The Nordic Haven for Docuphiles: DocPoint 2014, Finland

We look at the programme for this year's DocPoint Film Festival in Helsinki, the largest documentary festival in Scandinavia

Feature by Gareth Rice | 10 Feb 2014

It was not as cold as it was last year, slushing between cinemas. Not that it mattered to Ulla Simonen, the director of Helsinki’s 13th DocPoint Film Festival. Her intention was always to remain true to the nature of the documentary, “to take us somewhere we would not otherwise go.” She achieved this and more.

A flick through the glossy brochure, too big for the back pocket of my jeans, told me that I was to be treated to something from each of the five continents. My journey started with a bit of Love & Engineering and continued across Lapland with Arctic Cowboys, time with Aka pygmies in the Forest of the Dancing Spirits, a Journey to the Safest Place on Earth in the spirit of Jules Verne and finished up 20 Feet from Stardom. Along the way there was also some experimental and immersive material from Austria’s Valie Export, a few promising Finnish student films and the “cinéma vérité” of the late, great Jean Rouch – “the father of ethnographic film.”

The Finnish audience was always going to be the ultimate litmus test for Jessica Oreck’s Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys, and they liked her crisp take on the lives of Salla’s reindeer herders. The memorable slaughter sequence goes from fattened-up to bones in detail bloody enough to make your stomach turn, but such was the American director’s insistence on staying on the “true to life track.” The same honesty swears at you from Anna Eborn’s Pine Ridge. For her exposé she travelled to the South Dakota Indian reservation to capture the everyday struggles of its inhabitants.

The Q&A sessions weren’t the only opportunity for the audience to get more involved. ABBA: The Movie offered the chance to sing along to the 1977 cult classic; radio documentaries invited people to make audio journeys while sitting in very comfortable chairs scattered around the city; the “Encounters” workshop brought professionals and students together to discuss how documentaries go from rough cuts to festival-ready versions. Most impressive about this additional programme, though, was Kim Longinotto’s master class lecture. It was inspiring to hear the director’s insights into her most successful films, Divorce Iranian Style, Salma, and Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, which were also screened at the festival.

Finland may not have the documentary chops of its European neighbours, so it's all the more impressive that Simonen and her small but dedicated team have again managed to keep their city lit up as a permanent feature on the documentary film festival landscape. If this year was anything to go by, then it is likely that more and more ‘docuphiles’ will flutter towards the light like moths to a flame for next year’s festival.

From the Archive:

A Finnish Delight: DocPoint 2012

Kim Longinotto on Salma

Kim Longinotto on Pink Saris


DocPoint Film Festival ran 29 Jan–2 Feb

http://docpoint.info/en