Documentaries
Walk the Tideline
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Anna Antsalo
- Screenwriters
- Anna Antsalo
- Producers
- Venla Hellstedt, Elli Toivoniemi
- Premiere
- 21.5.2021
- SES grant
- 105 000 €
- Budget
- 363 000 €
- Production companies
- Tuffi Films Oy
- Distribution companies
- Tuffi Films Oy
Walk the Tideline is a film about the traces we leave behind us. It follows beachcombers at shores trying to find treasures. Between the people the film drifts out to the unknown oceans and shows us the diverse system of ocean currents, how they carry and swirl our history in small pieces.
Ruthless Times – Songs of Care
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Susanna Helke
- Screenwriters
- Susanna Helke, Markku Heikkinen
- Producers
- Timo Korhonen
- Premiere
- 8.4.2022
- SES grant
- 161 440 €
- Budget
- 350 000 €
- Production companies
- Road Movies Oy
- Distribution companies
- Pirkanmaan elokuvakeskus
Ruthless Times – Songs of Care is a documentary-material based film, partly using a choir song element in portraying the future challenges of the elderly care sector.
Kelet
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Susani Mahadura
- Screenwriters
- Susani Mahadura
- Producers
- Baba Lybeck
- Release year
- 2020
- SES grant
- 60 000 €
- Budget
- 141 000 €
- Production companies
- Baba Lybeck Productions Oy
Kelet is based in Finland, far away from her family in Manchester. Her life in Finland is sometimes lonely, in spite of Lola, another Somali transwoman who is her roomie, soulmate, and best friend. Being a black transwoman in Finland is not easy: racism and transphobia are deeply rooted in Finnish society.
Lost Boys
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Joonas Neuvonen, Sadri Cetinkaya
- Screenwriters
- Joonas Neuvonen, Sadri Cetinkaya, Venla Varha
- Producers
- Miia Haavisto
- Premiere
- 25.9.2020
- SES grant
- 140 000 €
- Budget
- 330 000 €
- Production companies
- Helsinki-filmi Oy, Tekele Productions Oy
- Distribution companies
- SF Studios Oy
Lost Boys is a documentary about damnation – about three men lost in a drug hell, defeated in the game of life, disappearing into the streets of Cambodia. Of the three, Jani is known as the main character of the documentary Reindeerspotting – Escape from Santaland (2010) and Joonas as its director. The main character of Lost Boys is Joonas himself.
The naked real life story full of sex, drugs and death tells us what happened ten years ago when these friends enjoying the never-ending after party following the success of the opening of the film Reindeerspotting that depicts drug users in Rovaniemi, change from immortal to mortal. The party comes to an end when Jani dies a violent death in Phnom Penh.
In the film Lost Boys, Joonas’ camera takes the viewer into the dizzying noise of Bangkok and the alleys of night-time Phnom Penh, to the last weeks of Jani’s life and the desperate search following his disappearance and death. What happened on the journey?
Can the answer be found in the videos shot by Joonas or in something that has yet to be investigated and faced, filmed or told? Is it all about drugs, women and money or does the trail lead somewhere deeper?
Someone knows something. Joonas is looking for his friends and the local women with whom they partied and with whom they shared whatever they had to share. Joonas must find his own truth about what happened among the drugs and the gloom. There are no heroes there.
Two Kids a Day
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- David Wachsmann
- Screenwriters
- David Wachsmann
- Producers
- Yoav Roeh, Aurit Zamir, Venla Hellstedt
- Release year
- 2022
- SES grant
- 30 000 €
- Budget
- 410 000 €
- Production companies
- Tuffi Films Oy
About 700 Palestinian minors are arrested and jailed every year by the Israeli security forces in the West Bank. They are taken from their homes at night and interrogated, with mental and physical pressure, which violate international law. Almost all of them are convicted and sent to prison. The most common offence is stone throwing; but behind the official reasoning, there’s an underlying systemic motive to these mass arrests of children: it’s the most efficient mechanism to deter the population and preserve Israel’s 50 years long occupation of the West Bank.
Who Made You?
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Iiris Härmä
- Screenwriters
- Iiris Härmä
- Producers
- Visa Koiso-Kanttila
- Release year
- 2019
- SES grant
- 80 000 €
- Budget
- 170 000 €
- Production companies
- Guerillafilms Ltd.
Who Made You? tackles with ethical questions arising from the development of artificial intelligence, AI. This film paints a picture of two possible future scenarios presented by two researchers who are working in the field of AI.
Michael Laakasuo investigates the moral and ethics of AI from the human sciences point of view. He has a background as an activist and has a strong urge to act upon towards the better society through his work. Timo Honkela is a well-aknowledged professor who is suffering from terminal brain-cancer. Timo feels strongly that his whole life is coming to the point, where he wants to create a testimony based on his experiences and knowledge. He started a project called Peace Machine in which he wants to show us that AI can be developed to solve conflicts and build the world peace.
The film will follow both researchers and their battles to gain their goals. In order to make sense to these conflicting visions, the film will portray new technology in a light of ordinary encounters, such as nursing robots in elderly home, sexrobots in brothel and social robots in schools.
Mystical Lumberjack
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Mikko Mattila
- Screenwriters
- Mikko Mattila
- Producers
- Liisa Akimof
- Release year
- 2019
- SES grant
- 70 000 €
- Budget
- 153 300 €
- Production companies
- Production House
Cosmic Cowboy is a documentary film about friendship between two men and a chemical that binds them, fuels them and ultimately burns them down.
Little Red Bunch
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Jouko Aaltonen
- Screenwriters
- Jouko Aaltonen
- Producers
- Jouko Aaltonen
- Release year
- 2020
- SES grant
- 100 000 €
- Budget
- 198 000 €
- Production companies
- Illume Ltd. Oy
The thoughts of Mao Zedong were collected in the Small Red Book, one of the world’s most widespread publications. It was waved also in Finnish demonstrations in the 1960s and 1970s. The Maoist movement of the cold Finland was also small and red. This documentary digs into the thoughts and experiences of this enthusiastic group.
The Other Voice
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Annika Grof
- Screenwriters
- Annika Grof
- Producers
- Joon Tervakari
- Premiere
- 27.5.2022
- SES grant
- 105 000 €
- Budget
- 298 000 €
- Production companies
- Tarasow Films Oy
- Distribution companies
- Tarasow Films Oy
The Other Voice is Annika Grof’s collage film about four academics and one cinematographer. The film offers a view to Finnish democracy through a tragic story of university and a tragicomic story of governmental politics.
Calling Mother
- Category
- Documentaries
- Directors
- Marianne Mäkelä, Heli Pekkonen
- Screenwriters
- Marianne Mäkelä, Heli Pekkonen
- Producers
- Marianne Mäkelä, Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen
- Release year
- 2019
- SES grant
- 50 000 €
- Budget
- 82 000 €
- Production companies
- Zone2 Pictures Oy
Anniina became a mother a little over a year ago. First thing she wanted to do in the hospital was to call her mother and to rejoice. At the moment there are countless moments in her life, when she should call her mother and ask for an advice. That’s not possible though, as her mother died long ago.
Phone calls made by different characters create that one call to mother, that Anniina can’t make herself. It’s a phone call from situations and moments, when adults are still someone’s children. These phone calls create an image of a relationship between mother and a child. It’s a relationship that is intimate, painful and often a little bit ridiculous.