Suomi radalla / Just Can't Stop

Tampere Film Festival
Kotimainen kilpailu 2

K17 | 8.3. WED/KE 22:00 | PLEVNA 2 | alk. / from 8 €

Language/kieli: Eng/Fin | Duration/kesto: 115 min

SUOMI RADALLA
JUST CAN’T STOP

Jay Kowski, Tiina Hiekkaranta | Finland 2017 | Documentary | 59 min

TFF: This documentary film is about Finnish graffiti culture. The film introduces Finnish graffiti bombers, writers and artists, illuminating their philosophy and ideology. The film presents graffiti phenomenon in Finnish society, it’s evolution from 80’s till today, from streets to museums and eventually towards to more civilized forms of art.

Dokumenttielokuva Suomi radalla on tarina suomalaisen katutaide- ja graffitikulttuurin kehityksestä kaduilta galleriaan. Elokuva esittelee tekijöiden ideologiaa, erilaisia näkemyksiä ja kohtaloita muuttuvassa yhteiskunnassa. TFF

AA: A lively history of the Finnish graffiti culture.

Told by the graffiti masters themselves with additional views of graffiti historians and graffiti-friendly politicians (Paavo Arhinmäki), gallerists (Umut Kiukas), and museum directors (Maija Tanninen of the Helsinki Art Museum). No enemies of graffiti are interviewed.

The basic dialectics is between legal vs. illegal. Many graffiti people see graffiti illegal in essence, and legal graffiti as a sell-out. Becoming a part of the establishment is seen as the death of graffiti by the hard core of the movement.

This is why many of the contributions are anonymous, and even the male director's name is a pseudonym. Voices are altered, and faces are disguised in the most ingenuous ways with masking, blurring, etc. Certainly it seems that the film-makers are very deep in the secret world of graffiti.

The danger, the excitement, and the risks are palpable. The main approach is the commando attack. Even paranoia belongs to the general graffiti experience.

The film covers the different waves in the society's attitudes to graffiti: from a generally benevolent start to zero tolerance and to the present more sophisticated attitude of tolerance within accepted limits.

This film about hip-hop culture is itself a part of it. It uses the vocabulary of hip-hop video with scratched images, video static, jarring edit, split screen, video effects, and animation.

There was just an indicated space for the missing final credits in the screener I viewed.