The Labour of Pain and Joy - Kivun ja ilon työ - 84' - feature documentary film - Icebreaker Productions - premiere 2024
Two Finnish birth experts – midwife Kirsi and doula Anna-Riitta – firmly believe that how you give birth affects your entire life: it can either break or empower you.
The video installation Lauantaisauna (“Saturday Sauna”) consist of video work projected inside a wooden sauna. Work offers an insight into different saunas and the thoughts of sauna-goers. The people and places shown in the short documentary depict the Finnish way of using the sauna, where the most important thing is to just be yourself and enjoy in your own way. Sauna not only as a physical space but also as a mental refuge from the hustle and bustle of daily life. It takes the viewer into the hot steam, the cold snow and the relaxed atmosphere of the dressing room, and aims to evoke the sauna’s sensory experiences in the viewer. The work opens up perspectives on the Finnish sauna experience, in which community, relaxation and the fostering of tradition are intertwined.
Video installation is exhibited at Die Sauna. exhibition at the cultural centre Felleshus in Nordic Embassies in Berlin 25.1.-12.4.2024.
Video: Karoliina Gröndahl Sauna: Jaakko Blomberg
Ei nimi miestä pahenna (Every Tom, Dick, and Urpo) - 16' - short doc - napafilms oy - 2023
A letter, sent to the Finnish public radio phone-in program, hopes that in this era of #Metoo and many other well-meaning campaigns, attention would be drawn to the unpleasant phenomenon of using the name “Urpo” as a synonym for idiot. Warm-hearted and humorous documentary, four men all called Urpo gather to reflect on the meaning and impact of their name in their lives. Will the use of Urpo still be acceptable in 2023?
Festival selections and awards: 36. Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy, 2023 - New Wave Award PÖFF 27 | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2023 FIPADOC 2024 International Documentary Festival, France DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival 2024 Tampere Film Festival, National Competition 2024 - Special Mention BAFICI 2024, Argentina VERA Filmfestival 2024, Åland Island
Juror No. 5 - short documentary - Belgium / Finland - 2020
Short film Juror No.5 portrays an inner conflict of a man who is stuck in his vivid memories of a murder trial he participated years ago. He was obliged to be one of the 12 civil jurors at the Court of Assize in Belgium. The story is gathered from several real life testimonies of former jury members. Juror No. 5 is a director's graduation film from a DOC NOMADS Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree in documentary film directing.
Festivals: DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Finland 2021 PORTO FEMME - International Film Festival, Portugal 2021
Between the Trees and Bushes - short docu fiction - Belgium - 2018
In the middle of the city of Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the whole Europe is a park, Parc de Bruxelles. The hidden pathways, trees and bushes of the park witnesses anonymous encounters.
Film is is part of director's studies at the international DocNomads Joint Master Degree in documentary film directing.
Festivals: QFest: The Houston International LGBTQ Film Festival, United States 2019 LGBTQ Shorts Film Festival, United States 2019
Senki fiáról (EN: Nobody’s Son) - short documentary - Hungary - 2018 Miki is a 56 year old public transportation ticket controller in Budapest Hungary. Life has not treated him so gently and now Miki has decided to take care of himself. The film Nobody's Son raises the universal question of how much a person is responsible of his own actions and what is the effect of the given circumstances in which one is born into.
Festivals: Finnish Film Days, Fresh Perspectives! -screening, Budapest, 2019 Bucharest ShortCut Cinefest 2019 Nahal international Student Short Film Festival 2019
Exist, Non-Exist - short documentary - Portugal - 2018 Just outside of Lisbon locates self-built neighbourhood Bairro 6 de Maio, which is facing the consequences of gentrification in postcolonial Portugal.
Festivals and screenings: PORTO FEMME International Film Festival, Portugal 2019 SUBURBINALE, Austria 2019 The Independent Documentary Film Festival Legendary Doc 2019 Arquiteturas Film Festival, Portugal 2019 Lisbon Film Rendezvous, Portugal 2019 Social Short Film Awards, Portugal 2019 Festival CinemaZERO, Italy 2018 Cine Terraço, Brazil 2018 Watch the film: https://vimeo.com/255191652
Dans La Chambre D'Aprhodite (EN: In Aphrodite's Room) - short docu-fiction - Portugal - 2017 The film questions the universal myth trough the gaze of a curious woman who is fascinated by other's intimacy.
Short film created in collaboration with seven documentary film students during a field trip to the north of Portugal in November 2017.
Collective: Pilar Bebea Mirna Everhard Karoliina Gröndahl Luisa Mello Charlotte Müller Ananthakrishnan Pillai Ahsan Mahmood Claudia Sul
Festivals & awards: Best Short Film, Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival, Autumn Edition 2018
Inside - short docu-fiction - Hungary - 2018 - Work in progress.
#Mommylife - short fiction - Finland - 2017 - Co-directed with Milla Puolakanaho Short film of an everyday life of a woman on the edge.
Producer: Euphoria Borealis ry / Kino Love Screened: Nordic Cultural Point HIFF, Finland 2019 Tampere Film Festival - Kino Euphoria Finland 2018 Suomalaisen Elokuvan Festivaalin klubi #1, Finland 2018 Link: https://vimeo.com/228205005
Elinkautinen (EN: Sentenced for Life) - documentary - Finland - 2016 How is life of a long term prisoner Henkka, who has spent almost all of his adult life in prison in Finland sentenced for a murder? Now he is 32 years old and trying to get back to society serving in open prison, which allows him to make rap music and study. How the Finnish society responds to him?
About Adulthood (original title: Aikuisuudesta) - short documentary - Finland - 2014 "I will turn 30 this year. I'm grown up. Still I don't know how adulthood should feel. I don't have a steady job, mortgage, I am not in relationship, i don't have kids or neither pension savings account" Short personal documentary film about getting older, friendship and family.
Producer: Helsinki Vocational College of Audiovisual Communications Screened: Tampere Film Festival, Finland 2015, Kelaamo -screening Blue Sea Film Festival, Finland 2014, film school series Tyttöjen Talo Tour 2015, film toured in several Girls’ Houses in Finland were it was screened for audience consisting of teenagers and youth workers Film is part of the film association Kelaamo’s learning material offered for high school students