:30 HRS. They will be online from Denmark and Germany.

Exhibition opening at Galleri NordNorge 17:00 HRS. Walking to installation at 17:45 HRS (10 min walk). Free, but signing up is necessary. A link for signing up will come here soon.

This year it is twenty years since the Norwegian visual artist Crispin Gurholt made his first Live Photo installation and AMIFF has invited Crispin Gurholt to make a site-specific Live Photo installation in Harstad. Gurholt will also have a solo exhibition in Galleri Nord-Norge, called Entrapped Moments, where he presents a selection of his photographs and video works from the past 20 years.

Since 2000, Gurholt has developed his unique form of work; Live Photo, where he challenges photography, its connection to the moment and the dichotomy between fiction and reality. Live Photos give associations to film sets, and are site-specific live installations where the artist stages people in real environments as a frozen tableau. The settings in Live Photos convey existential and socio-political themes and are located in the public or private space. As of today, the artist has created 28 unique Live Photos.

Crispin Gurholt (b. 1965, Oslo) is a graduate of the Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo and of the New York Film School SCE. Gurholt has, among other things, participated in the Havana Biennale in Cuba and the Venice Biennale's Official Collateral Program, he has had solo exhibitions and major projects at a number of Norwegian art institutions Crispin Gurholt's artistic expression has grown through a complex background in film, theater and dance, as a lighting designer, props, set designer, director and film photographer. livephoto.no

"Laura (Rashida Jones) lives in New York with her husband and children, but begins to suspect that family life is not as idyllic as it may seem. Is husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) unfaithful to his colleague? Laura joins her father Felix (Bill Murray), an aging playboy who believes he has the upper hand on how men work. It's set for a spy trip in New York. The goal is to find evidence that Dean is not to be trusted, but perhaps both the suspicion and the journey through the city is as much about the need to bring father and daughter closer together?

With On the Rocks, we finally get the pleasure of seeing Bill Murray in a feature film by Sofia Coppola again, 17 years after Lost in Translation. Along with Somewhere, the Lost in Translation Coppola film On the Rocks is most reminiscent of; in mood and temperament, and with communication difficulties between people as a kind of basis. This new, whimsical comedy is also about different perceptions of relationships and expectations based on gender - framed by a modern New York and music by Phoenix. " - Filmweb

Age limit: Allowed for everyone Language: English. Text English. Actors: Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, Marlon Wayans, Jenny Slate, Jessica Henwick Genre: Director: Sofia Coppola Nationality: USA Production Year: 2020

The window is located between inside and outside, us and the world. The Norwegian architectural theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926-2000) argues that the architectural window is particularly important in articulating the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, worthy of our attention. Andersen’s lecture and screening use this statement as a starting point and asks what role the window played in the theorist’s life and work, and how filmmaking can be a way to approach a series of in-between spaces: between life and death, here and there, then and now, me and you, us and them. The lecture and screening consist of three films, contextualised by a reading, whereas a fourth film is installed in a window in Harstad.

Anna Ulrikke Andersen is a Norwegian filmmaker and architectural historian, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where her thesis explored a series of windows in the life and work of Christian Norberg-Schulz through filmmaking and essay writing. Her work has been widely presented and screened, including the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Royal Academy of Arts London, Arts Activated Australia 2018, and the Architecture and Design Film Festival Palm Springs 2020. Her work has been published in Architectural Research Quarterly, Screenworks and InForma. She was 2018/2019 fellow at Harvard Film Study Center, held a residency at Jørn Utzon’s villa Can Lis at Majorca through the Danish Arts Fund, and has been awarded grants from the Norwegian Arts Council and Viken Filmsenter.

Language and text: english. Age rating: 15 years.

Mattias Härenstam er en svensk kunstner virksom i Norge som jobber innen trykk, skulptur og film. Tematikken omhandler ofte situasjoner der kontrollen går tapt og kaoset bobler til overflaten. Personlig kontroll, men også kontroll på et større, sosialt og politisk plan. AMIFF viser et retrospektivt filmprogram av Härenstam. Härenstam vil være i samtale med kurator Kristian Skylstad som del av arrangementet.

