ALIENS AND AFTERLIFES

SCREENING WITH VISITING ARTIST MATTI HARJU:

ALIENS AND AFTERLIFES

Co-presented by the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) and PIX FILM

Toronto—Finnish filmmaker Matti Harju joins us on Monday, November 28, 2022 to present a screening of his cinemawork. This screening complements his residency as the third resident in LIFT’s collaboration with the  Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki and the Saastamoinen Foundation. The residency supports the making of a new film-based work by alumni of the Academy of Fine Arts. Matti has been at LIFT since September 9th and will show a selection of his films as well as an excerpt of a work in progress film.

ALIENS AND AFTERLIFES

In-Person Screening

Monday, November 28, 2022

7:00pm

PIX FILM Gallery, 1411 Dufferin Street, Unit C, Toronto

PWYC

Social distancing observed.

Mask use requested.

Programme:

Total running time of 50 Minutes

Afrikka, 2012, 9 mins, Super 16mm shown digitally

A disturbing, raw film that gets up close to a psychotic man. We don’t all live in the same reality.

Aliens, 2020, 9 mins, VHS, digital, Super 8 shown digitally

A film about how language, be it film, art or written language, creates in itself a system where separation precedes contact.

El Centro, 2021, 9 mins, VHS, digital, Super 8 shown digitally

Young Anon discovers the digital, binary root of everything during a school trip to New York and comes to a surprising conclusion.

Kolme päivää sadetta (Three Days of Rain), 2021, 10 mins, digital

Part time Twitch streamer, part time drug courier; both low level. Slithering between life and death, online and offline. The carefree summer of global progress seems to be over - are these the final days of both, the illusion of overarching narrative, and of Jerome the Saint.

Work in Progress Preview, 2022, 10 mins, digital

A short preview of one of the films Matti has been working on over the past few months.

Matti Harju (b. 1978, Kouvola, Finland) is a Finnish artist working mainly with film and video. He has an MFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts (2021). He has made 10+ short-length films, which have been widely exhibited at film festivals and galleries, including Locarno Film Festival, Gallery Sinne, Rotterdam International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, AFI Fest Los Angeles, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Forum des Images, Torino Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Tabakalera International Contemporary Culture Centre, Edinburgh International Film Festival etc. http://mattiharju.com

Matti Harju’s visit is made possible in part through support from Saastamoisen säätiö (the Saastamoinen Foundation) and the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki.