Harstad Kino, sal 2

TrAP, an independent art producer and promoter of diversity in Norwegian cultural life, has put together a film series they have given the title My Voice You Can't Hear / Tonen Du Ikke Vil Høre, where they want to explore gender-bending non-binary and trans identities within various non-Western contexts and narrative traditions. AMIFF shows one of the films in this programme, Neptune Frost, with the prequel Proud and Loud. One of the curators of the programme, Hanan Benammar, will introduce the screenings.

Neptune Frost

Directed by: Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams. Rwanda USA 2021. DCP, 1h 45min.

In this modern African (cult) film classic, Neptune is reborn at the age of 23 and breaks away from his upbringing in Burundi, which is based on mining coltan for the global technology industry. In the next step, Neptune and their allies, including the hacker phenomenon MartyrLoserKing, cross thresholds between parallel realities and make the world's digital technology their own. The film is a visually captivating and abstract journey open to interpretation and a strong political statement all in one, both about global power and gender.

Saul Williams is an artist from New York with a long and recognized career in the independent hip-hop scene, and has performed several concerts in Oslo. Anisia Uzeyman was born and raised in Rwanda and this is her fifth film. Neptune Frost has slowly begun to take over the world and had its regular cinema premiere in the US and England in the summer of 2022. In that context, to quote Neil Kulkarni in the August edition of The Wire: It’s a film I’m still reeling from, because like any masterpiece, it’s less about the answers it gives than than the questions it raises.

Prequel: Proud and Loud

Directed by: Arthur Xavier Wonder. Norway 2021. Documentary film. DCP, 19 min.

This series of five short films consists of: Keyse 42. Non-binary. - "When I grew up in Somalia there were no queers. Certainly none that I know of.” Mabel. 30. Not gender conforming. Black. Skewed. "It has been a bit difficult growing up to become an individual who needs many labels. It's almost a little ironic. I'm not really that fond of labels because it's been thrown at me all my life." Maruwa. 30. Black. Eritrean. Norwegian. Muslim. Skewed. Lesbian. "Being black and queer, it's pride in myself, and pride in what I've managed to achieve." Stephen. 28. Queer. "Just being queer is so unique, and being black is so unique, it brings so much culture into society." Sam. 22. Transgender. "Man is man. I am human.”

The short films were made on behalf of Salam - Organization for queer Muslims in collaboration with Mental Health Youth in autumn 2021 by Arthur Xavier Wonder; Writer, filmmaker, trans and student based in Oslo. Photo by Chai and Ravn, with Lara Okafor as coordinator and project manager.

The series is curated by Hanan Benammar and Brynjar Bjerkem for the art producer TrAP and is a collaboration with the Cinematheques in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø and the National Museum on the occasion of the Skeivt kulturår.

Harstad Kino, screen 1

Film premiere with introduction by artist Hanan Benammar.

Dette er vår kropp (This is our Body) is a collective performance focusing on the colonial legacy of Hans Egede and marking the 300 years anniversary since Hans Egede’s arrival in Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland (1721).

Hans Egede was born and raised in Hárstták/Harstad. He is still considered today in Norway as a man of knowledge and a fearless adventurer. One of the churches in the center of the city is built around his persona, where a statue made by Nic Schiøll is installed, while the iconic church of Trondenes Kirke holds a marble plate in his remembrance.

However, Egede’s mistreatment of indigenous people is well documented. It is said that he forbade tattooing, shamanism and throat singing among other Inuit’s traditional practices. Strangely enough, he also changed the bible verse “Give us today our daily bread” to “Give us today our daily seal”.

That the field of humanities and knowledge production which includes art and religion, but also science and education can be a "double edged sword", the beholders of enlightenment and perpetrators of destruction, and a potential platform for creating a stronger community as well as space of frictions is at the core of this project.

Can one ritualise around a conflictual heritage? How to strengthen collective awareness about our common history of violence?

The performance gathered the Kalaallit/Greenlandic electronic musician Aqqalu Berthelsen who has a longstanding practice on Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenlandic colonial history, the Inuk singer Cynthia Pitsiulak, Bel Chorus - all men choir from Hárstták/Harstad led by Dag-Erik Enoksen, the organist Maria Daniela Rasch and Hans-Henrik Egede Nissen - one of the remaining relative of Hans Egede impersonned by Hanan Benammar.

