After several attempts we finally had the chance to join the probably best film festival in the world, the Midnight Sun Film Festival held in the small town of Sodankylä, hundred kilometres north of the polar circle. Since the sun never settles, also the film festival runs almost around the clock, people exit the large circus tents that are converted into temporary cinemas into the bright sunligth at 4 am in the morning to head to the next screening or the festival club at the meadows of the river behind the cinema.
We are greatful for the opportunity to bring our curated list of Film Speeches to this unique atmosphere. Thanks to our long time supporter Mika Taanila – who helped curate the original film speech catalogue for the Film without Film program section of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival – for bringing Speech Karaoke to the magic nights of Sodankylä.
For the two events we added many new gems, mainly about and from Finnish films, In the image above you see our frist TRIO speech in the system, an exchange of words between Spede Pasanen and Jörn Donner about the strange funding policies of the Finnish Film Foundation in the 70s and 80s. Our host Jenna performs the journalist, Mika Taanila as Jörn Donner, and Otto Suuronen as Spede. We also asked the Midnigth Sun Film Festival to find interesting speeches from its colorful history. We added for example the 1991 Festival Opening Speech by Peter von Bagh. Below we share a unique clip of one of the first international guests to Sodankylä, Samuel Fuller, who was full of admiration for the small town.