The 22nd DocPoint kicks off in earnest January 31, following the January 29 opening presentation of Susanna Helke’s Ruthless Times: Songs of Care. In the musical documentary, a choir of exhausted Finnish nurses accompany Anna-Mari Kähärä’s hypnotic music about the truths of everyday nursing work.
The film is part of the 8-strong Finnish Competition. “It is amazing how filmmakers have been able to make these films in these horrible times, and it’s especially interesting how Finnish filmmakers in the documentary sphere are really making films now outside of Finland,” says DocPoint Artistic Director Kati Juurus, who confirms that six of the eight docs were shot beyond Finnish borders.
She further stresses how only one film in Finnish Competition was directed by a male director, which was not by design, but nevertheless noteworthy. “I know of several films made by directed by male filmmakers that were planned for DocPoint, but just weren’t ready on time,” Juurus underlines. “So we have a very strong female presence in our competition.”
She adds: “Obviously I’m also very excited about our International Competition
where I’d like to mention that the majority of the filmmakers are non-white,” she adds. “We have 11 films in the competition and six filmmakers are persons of colour. We want to have a very global perspective …but of course, it’s the quality of the films that are the decisive or the most important aspect.”
“DocPoint wishes to broaden the understanding of its audiences as to what’s happening in the world, to discuss the state of humanity and the environment – and to feature the many different ways to tell stories and interpret the world by the means of documentary filmmaking,” the festival underlines on its website.
An important addition to the festival in 2022 is the DocPoint FINEST Market which will present a selection of the newest completed Finnish and Estonian docs, both features and shorts, as well as eight works-in-progress, to the great and the good of the international doc community, such as festival programmers, distributors, sales agents and buyers of television channels and VOD platforms.
“The market is there to help Finnish and Estonian filmmakers get better visibility in the international sphere and bring them to the attention of more international decision makers,” says Juurus of this ‘coming of age’ decision to more thoroughly embrace the professional needs of the country’s doc sector. “So I think we are getting back to our roots and pushing forward Finnish documentary filmmaking to the world.”
She points to the work-in-progress Hymn of the Cherubim by acclaimed Finnish doccer Pirjo Honkasalo as well as Alina Rudnitskaya’s work-in-progress The Long War.
On February 4 Pirjo Honkasalo will go head-to-head with Mark Cousins during an online conversation, with both taking a ‘deep dive’ in the world of documentary films. The DocPoint festival programme also includes a retrospective of Honkasalo’s films and will screen Mark Cousin’s The Story of Looking.
Other highlights of the festival in 2022 include a Camilla Nielsson masterclass (Feb 6) on her Oscar shortlisted President, a February 2 discussion on activism, and a February 1 seminar on the ethics of filmmaker/protagonist relationships asking, among other questions, how is the balance between the director and the protagonist defined/maintained, and is it possible to evaluate the effect the film will have on the protagonist’s life and their surroundings?
The festival will be online, which of course opens it up to a wider national audience over and beyond its traditional Helsinki base. But Juurus is nevertheless critical of the continued closure of cinemas within Finland, although it seems that this week there will be limited capacity. But for Juris, this is too little too late.
“They’re only going to be open for 50 persons at a time,” she says. “So we will have some special treats towards the end of the week in cinemas for our audience. But
we do feel that the authorities have been treating us in a horrible way.”
“Being one of the only countries in Europe where cinemas have been closed, you know, it hasn’t been a happy position,” she ends.