Dette er vår kropp was a commissioned work for Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF) 2021, Hárstták/Harstad.

Dette er vår kropp is supported by AMIFF, Kulturrådet, Fritt Ord, the Canadian Embassy, Sør-Troms Museum, Trondenes Kirke and Harstadbotn Bakeri & Konditori.

Harstad Kino, screen 2

Truls Krane Meby (b. 1986) is a Lofoten- and Berlin-based, award-winning and self-taught filmmaker from Lofoten, who works as a director, editor and screenwriter. He is an alumni of Berlinale Talents and his short films have played at major festivals around the world, and Katja Drømmer Om Å Våkne is his feature film debut. Truls comes to Harstad and presents the film at AMIFF.

The film started as a short film, and was made completely outside of NFI's support systems and deals with hot topics such as global warming, fear of the future, and guilt for not doing enough. Katja is played by the young German shooting star Leonie Rainer and the film is produced by Andrew Grant and Mattima Films.

SYNOPSIS

Katja (27) lives in Berlin and dreams every night about her own death, and her waking state is a constant stream of work, digital distractions, paranoia about the future, and a fear about whether she is an ethical enough person. Her inner life moves at a speed that seems unsustainable. While on holiday in Northern Norway, she has an extreme encounter with raw nature and gains a new perspective on herself – she returns to Berlin with intentions to change her life and become a more ethical person. But the demon inside her is hard to shake off.

Age limit: 15 years

“Will very possibly stand as one of the year's best Norwegian feature films," says critic Aleksander Huser in Rushprint.

"Katja's catastrophic thinking is depicted in an original, almost captivating style," says critic Jon Inge Faldalen and also recommends it in Rushprint.

Editing editor Karsten Meinich tweets: "anyone interested in a brilliant and uncompromising character study, fueled by visual energy — Safdie style — and layered with themes echoing modern sensibilities wrapped in a cloud of Norwegian ennui… THIS"

Johanne Svendsen Rognlien writes for Oslo Pix: "In Truls Krane Meby's unique feature film debut, Leonie Rainer really shines in the role of Katja. In her interpretation, we really understand the character's search for change, but also notice how difficult such a metamorphosis can be to set into life."

Harstad Kino, sal 1

Would you like to join us for a trip to the shore?

SMILE AND WAVE is a film essay about a tidal landscape in Vesterålen, Northern Norway. Can you say something about life by portraying a place? Can one understand more about oneself by considering one's passions? Flood water and memories are mixed together in the story about the vulnerability of life and what remains when something is gone. At Nordahlstranda (a beach) in Bø in Vesterålen, you can wade for hours and find treasures. The sea mouse is such a treasure. It is magical and secret, thinner than an eggshell and as vulnerable as you and me.

A film about how nature activates our memories and our curiosity. Ebb and flow around the clock, throughout life. A slow breath that never ends. As if death did not exist. In a universe of waving angels and skeletons, a story about a life emerges. Curiosity led to a French marine biologist/film artist, to the fragile and secretive sea mice and to a father.

“SMILE and WAVE is poetic and personal magic. Walking on the shore will never be the same again. An adventure of a movie.” Ola Bremnes Musician/author

"A pearl. A light in the dark. Of course this had to be our opening film.” Espen Nomedal, programme manager TIFF

HONORABLE REVIEW from the Dokfilmfestivalen in Volda:
This film has a poetic, subtle and probing voice. Slow and close observations of details in nature, at first appear random, but are subsequently woven together as pieces in a narrative about the broad lines of a lived life and in the history of man and nature. In this room, big questions get a place, such as: who are you and why did you become this way?

"As a viewer, I get to be with a grown woman who explores, with wisdom and childishness. The film is beautifully photographed and has a pace and a lingering calm, which stands out in contemporary times. The waves on the shore in Vesterålen can lower anyone's heart rate." Linn Solid Madsen, reviewer in Nordlys

Documentary 57 min. Genre: Personal Film Essay.

Producer: RAMPELYS AS, Sortland

Script, director, photo: Eva Ch. Nilsen

Distribution: Rampelys

Language: Norwegian. English subtitles.

Doras Art Briefcase at Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival!

Art workshop for children aged 2-5 years of age. The experienced workshop leader, artist Dora Galveia, will take the kids and their parents on an exciting journey in artistic expressions related to film.

