Hello dear GEGENkino friends,
if you’re clueless what movies to watch right now, here’s a couple of hints for you.
You may remember the hommage to Finnish filmmaker MIKA TAANILA with which we concluded this year’s GEGENkino festival. In case you’ve missed his latest feature length documentary RETURN OF THE ATOM (Atomin Paluu) he did in cooperation with JUSI EEROLA, you’ve got the chance to see it again now in cinemas, for example in CINEDING LEIPZIG.
Check www.cineding-leipzig.de for more information about the film and the screening dates.
Our hommage to Taanila somewhat became an hommage to his long-time collaborator MIKA VAINIO, because of his sudden death in April. Vainio worked together with Taanila on the soundtrack of RETURN OF THE ATOM among other projects. See the very beautiful documentary SÄHKO THE MOVIE about Mika Vainio, shot by Finnish musician JIMI TENOR, over at boilerrom.tv, and see below for some more information on Vainio and the film.
“Mika Vainio’s death in April 2017 sent shock waves rippling through the electronic music community. The late Finnish musician left an indelible mark on noise thanks to his roles in the ‘90s group Pan Sonic and record label Sähkö Recordings. Over the years, Vainio collaborated with Björk, Suicide’s Alan Vega, drone icon Stephen O’Malley and more.
Now, just months following his passing, Boiler Room has unearthed a mythic film about the Sähkö label. Artfully shot on 16mm by Jimi Tenor in 1995, SÄHKO THE MOVIE – a title fans have given the film in the absence of any official one – is a suitably abstract portrayal of the singular label in its prime. Finnish artists featured include Sähkö co-founder Tommi Grönlund, Mono Junk, Hertsi, IFÖ, and, of course, Mika Vainio himself.
The film tracks the Finnish unit at work in the studio making tracks on their trademark custom-built analogue equipment, hand-pressing limited edition vinyl releases and their eardrum rupturing yet delicate live performances.Outside of a few select festival screenings and those who own a rare VHS edition released by Blast First Petite, hardly anyone has seen the 44-minute film but this hasn’t stopped it attaining legendary status.“
GEGENkino 2017 came to a close yesterday. We hope you enjoyed those eleven days and broadened your cinematographic horizon a bit maybe. We’ll have some days of rest now and the one thing left to say is a huge “thank you!” again to all of you who’ve came to the festival and supported us, to our guests and partners, the filmmakers and to all those who helped us out in whatever way. Thanks thanks thanks! We hope to see you all again in the future…
Cheers and enjoy yourselves!
Your GEGENkino crew
photo by Mika Taanila
Just what happened last night…
Thanks, CIRCLE and Mika Taanila and everyone helping out for being the best… and, of course, thanks to our charming audience!
See you tonight at the last day of GEGENkino 2017 and the last day of our Mika Taanila hommage—with another short film reel, 16 and 35mm projections and the German premiere of RETURN OF THE ATOM (ATOMIN PALUU)—at UT Connewitz.
Sun, 16 May 2017
8pm, UT Connewitz
Short film reel II: THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE
The Zone of Total Eclipse (FIN 2006, 6’, no dialogue, 2 x 16 mm), A Physical Ring (FIN 2002, 4’, no dialogue, 35mm), Future Is Not What It Used To Be (FIN 2002, 52’, OV/English subtitles, 35mm), Spindrift (FIN 1966/2013, 14’, OV/English subtitles, 35mm)
10pm, UT Connewitz
RETURN OF THE ATOM
(FIN, D 2015, 105’, Doc, D: Mika Taanila & Jussi Eerola, OV/English subtitles, BluRay)
Mika Vainio has died – The Wire
We were shocked when we heard from Mika Taanila yesterday that his long time collaborator, electronic music producer Mika Vainio (aka Ø), has passed away yesterday. The screening of Taanila’s work MANNERLAATTA (TECTONIC PLATE), for which Vainio did the soundtrack, will now also be an hommage to the pioneering works of Vainio. Likewise, the two screenings on Sunday will be dedicated to him: for one, the short film reel THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE, which includes the film A PHYSICAL RING, also scored by Vainio, and the screening of RETURN OF THE ATOM, featuring music by Vainio’s collaborative project Pan Sonic. Our condolences go out to all friends and relatives.
See you tonight at Luru Kino.
Fri, 14 April 2017
8pm, Luru-Kino at the Spinnerei
Short film reel I: FUTURO
Futuro – A New Stance for Tomorrow (FIN 1998, 28’, OV/English subtitles, 35mm), RoboCup99 (FIN 2000, 25’, OV/English subtitles , 35mm), Six Day Run (FIN 2013, 15’, OV/English subtitles, DCP), Optical Sound (FIN 2005, 6’, no dialogue, 35mm), Delay of Game (FIN 2017, 6’, no dialogue, 3D, file)
10pm, Luru-Kino at the Spinnerei
MANNERLAATTA (Tectonic Plate) (FIN 2016, 74’, OV/English subtitles, DCP) The Sad Song of Hard-Edged Transition Wipe Markers (FIN 2017, 4’, no dialogue, file)
Director Mika Taanila will be present for all the screenings.
There’s only a few unreserved seats left for the 10:30pm performance of COLOR FIELD IMMERSION. If you need some more reasons to come over tonight, check that RadioBlau teaser—thanks again to Melanie Albrecht for this one!— or, alternatively, Doron Sadja’s bandcamp page.
See you soon!
COLOR FIELD IMMERSION
Light and sound performance by Doron Sadja
The attempt to make the cinematic experience more direct, immersive and intense for the audience had to its last grand manifestation in the revival of 3D cinema. Whether it really succeeded in heaving cinematic experience and perception to a new level can be doubted, especially in cases where technology remains merely gimmick rather than becoming an artistic instrument. In his very diverse works, US media artist and ambient musician Doron Sadja is consistently looking for new ways of sounding out the audience’s experiences on auditive and visual levels and thus, making hidden realms of sensual perception accessible to them. At it, experiments of perception and technological set ups from the history of science are often his starting points. For COLOR FIELD IMMERSION, Sadja has addressed the so-called “Ganzfeld experiments” of the 1970s. In these tests, the eyes of the participants were blindfolded with translucent materials and coloured light projected onto them. By this continuous sensual deprivation on the part of the participants, some people were hoping to activate clairvoyant and telepathic capabilities. Without adhering to these parascientific ambitions, Sadja took the test situation and developed his COLOR FIELD IMMERSION performance from it. Along with a matching electronic multi-channel soundtrack in the style of Sadjas “Breath Heart Skin” album the cinema screen will be moved to only a few centimeters before the retina, so that Sadja’s visual compositions will hit every single spectator differently depending on spacial position and current frame of mind. A parakinematographic situation, in which there run just as many films as there are pairs of eyes.
People with photosensitive epilepsy be adverted that there will be intensive light stimuli during this event.
13 April, 9pm & 10:30pm – UT Connewitz – € 12 (10 red.)
