VÁLMMAS ON IT

VÁLMMAS ON IT, the ninth edition of Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF), takes place in Skánik/Evenskjer and Hárstták/Harstad, Norway. The region is part of Sápmi, the land of the indigenous Sami people.

AMIFF embraces all forms of moving image, including independent film, time-based and relational work, in the unique setting of a 1950’s cinema. 

The festival programme is accompanied by public seminars and discussion. 

VÁLMMAS, in the title, is Sami for “I’m on the move, ready”.  

ON IT, the English expression, means to actively address a problem, as in: “I’m on it!”

English language no longer represents only English culture. Through colonialism and globalisation it is continues to expand. Sami is a transnational language group almost eradicated.

Norwegianization, the Norwegian state’s policy towards the Sami culture, has led to the decline of Sami languages. In the AMIFF region it has almost disappeared. 

VÁLMMAS ON IT, two expressions and languages side by side, is a starting point for conversations on making, thinking and acting together in the here and now. 

The Várdobáiki Sámi Centre and Márkomeannu, will host Dubmorphology, the London based interdisciplinary artist group, experimenting with sound art and live cinema. Gary Stewart and Trevor Mathison were the AMIFF artists in residence at Várdobáiki.

The artists Risten Anine Gaup, Runa Bergsmo, and Rámavoul Elle Bigge, will perform in an audiovisual installation and live performance with Dubmorphology called Our Time is Now. Film, sound and images will be digitally interpreted in real time and mixed in a performance blurring the digital and the physical.

Our Time is Now is the amplified residual live echo of the stay at Márkomannu and Várdobáiki informed by applying the theory, principles and practice of dub that have emerged from the African diaspora.

Programme

November 7
Opening film: The Tundra Within Me (Norway, 2023) Dir: Sara Margrethe Oskal. 95 min.

November 8
Twice Colonized (Canada, Denmark, Greenland 2023) Dir: Lin Allulna. 91 min.
“New Echoes” curated by Erik Alstad, 60 min.
Phantoms of the Sierra Madre (Norway, Finland, USA, Mexico, 2024). Dir: Håvard Bustnes. 100 min.
“Framing War: Images and Speculations” curated by Liv Brissach. 
(1) Adversarial Infrastructure (2020), Anna Engelhardt, 10 min.
(2) The Poet’s Antidote (2019), Tanya Busse, 13 min. 
(3) Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously (2023), Miloš Trakilović, 25 min.
My Fathers’ Daughter (Norway, Sweden, Finland 2024) Dir: Egil Pedersen. 78 min.
Elle Márjá Eira and Ida Madsen Hestman talks colonialism, power and identity on film. 
No Other Land (Palestine, Norway, 2024) Dir: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Balal. 95 min.

November 9
Our Time is Now, Dubmorphology, audiovisual performance. With Risten Anine Gaup, Runa Bergsmo and Rámavuol Elle Bigge. At Várdobáiki Sami Centre. Followed by artist talk led by professor in Art History, Hanne Hammer Stien.
The Film Art School in Kabelvåg (FiK) presents LET US EXPERIMENT(<3/!)
The Substance (USA, UK, France, 2024) Dir: Coralie Fargeat. 140 min.

November 10
“Commitments to Mirror-Writing” curated by Abirami Logendran
(1) Surname Viet Given Name Nam, Trinh T. Minh-Ha (1989) (12 min—excerpt)
(2) Mouth to Mouth, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1975) (8 min)
(3) Into The Violet Belly, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi (2022) (20 min)
Signs of Empire, Black Audio Film Collective, GB, 1983, 22 mins
Love, Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway, 2024) 120 min.

November 8–10
Three day morning seminar hosted by Silja Espolin Johnson, film curator, Head of Kunstnernes Hus Kino, Oslo.

November 9
Sami Rave, DJ: Petra Laiti (Article 3) at Utheim Night Club. 

Supported by Arts Council Norway, The Norwegian Film Institute, Samfunnsløftet Sparebank1 NN, KORO, Fritt Ord, Troms Fylkeskommune, Sametinget, Sparebanken 68 grader nord, Harstad Kommune.

For media inquiries, please contact Helene Hokland: helene [​at​] ellida.no / T +47 (0) 483 68 318