NICE 2009 – Helsinki Documentaries at the Festival of Nordic Art and Culture


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  • Two Finnish city documentaries launch the 2009 NICE Festival in Liverpool. NICE, the Nordic Art and Culture Festival, aims to present the best collaborative works between the UK and the Nordic countries. It's diverse programme of high quality events covers a wide range of artistic practices and provides opportunities for intercultural dialogue. Festival's participating countries are Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK.

    The Finnish participants for NICE 2009 are Peter von Bagh with Helsinki, Forever and Hannes Vartiainen and Pekka Veikkolainen with their directorial collaboration Hanasaari.

    "In a faraway land called Finland, all roads lead to Helsinki"... starts the award-winning director and film historian Peter von Bagh's new portrait of Finland's capital. Helsinki, Forever is a beautiful mosaic of the city's history captured by leading Finnish feature filmmakers over a period of a hundred years. Like Terence Davie's love letter to Liverpool, Of Time and the City, Bagh's captivating symphony of the city reads as a homage to his home town.

    Hanasaari is an experimental documentary about the changing cityscape of Helsinki and the final moments of a coal-fired power plant. The old industrial milieu is being destroyed to make space for modern housing units. The film is a combination of animation, live action cinematography and graphic elements. It is based on 500 000 photoraphs taken during the final two years of the existence of the power plant.

    Both films are having their UK premier on the launch night of the Festival, Thursday 19th November in FACT. Hanna Harris from the Finnish Institute and photographer Mike McCartney are the guest speakers for the event.

    Helsinki, Forever (12A)
    Thursday 19th November 6.30 pm, FACT, Liverpool

    Hanasaari (12A)
    Thursday 19th November 6.30 pm, FACT, Liverpool
    NICE Festival offers a programme of events between the 19th November and 3rd of December with satellite events happening throughout the year.

    More information:
    http://www.nice-festival.co.uk