Härenstam er utdannet ved Vestlandets Kunstakademi i Bergen 1992–1996 og Städelsschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste i Frankfurt am Main 1995. Han har siden arbeidet med blant annet videokunst (kortfilmer), installasjoner, skulpturer, gjerne i tre, og tresnitt. Han har deltatt på en mengde kollektivutstillinger rundt om i verden og hatt flere egne separatutstillinger i Norden og Tyskland. Tresnittene har blant annet blitt vist på Høstutstillinga og på separatutstillinger i Galleri Norske Grafikere, Art-Claims-Impulse Contemporary Fine Arts i Berlin og Luleå Konsthall. De er innkjøpt av Nasjonalmuseet, Utenriksdepartementet, Luleå Kommunale Kunstsamlinger og andre. I 2013 ble hans kortfilm Rekonstruksjon nominert til Amandaprisen i kategorien for beste kortfilm.

Spilletid 45 min. Sjanger: Kunstfilm Regi: Mattias Härenstam Aldersgrense: 15 år Språk: engelsk/norsk

Exhibition opening at Galleri NordNorge 17:00 HRS. Walking to installation at 17:45 HRS (10 min walk). Free, but signing up is necessary. Sign up here.

Artist talk with Crispin Gurholt and art professor Nicolas Siepen in Galleri NordNorge Sunday 18 October 11:30 HRS. They will be online from Denmark and Germany.

This year it is twenty years since the Norwegian visual artist Crispin Gurholt made his first Live Photo installation and AMIFF has invited Crispin Gurholt to make a site-specific Live Photo installation in Harstad. Gurholt will also have a solo exhibition in Galleri Nord-Norge, called Entrapped Moments, where he presents a selection of his photographs and video works from the past 20 years.

Since 2000, Gurholt has developed his unique form of work; Live Photo, where he challenges photography, its connection to the moment and the dichotomy between fiction and reality. Live Photos give associations to film sets, and are site-specific live installations where the artist stages people in real environments as a frozen tableau. The settings in Live Photos convey existential and socio-political themes and are located in the public or private space. As of today, the artist has created 28 unique Live Photos.

Crispin Gurholt (b. 1965, Oslo) is a graduate of the Norwegian Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo and of the New York Film School SCE. Gurholt has, among other things, participated in the Havana Biennale in Cuba and the Venice Biennale's Official Collateral Program, he has had solo exhibitions and major projects at a number of Norwegian art institutions Crispin Gurholt's artistic expression has grown through a complex background in film, theater and dance, as a lighting designer, props, set designer, director and film photographer. livephoto.no

Read a text here written especially for the exhibition by Hanne Hammer Stien, art historien at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

In April this year International Sami Film Institute initiated a film challenge for Sámi filmmakers to depict the on-going situation with COVID-19 through film. Altogether 18 directors took part in the challenge and created 15 short films. At AMIFF 2020 film specialist Monica Mecsei and director Ellen-Astri Lundby will present 5 of these films.

Home Sweet Home directors are: Ann Holmgren, Aslak Paltto, Rebecca King / Ánne Mággá Wigelius, Ánne Márjá Guttorm Graven, Egil Pedersen, Ellen-Astri Lundby, Hans Pieski, Ingir Bål Nango, Joar Nango, Ken Are Bongo, Lada Suomenrinne, Liselotte Wajstedt, Marja Bål Nango, Marja Helander, Niki Rasmus, Sara Margrethe Oskal, Sergey Gavrilov ja Siljá Somby.

ISFI's Home Sweet Home (original title "Oru lea buoret go jođi") mini-series has been released on ISFI and Sapmifilm's social media channels.

Monica Mecsei works with Sami film in a film and cultural historical perspective, and Mecsei has a doctorate in film studies from NTNU, Norway. As a university lecturer at NTNU, she has taught a number of film and media studies subjects.

Spilletid: 30min. Premiere: Regi: Aslak Paltto, Egil Pedersen, Ellen-Astri Lundby, Ánne Márjá Guttorm Graven, Liselotte Wajstedt Nasjonalitet: Sapmi Aldersgrense: 15 år Språk og tekst: Sami and english

"Laura (Rashida Jones) lives in New York with her husband and children, but begins to suspect that family life is not as idyllic as it may seem. Is husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) unfaithful to his colleague? Laura joins her father Felix (Bill Murray), an aging playboy who believes he has the upper hand on how men work. It's set for a spy trip in New York. The goal is to find evidence that Dean is not to be trusted, but perhaps both the suspicion and the journey through the city is as much about the need to bring father and daughter closer together?

