Finland’s only dance film festival LOIKKA celebrates its fifth annual festival in March 2012. This year, the theme of the festival is breaking boundaries both on and off the screen. The festival features a screening by a nonprofessional citizen jury as well as numerous events such as a seminar, clubs and a dance video jam session. For the first time, audiences will have the opportunity of voting for their favourite film.
“Over the last five years, LOIKKA has focused on raising the visibility and esteem of dance film as an art form in Finland. This work has clearly paid off, as this year we received an unprecedented 130 short film submissions for our open call. A record number of Finnish films were also selected for screening this year. The festival selections can be characterized as even more open-minded and experimental than ever before,” says Hanna Pajala-Assefa, Artistic Director of the festival. LOIKKA also pays homage to dance film with its first ever audience prize, the winner of which will be announced at the LOIKKAA! festival club.
In addition to international works, the festival’s short film selections present 14 Finnish dance films. The Quality Goods and Crazy Cool selections have been curated by a jury of dance and film professionals that comprises Hanna Pajala-Assefa, Beniamino Borghi, Anna Nykyri, Mika Kurvinen, Sari Palmgren and Lulu Salmi. For the first time, LOIKKA also presents a selection titled Eazy Access, curated by a so-called citizen jury. Compiled in cooperation with The Helsinki Clubhouse for mental illness rehabilitation, this screening of eight short films embraces the full range of styles and genres in dance film.
In addition to five programmes of high-quality short films, LOIKKA’s screenings include strong artist documentaries on acclaimed choreographer-dancers Wayne McGregor and Akram Khan. The festival also gives the widely acclaimed film Pina 3D one more screening in Finland. LOIKKA’s offering for dance and film professionals includes the Encounters seminar on the artistic processes of short films, as well as the collaborative, improvisatory Dance Video Jam session. In addition, the festival programme encompasses club evenings and free events for the general public and professionals alike.
LOIKKA is Finland’s only dance film festival, organized annually since 2008. The event is organized by the open production and artists’ collective MAD Production.
The main partners and supporters of the festival include the national and regional arts councils of Finland, the Kone Foundation, the City of Helsinki Cultural Office, the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture in Finland (AVEK), the British Council and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.