2006

THEMATICALLY GRIPPING ANIMATION FILMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
The red Pirkko the Parrot flew in the Tampere skies for a week

Pirkko the Parrot raised its wings from 7th to12th March 2006 and from underneath them appeared a screenful of films. The third Videotivoli offered the chance to see films collected by our friend the parrot from forty different countries. Out of almost 600 films sent 120 were chosen to be screened at Tullikamari (the Old Customs House). Over 5500 people saw the films and/or attended the events.

During the festival week the Children’s Centre Rulla explored the world of animation: there were guided tours in an exhibition (open all March) that exhibited works by the top names in Finnish animation, and children were able do animation-themed handicrafts. At the end of week, adult students of animation were led further in the field of film-making by foreign teachers.

The festival was organized by a busy posse from the Pirkanmaa Film Centre. Maikki Kantola was responsible for the overall hustle and bustle; Lotta Mikkonen for the exhibition and the children’s guided tours, Sanna Kyllönen for the screenings at Tullikamari and the translations and Sinikka Junnilainen for the film traffic and guests. Eetu Pietarinen did the Web pages, the poster and the printed programme, and Jukka-Pekka Laakso held the key to the money chest.

VIDEOTIVOLI SCREENINGS 7.-12.3.2006

The Videotivoli films were mainly by children and youngsters under the age of 16. The early weekday screenings consisted of films for nurseries and comprehensive school pupils. Besides these screenings that were divided between three age categories, in the weekend there were five differently themed Videotivoli screenings.

Videotivoli 1 was made of the gems of imagination, fictional stories and experimental visions. Videotivoli 2 had a social theme: the films built a better world and corrected injustices. Some of the films were quite effective and delved deep in their subject matter. This compilation also probably took the viewer for the longest tour around the world. Videotivoli 3, the Media Muffin, was named after a media education project for young children: the Muffin attracted whole families and showed films made by small children, for small children. Videotivoli 4 was for the friends of animation and Japanese workmanship. Sunday’s “Shimmers” were all Finnish films.

FESTIVAL GUESTS

Videotivoli attracted numerous video makers both from Finland and abroad. Amongst the foreign guests were young film-makers from Britain and adults involved in media education and films, representing several organizations and festivals from Britain, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Japan.

The Japanese guest, Naoto Ogawa, arrived in Finland already on the 4th of March and stayed until the 7th of March. The purpose of his visit was to explore and get acquainted with Finnish media education.

EXHIBITION: REAL AND IMAGINATION - TIME FOR ANIMATION

An animation exhibition at the Children’s Culture Centre Rulla, Real and imagination – time for animation, ran for three weeks from 7th to 26th March. Stills and characters from many well-known Finnish animation films could be seen at the exhibition.

Some of the characters included were Heikki Prepula’s cut-outs, Tuula Pukkila’s clay figures, drawings by Markus Majamaa and Katarina Lillqvist’s puppets. A special exhibition, Eläviä kuvia (Moving Images) by Anne Lakanen, included optical instruments she designed using original drawings and objects.

Guided tours were arranged for children, during which they did animation-themed handicrafts. Quite a few magic gadgets and four-picture widgets were made in a short period of time.

WORKSHOP: MOULDING THE IMAGINATION

A two-day, hands-on animation workshop was organized on 10th-11th March for people working with children. After short introduction talks the participants were able to try their hand at their chosen animation techniques.

Thomas Schneider Trumpp, a director at Studio Clayart in Germany, concentrated on teaching how to move clay figures. At the time of Videotivoli he was working on the internationally distributed children’s series, the Blue Dragon.

Ruth Helene Melikoranski and Sondra Lampmann mixed different materials in cut-out animation. They work at the Nukufilm children’s studio in Estonia.

The theme of the speech of Reijo Kupiainen from the University of Tampere was whether media education had any reason to exist at all. On Saturday Anu Ruhala from the Media Centre Metka gave an introduction on the nationwide media education project, Mediamuffinssi (Media Muffin) and the materials used in it, and media educator Jukka Haveri told about hands-on workshops he had realized with children and young people.

Friday 10.3.2006
8.30 Registration
9.00 Thomas Schneider-Trumpp
9.40 Reijo Kupiainen, Assistant Professor at the University of Tampere
10.20 Short break and coffee
10.30 Animation films during coffee
11.15 Ruth Helene Melikoranski
12.00 Lunch
13.30-16.00 Workshop

Saturday 11.3.2006
10.00-18.00 Workshop