Maximum 10 children.

Guardians must be with the kids throughout the session.

Free, but signing up is necessary to dora.galveia @ gmail.com

Location: Galleri Nord-Norge

Harstad Kino, sal 1

A sensual mystery thriller about strange happenings in a small all-American town. A college student stumbles across a bizarre mystery and wants to know more, perhaps too much more. The oblique world he's found lurking beneath his hometown's picture-postcard veneer is about to become violently stranger.

David Lynch (1986). English language. No subtitles.

Two of the tutors at Nordland kunst- og filmhøgskole UiT, Knut Åsdam and Katja Eyde Jacobsen, presents a programme at AMIFF22, with conversations and film clips.

Harstad Kino, screen 2

We are showing the new film by Birgitte Sigmundstad, Solace (2022) and her film Hammersborg Protecting the Bygone Future (2016) about the Y block.

Conversation after the films: Exploring architecture through film.

After the films, there will be a conversation between video artist and researcher Elisabeth Brun and director Birgitte Sigmundstad. They will talk about what we lost when the Y block was demolished despite protests and demonstrations and how film can be used as a medium and as an opportunity to understand, collect and explore our history.

About the films:

Solace (2022, 25 min) is a film about time and architecture. The film opens with curious visitors at the Y block but then takes us further into stave churches which were also once threatened with demolition. The film dwells on the churches with their stories, memories and local roots. Alternately, we see the Y block being prepared for demolition. Sketches by Erling Viksjø, archive material and new footage are mixed and turn the film into a collage that asserts that a building is always more than just a building.

"Hammersborg - Protecting the bygone Future" (2016, 17 min) is based on a text by Kjetil A. Jakobsen and filmed in the government quarter in Oslo. The film tells the story of the Høyblokka and the Y-blokka - about architect Erling Viksjø's visions and about the art created by Picasso, Inger Sitter, Carl Nesjar and others who are integrated into the building. The story of the buildings is also the story of the optimistic period in Norway when the buildings were erected and the terror on 22 July 2011. The film has previously been shown at festivals in Norway and at festivals such as Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), Architecture Film Festival London and Aestethica Film Festival.

Birgitte Sigmundstad is a visual artist, educated at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in England. Sigmundstad's films are essayistic, self-reflexive and humorous and are often based on historical events. A recurring theme in Sigmundstad's films is how art is used ideologically and as part of nation-building.

Elisabeth Brun is a film and video artist and researcher. She works at the intersection between documentary, philosophy and visual art and is particularly interested in film as a tool for exploring surroundings, such as architecture. She understands film as an environment, as something that surrounds and shapes us. She has previously worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker at NRK and has a doctorate on film as thinking from the University of Oslo.

Harstad Kino, screen 2

We are showing a two-part retrospective programme of work by artist Helene Sommer. The work consits of selected films from the period 2007 – 2022. This is programme 2.

The programme will be introduced by the artist.

The Paradox of a Mayfly, 2019-22, 8 min

Variations of Max, 23 min. 2010.

Again, through the heart, 30 min. 2018/2022.

About the films:

Programme 2:

Døgnfluens paradoks (The Paradox of a Mayfly) takes as its starting point the architecture of a local cinema built in 1938 in Lofoten (Norway), in relation to the recollections of the building as a place and space. The institution has played a pivotal role in the lives of local youth for generations, sharing location with the townhall, but is nevertheless a marginalised part of local official history.

The project is about what the physical space of the cinema and the contradictory permanent presence of the ephemeral, reflects and produces.

Originally shown as an installation that was part of the exhibition “Homage and Diversion. Re-imagining a movie theatre” curated by Torill Østby Haaland, at NNKS (North Norwegian Art Centre) in 2019.

HD 8. min, 2019/ 2022

Variations of Max is a video montage narrating and intertwining the artist’s family history which goes back to Germany, with the universal history book “Syncronoptische Weltgeschichte” (Syncronoptical World history) and the biography of its author Arno Peters.

The “Syncronoptische Weltgeschichte” is used as a time-map to contextualize the family history, with imagery sampled from a range of places, all referenced in the book. Through archives, books, movies, news, footage, the use of a genealogist, memories, and pure speculations the stories are woven together. The voice-over is spoken by an elderly German woman (speaking English with a heavy Germany accent), rendering the artist as the protagonist and first person, fictional.

