Underdog (2025)

Marjo Levlin: Underdog (FI 2025). My screenshot. Do click on the image to expand it.

Documentary, experimental.

    FI © 2024 Marjo Levlin. Year of release 2025.

    A film by Marjo Levlin. Script, camera, editing and voiceover: Marjo Levlin. Black and white – double screen. 8 mm film scanning: Mutascan. Color grading by Freebird: Patricia Wiklund. Editorial assistance: Ilkka Pitkänen.

    English translation by Mongulator / Susan Heiskanen.

    Archival materials: Puolustusvoimain katsaus 76: koira asevelvollisena (FI 1943), American Philosophical Society, Leon Whitney's Experimental Farm (Connecticut), Levlin Family archives.

    Loc: USA, Finland.

    30 min

    Languages: Finnish and Swedish. English subtitles by Susan Heiskanen.

    Festival premiere: DocPoint 2025: Special Jury Mention in National Short Film Competition.

    Tampereen Film Festival: Main Prize (Suudelma-patsas) in National Competition of Films Under 30 min.

    Also a two-channel video installation.

    2026 Jussi Awards Nominee: Best Short.

    Vimeo link for Jussi Awards viewed at home in Paris, 26 Feb 2026

ELONET SUMMARY: "Underdog on kokeellinen dokumenttielokuva, joka tarkastelee koirien ja ihmisten maailmaa rinnakkain. Mustavalkoinen elokuva käsittelee tekijän lapsuuden kokemuksia yhteiskuntaluokkien ja kulttuurien törmäyksistä, ja rinnastaa koirien jalostuksen ongelmat ihmisten monikulttuuriseen elämään."

AA: Marjo Levlin's Underdog is an essay film based on the double screen format, which enables parallels, discrepancies, associations, and poetic connections on a journey through family history on two continents, the worlds of humans and dogs, and the scary legacy of eugenics with implications both for  animals and regimes based on racism. In special focus is Leon F. Whitney, who does not have a Wikipedia page, but who rose to prominence with his book The Case for Sterilization (US 1931), admired by Adolf Hitler.