With On the Rocks, we finally get the pleasure of seeing Bill Murray in a feature film by Sofia Coppola again, 17 years after Lost in Translation. Along with Somewhere, the Lost in Translation Coppola film On the Rocks is most reminiscent of; in mood and temperament, and with communication difficulties between people as a kind of basis. This new, whimsical comedy is also about different perceptions of relationships and expectations based on gender - framed by a modern New York and music by Phoenix. " - Filmweb

Age limit: Allowed for everyone Language: English. Text English. Actors: Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, Marlon Wayans, Jenny Slate, Jessica Henwick Genre: Director: Sofia Coppola Nationality: USA Production Year: 2020

Short film by Marin Håskjold, 2020.

The film is presented by the filmmaker.

About the movie:

A discussion arises in a women's changing room when a trans woman is asked to leave. One person believes that being a woman is not something you can become, but something you were born as. The discussion escalates continuously as more people get involved. Everyone has different thoughts about what a woman is.

«Sheds light on something important and it is a wise and reflective screenwriter who is behind it. I sat with pointed ears and wide eyes. " "This is a film that deserves to be used" - Lars Ole Kristiansen and Karsten Meinich, FILMFRELST

“Thus I came to the conclusion that What is a woman? is a good example of the freedom that lies in the short film format. Of course, a short film can consist of only one discussion - and with that convey a surprising number of aspects of a complex and important topic. " - Alexander Huser, NY TID

“The characters and the script are taken from the comment field and articles shared in a closed, Norwegian, feminist Facebook group. Here, issues related to gender and trans rights have forced philosophical reflections on the established social norms that dictate our lives, our behavior and our experience of our own bodies. The film asks: Who can define who is a woman and who is not? Is gender biologically or socially coded? Håskjold works improvisationally and intuitively, rather than based on a traditional script, to create dialogues and further investigations, and creates complex characters to sharpen the discussion around what is at stake in conversations about identity and gender issues. ” - Antonio Cataldo, PHOTO GALLERY

Director: Marin Håskjold (Norway, 2020). Length: 15 minutes. Age limit: 15 years old

Marin Håskjold (b.1993, Trondheim) is an artist and a filmmaker. She has participated in a number of exhibition and film festivals including Nordisk Panorama and the exhibition SYKLUS at Telemark kunstnersenter. She trained at the Nordland School of Arts and Film in Kabelvåg in the Lofoten Islands, and she holds a BA from the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art. Håskjolds works includes the short film “Lady of the Night” and the art film “Talkshow”. She is a part of the film collective and production company Alternativet Production where she directed and produced the short film “What is a Woman?”.

Danish drama and brand new work!

Welcome to the opening of AMIFF! As the main film, we show Danish ANOTHER ROUND by the same director who made the THE PARTY, Thomas Vinterberg. As a pre-film, a brand new work has a world premiere made especially for AMIFF. The artists are Kjetil Berge & Jason Havneraas. They have an installation in the cinema foyer during the festival with works from their collaboration over the last eight years, and are mainly filmed in the northern areas, especially in Lofoten.

About ANOTHER ROUND:

Four teachers and friends decide to test Finn Skårderud's alleged theory that man is born with half a per mille too little in the blood. The theory is that alcohol opens the mind to the outside world and makes creativity flourish. The result is startling. Both the teaching and the self-confidence improve, and the friends start to really feel alive again. As the glasses fill, some experience progress, while others derail. It becomes clear that alcohol has its positive sides, but also that such daring attempts can have serious consequences. A GLASS TO is a fun, touching, life-affirming and thought-provoking drama about friendship, freedom, love - and alcohol. The film has a star team of Danish actors led by Mads Mikkelsen, in his first Danish film since THE HUNT by the same director.

Language: Danish Subtitles: Norwegian.

Director: Thomas Vinterberg. Denmark, 2020. Rating: 15 years old