Dvd, 23 min, 2010. English.

Igjen gjennom hjertet (Again through the Heart) is based on an extensive archive of film, video, photos, and audio from the artist’s Uncle Steinar (1922-2018). The project takes as a starting point his persistent documentation of life and considers how this affected his biography, memory, and ways of seeing.

Steinar begun to photograph and film in the 1940s and continued ceaselessly throughout his life, despite his loss of sight the last few years. The archive (16mm, 8mm, super 8, VHS, Hi8, SD, HD) documents both daily life as well as important occasions. Steinar’s recordings are accompanied by conversations with him about his impuls and drive to document and reveal pivotal and tragic events that has influenced both his need to document and his approach towards the collected material. Steinar saw his eagerness to document as a neurosis and felt naked without a camera.

The project’s title is derived from the etymological origin of the word record. The Latin word recordari means to tell and to remember. Re means to return to the origin and to repeat. Core means heart.

HD, 30 min. 2018/ 2022. Norwegian w/English subtitles.

UiT Norway’s Arctic University, Harstad, in the canteen Panorama , 2nd floor.

En panelsamtale som dreier rundt tema for AMIFF 2022; Rewind and Return.

Panel members: HC Gilje (artist), Helene Sommer (artist), Pål Johan Karlsen (doctorate in psycology and editor of Psykologisk.no). Moderator: Hanne Hammer Stien (art historian at UiT Norway’s Arcitc University)

This year’s theme of AMIFF is prepared by Ida Lykken Ghosh. Here is her curator text:

“Through storytelling, archives and a historical retrospective, we want to examine the relationship between the present and the past. What do we bring with us in to the future and what do we choose to learn from the past? The pandemic seems to have caused us a collective amnesia and has erased certain timelines that were previously well defined. Has our memory become more selective or is it ourselves who consciously or unconsciously choose to edit out parts of our recent past?

In contrast to last year's festival, which bore the title The New World and largely wanted to look forward in a post-pandemic landscape, both in a political and economic aspect, with this year's festival we want to go deeper into the personal stories and look at the choices we make on an individual level.

Ghosh has invited HC Gilje to create a commissioned work for the festival. HC Gilje has moved between installation, experimental video, live performance and scenography since he graduated from the Art Academy in Trondheim in 1999. Gilje is concerned with exploration, mainly through installations, the perception of change and the transformation of physical structures (rooms, landscapes, objects , bodies) through volatile media such as light, projection, sound and movement. Gilje will make a new film based on local finds and collections in the local area.

In the work around the theme for this year's festival, where storytelling and archives are the main elements, artist Helene Sommer is a natural choice. Sommer mainly works with video, installation, text and collage, often with archival material and the mechanisms of storytelling as a starting point.

For AMIFF 2022, we are planning a two-part retrospective screening of Sommer's video productions from the period 2005 – 2021 as well as a conversation with the curator.”

Ida Lykken Ghosh

UiT Norges arktiske universitet, Harstad. Class room 1 (to the left when you enter the building from the street).

Free of charge.

Seminar on Jean-Luc Godard by art historian Nicolas Siepen.

“Jean-Luc Godard was one of the poster boys of the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), which caused a cinematic revolution. He was a master of Avant-Garde Cinema, a political activist operating and experimenting with sound and images, and a visual artist who fled cinema (moving stories) to produce as independent as possible in maximal distance to the commercial cinema of his time. Godard invented new approaches to cinematic language and its capitalist conditions. By doing so, he landed within the flux of the moving images themselves as an artistic genre, developing rapidly in the course of the democratization of the technical gadgets available to everybody. Due to this new accessibility of technology, he experimented with video and television and later formats like the museum and the internet. On the occasion of his death, I would like to introduce and discuss some of Godard's contributions to the history, development, practice, and theory of moving images.”

Nicolas Siepen

Nicolas Siepen will hold a three day morning seminar at Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival. Read more about it by clicking on this sentence. The seminar will respond to and actively engage with the 'moving image' programme of the festival. This seminar on Godard is part of this three day morning seminar.

Nicolas Siepen born 1966 in Cologne, is a Berlin based artist, filmmaker and theoretician. He writes frequently on post-structuralism, marxism, film and current questions of new forms of capitalism and left politics.

As a art critic he has written for numerous publications, including Springerin, Texte zur Kunst, FAZ. He is co-founder of the bookstore and publishing house b_books which was part of Documenta 12 and publishes books on art, film, performance, urbanism, queer theory, activism and politics. He is member of The Performing Arts Forum (PAF) in France. In the 1990s he was part of the artist group KlasseZwei and the band ZigarettenRauchen and participated in various international exhibitions and filmfestivals, among them Berlinale and Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. Between 2009 and 2016 he was Professor of visual arts at the Academy of Contemporary Arts in Tromso, Norway.

Harstad Kino, screen 1

This event will be in Norwegian. The film is in Swedish, with Norwegian subtitles.

En blendende vakker og gripende dokumentar om den samiske kunstneren Britta Marakatt-Labba. Filmen blir innledet av Hanne Hammer Stien, kunsthistoriker ved UiT Norges arktiske universitet.

Om filmen:

«Kampen begynte da jeg ble født, for i den samiske kulturen har vi alltid blitt tvunget til å kjempe. Nå har vi en ny kamp å føre, mot klimaforandringene. Vinner vi ikke den kommer den til å bli vår siste» - Britta Marakatt-Labba

HISTORJÁ er en dokumentar om kunsternen Britta Marakatt-Labbas verk og livshistorie. Gjennom en blanding av nydelige naturbilder og arkivmateriale gir denne filmen også et innblikk i samisk historie og hvordan klimaendringene truer livsgrunnlaget til den samiske kulturen.

Filmen tar utgangspunktet i Marakatt-Labbas hovedverk «Historjá», et 24 meter langt broderi som skildrer motiver fra samisk historie. Broderiet henger på universitetet i Tromsø og var utstilt på Documenta 14 i Kassel, en av kunstverdens viktigste visningsplattformer. I år er hun aktuell som en av de utvalgte til kunstbiennalen i Venezia.

Med små sting maner Marakatt-Labba fram det samiske folkets historie og mytologi, og forteller også om kolonialisme, statsstøttet rasisme og politisk strid. Etter tiår på barrikadene for sitt folks rettigheter, med kunsten som våpen, står hun nå overfor sin største kamp, kampen mot klimaendringene. Marakatt-Labbas familie driver med reinsdrift og filmen skildrer hvordan klimaendringene påvirker familiens virke. Vil det være mulig for hennes sønn å videreføre familietradisjonen?

HISTORJÁ er en film med mange lag. Den vever sammen fantastisk vakkert naturfoto fra Sápmi med utforskning Britta Marakatt-Labbas kunst og arkivbilder fra blant annet Alta-aksjonen på 80-tallet. Filmen er poetisk, men også en maning til kamp. Britta Marakatt-Labbas livskraft er smittende og til stor inspirasjon.

PRESSEN OM FILMEN:

«En rystende film om undertrykkelsen av et urfolk» – Vård Land

«Visuelt slående dokumentar» – Morgenbladet

«Et sterkt portrett av en rebelsk samisk kunstner» – Göteborgs-posten

«En hjerteskjærende, vakker film» – Dagens Nyheter

«En engasjerende og troverdig fortalt dokumentar» – Aftonbladet

Originaltittel: Historjá - Stygn för Sápmi

Regi: Thomas Jackson

Språk: nordsamisk/svensk. Norske undertekster.

Skuespillere: Britta Marakatt-Labba John-Isak Labba

Spilletid: 1 t. 29 min.

Nasjonalitet: Sverige

Aldersgrense med begrunnelse:

Tillatt for alle Denne filmen inneholder ingen scener som antas å være skadelige for barn. Den blir derfor tillatt for alle.

Harstad Kino, screen 2

We are showing a two-part retrospective programme of work by artist Helene Sommer. The work consits of selected films from the period 2007 – 2022. This is programme 1.

Conversation with artist and curator Ida Lykken Ghosh after the screening.

High Over the Border, 2:54, 2007/ 2017/ 2022.

The fake game, 31 min. 2015.

No Man's Land, 26 min. 2012-2013.

About the films:

Programme 1

High Over the Border is about a film-clip of a hummingbird in flight, which migrated from the Nazis via New York Zoological Society and ended up in a Canadian documentary about bird migration.

HD (16mm transferred to dvd, transferred to HD) 2:54 min, 2007/2017/2022, English

Det falske spill (The Fake Game) takes as a starting point Dæmonen (The Demon), a lost Norwegian film from 1911. The only part of the film that exists today is coincidentally what was censored, the rest is gone. Det falske spill is a reconstruction of Dæmonen by using clips from films – new and old – from the film archive at the National Library of Norway – a silent compilation film using intertitles to narrate the story, with a voice-over reflecting on the role of that which is lost in relation to archives and history.

HD 31 min, 2014-15. Norwegian w/English subtitles.

No Man’s Land tells a story about a place in the very high north through a journey of preconceived images, myths, histories and firsthand experiences.

The point of departure is a trip with a research vessel in the Arctic Ocean with scientists, where questions emerges concerning the discrepancy between to see and to know and how the production of images and knowledge will always be intertwined.

No man’s land comprises a mix of the artist’s own material: film, photo and interviews, together with a range of sampled material from movies, documentaries, books and encyclopedias. The story is narrated by a man who refers to a woman reporting from a ship at the top of the world. It includes thoughts and observations as well as historical anecdotes and facts; like failed expeditions, polar heroes, geopolitics and the role of women in a male dominated geographical area.

HD 26 min, 2012-2013. English.

Harstad Kino, screen 1

Artist presentation with HC Gilje where he will show and talk about previous films and extracts from installations, in addition to presenting The intimacy of strangers which is a commissioned work for this year's festival.

Barents (mare incognitum)¬¬, 5 min, 2015. Commissioned work for Dark Ecology

Vardø Kystopprøret 2, 5:30, 2022. Excerpt from installation.

entangled, 2 min, 2018. Extract from installation.

rift, 6:30 min, 2017. Commissioned work for Vertical Cinema, with sound by Justin Bennett.

The intimacy of strangers, 10 min, 2022. Commissioned work for AMIFF 2022.

Read more about the artist here.

Barents (mare incognitum) 5 min, 2015. Commissioned for Dark Ecology

A view of the Barents Sea slowly rotating: up becomes down, east becomes west. The only thing you see is the dark ocean with its waves and the grey sky with its clouds, and the sharp dividing line of the horizon. No sign of land, no boats, no oil rigs, no planes, no seagulls, just the ocean and sky.

Barents (mare incognitum) was filmed close to the border between Norway and Russia, with the camera pointing towards the North Pole. The camera used is my custom-built orbital camera.

Vardø Kystopprøret 2, 5:30, 2022. Excerpt from installation.

An excerpt from one of several works I made and presented in Vardø, commissioned by Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter.

I made a series of works entitled Vardø Kystopprøret, based on 3D scans of some of the fishing equipment used by the coastal fishers. I was fascinated by the very intense colors of especially the fishing lines (which apparently have no practical value as they are used so deep in the ocean that there is no light), and how these very concrete objects turned into abstract point of colours.

entangled, 2 min, 2018. Excerpt from installation.

A cloud of white points swirling around in a black space. Based on a 3d scanning of the artist in a forest.

The work evolved from thoughts around the unclear boundary between me and the other.

The world is already inside us: about half the cells in our body do not contain our own DNA. The air we breathe, the food we eat, including the chemicals, hormones, antibiotics and heavy metals that end up in the food chain, become part of us. Our senses are at the same time a border and filter to the outside world. Technology affects perception in several ways – it extends our body in how we sense and react to the world. As Gregory Bateson, anthropologist, social scientist and cyberneticist, put it: for a blind man and his stick, is the stick part of “me”?

rift, 6:30 min, 2017. Commission for Vertical Cinema, sound by Justin Bennett.

rift is a film about petrochemicals, the completely different durations involved in the process from plankton to oil to plastic, the relation between depth and time through the layers of the Earth, the transformation and the forces involved in turning captured sunlight into food for plants, plants into crude oil, extracting the oil and making plastic which combined with ink (another petrochemical product) is turned into colourful packaging for consumables, and then thrown away, adding to the heap of plastic in the oceans and in the ground, with a much longer duration than the item it served as packaging for, the person who bought it or the company that made it.

This might sound like a gloomy film, but it is also a film celebrating motion, energy and colour, accompanied by Justin Bennetts groovy soundtrack. It is my homage to the New Zealand artist and motion enthusiast Len Lye.

Rift was commissioned by Dark Ecology for the Vertical Cinema program:

35mm cinemascope presented in a vertical format.

rift is made of more than 10.000 microscope images of plastic wrappings for consumables.

The intimacy of strangers 2022. Commission for AMIFF

The intimacy of strangers is a work that explores the microscopic landscapes of the lichen living on one rock in the stone fence around Trondenes Kirke.

Apart from the extreme variations in appearance, textures and color, lichens have become the poster organisms for a new biology which challenges the idea of the individual and supplements the theory of evolution. They also expose the limits of human knowledge, something explored in the writings of Alexander Bogdanov, Lynn Margulis, Donna Haraway and Merlin Sheldrake among others.

Lichen eat rock: Through a process called weathering they grow into the rock and inject strong chemicals and mine it for minerals that then becomes part of the eco system (and might end up in your body at some point). When lichen die they become the first nutrient-rich layer of soil on new land (and the oldest dated lichen is 9000 years old).

The most striking thing is that lichen is not one organism, but a symbiosis of several organisms from different kingdoms: Mainly a fungi that partners up with a photosynthesising organism (either algae or bacteria). In the context of evolution, when a branch diverges from another branch on the tree of life this means that a new organism with slighly different traits have evolved from its parent branch. What is going on with the lichen is that branches from completely different parts of the tree converge, or grow together, acquiring a completely new set of traits.

The film was created using a custom made computer-controlled mechanical stage and a digtital microscope combining almost 50 000 microscope still images into miniature landscapes.

During the festival you can go to Trondenes and have a look at the rock in the fence.

Soundtrack by HC Gilje with drums by Justin Bennett.

Read more about The intimacy of strangers at the artist’s blog here.

Harstad Kino, Sal 2

In collaboration with AMIFF, Tromsø Kunstforening presents History Is A Black Circle. The programme takes its name from the new film by the artist Hamid Waheed, which the programme has been built around. Showing works by Waheed, Karly Stark, Aldo Tambellini, Evan Ifekoya and Nazli Dinçel, the programme meditates on time, love, queer solidarity and the desire and agency of objects and images. Hamid Waheed will be present for a discussion with the curators after the screening.

The Problem is That Everything is Fleeting, Karly Stark, 2015, 1m

Black Trip #1, Aldo Tambellini, 1965, 5m

contoured thoughts, Evan Ifekoya, 4’42m

Between Relation and Use, Nazli Dinçel, 2018, 9m

History is a Black Circle, Hamid Waheed, 2021, 23m

Progamme run time: 43m

The Problem is That Everything is Fleeting, Karly Stark, 2015, 1m

Starks film is part 1 of a series of short poetry films, reflecting on love, light and darkness.

Black Trip #1, Aldo Tambollini, 1965, 5m

As a pioneering video and film artist, Tambellini's Black series was an exploration of the relaionship between our technology, images and politics. In Black Trip #1 he uses video, film and direct animation to create an abstract whirl of black and white movement.

contoured thoughts, Evan Ifekoya, 4’42m

contoured thoughts is a meditation on desire, recovery and the rituals of communion. A guide and conspirator alike, Ifekoya takes the viewer to another realm where time all but stands still. Regenerated by the blackness of water and land, the artist offers a moment to share the intimate, the erotic and the otherworldly. (Lux )

Between Relation and Use, Nazli Dinçel, 2018, 9m

Borrowing words from Laura Mark's "Transnational Object" and DW Winnicott's "Transitional Object", this film is an attempt to ethically make work in a foreign land. Transitioning from assuming the position of an ethnographer, we turn and explore inwards- on how we use our lovers. (Dinçel)

History is a Black Circle, Hamid Waheed, 2021, 23m

History is a Black Circle is an experimental video essay that revolves around questions of desire, queer experience and history. It's a story that transcends the fabrics of time and space to inhabit the bodies of past, present and future - and it does so through an array of video sources and formats. The film is a recorded documentary, told as speculative fiction and a reflection on the notion of 'black'.

Hamid Waheed is a filmmaker and visual artist utilizing moving images, as well as writing and performing. His work often emphasizes characterization, dramaturgy and queer desires as methods of investigating psycho-social structures, ruminating on time, intimacies and violence. He is also interested in histories and the materialities of archived data. He has an MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts, a BFA in Moving Images from Nordland College of Art and Film and is part of the curatorial collective ’HÆRK’.

Works have been presented a number of places, including the Museum of Cultural History, Fotogalleriet and Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo); Open Out Festival and Tromsø Kunstforening (Tromsø); METEOR International Theatre Festival and KODE (Bergen); Nikolaj Kunsthal and Den Frie Udstillingsbygning (Copenhagen); Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. In 2020, he won the Critic Prize at Nord-Norsken for the installation video ”Papegøye” and was one of three nominees for the Blix Prize in 2022.

Harstad Kino, screen 2

Students at Nordland art and film college UiT show a programme of student films at AMIFF 2021. Students take bachelors in Moving images.

Harstad Cinema, Screen 1

A film about abuse, mental health and the culture of concealment in Sápmi. The film tackles taboos and events that have plagued many young Sami - for generations. Abuse is not just a Sami phenomenon, it is universal and concerns us all. Silence has been a survival strategy in many indigenous communities. The young women Marion and Ida who stand out in this film have learned that silence no longer benefits anyone.

Both Ida and Marion are two extremely brave young women who have decided that "enough is enough". Their children should not have to experience the same as themselves, and they step into the breach to create a change. During this struggle, they both face a lot of resistance - in addition to their own internal struggle for survival, they have to deal with exclusion, backbiting and threats, but despite this they do not give up.

The silence in Sápmi shows us the dark side of society and addresses taboo subjects, but it is also a film that shows us that even if you have gone through traumatic experiences, life can be good again and that there is always hope.

Original title: The silence in Sápmi

Director: Liselotte Wajstedt Language: Norwegian/Swedish/Sami

Year of production: 2022

Actors: Marion Anne Rimpi Ida Labba Persson

Genre: Documentary

Playing time: 1 hour 10 minutes.

Nationality: Norway / Sweden

Production company: Paranord Film

Harstad Kino, Screen 1

This year's opening film will be a preview of Triangle of Sadness, the winner of the Cannes Film Festival this year. Directed by Swedish Ruben Östlund, the director of The Square.

Also at the opening event we are premiering the commissioned work for AMIFF 2022 by artist HC Gilje: The intimacy of strangers. Read more about the film below. Friday 14 October at 17:00 hrs you can see the film and other work by the artist. The film programme is followed by a conversation between the artist and the curator Ida Lykken Ghosh.

Triangle of Sadness

With TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, Ruben Östlund casts his merciless satirical eye on the fashion industry and the super-rich. The model couple Carl & Yaya and some billionaires are vacationing on a luxury yacht when they encounter a storm. The boat sinks, and they are stranded on a deserted island. In the fight for survival, the hierarchy is turned upside down, and suddenly everyone is in an almost post-apocalyptic situation, where all civilization is gone.

Director: Ruben Östlund (Sweden, 2022)

Language: English (norwegian subtitles)

Actors: Woody Harrelson Harris Dickinson Charlbi Dean

Length: 2 hrs. 27 min.

Rated: 12 years old

The intimacy of strangers (HC Gilje, 10 min, 2022). Commission for AMIFF. Soundtrack by HC Gilje with drums by Justin Bennett.

The intimacy of strangers is a work that explores the microscopic landscapes of the lichen living on one rock in the stone fence around Trondenes Kirke.

Apart from the extreme variations in appearance, textures and color, lichens have become the poster organisms for a new biology which challenges the idea of the individual and supplements the theory of evolution. They also expose the limits of human knowledge, something explored in the writings of Alexander Bogdanov, Lynn Margulis, Donna Haraway and Merlin Sheldrake among others.

Lichen eat rock: Through a process called weathering they grow into the rock and inject strong chemicals and mine it for minerals that then becomes part of the eco system (and might end up in your body at some point). When lichen die they become the first nutrient-rich layer of soil on new land (and the oldest dated lichen is 9000 years old).

The most striking thing is that lichen is not one organism, but a symbiosis of several organisms from different kingdoms: Mainly a fungi that partners up with a photosynthesising organism (either algae or bacteria). In the context of evolution, when a branch diverges from another branch on the tree of life this means that a new organism with slighly different traits have evolved from its parent branch. What is going on with the lichen is that branches from completely different parts of the tree converge, or grow together, acquiring a completely new set of traits.

The film was created using a custom made computer-controlled mechanical stage and a digtital microscope combining almost 50 000 microscope still images into miniature landscapes.

During the festival you can go to Trondenes and have a look at the rock in the fence.

Read more at the artists blog here.