Suomen metsät VII

[Finlands skogar VII] / [The Forests of Finland VII]. FI 1933. PC: Aho & Soldan. Silent. 10 min. Digibeta, alas. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 16 Sep 2009. - In the presence of Jussi Brofeldt. - The intertitles have a literary value. Timber floating. The birch stocks form a jam. Lunch break of the lumberjacks. The stocks are rolled down the hill into the river. A pipe is built for the stocks. Beams. Bundles. Shadow of the cinematographer. Sunset.

Vihreä kulta

Grönt guld / Green Gold / L'Or vert. FI 1939.
http://www.elonet.fi/title/ek2k8o/
A recent KAVA print avec sous-titres francais par Aline Vannier-Sihvola. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 2 Sep 2009. - I revisited this great movie for 10 minutes to check the quality of the print: luminous, paying justice to the definition of light by cinematographer Armas Hirvonen and director Valentin Vaala. - The film, based on the play by Hella Wuolijoki, is topical because of its ecological message. - The opening feature of our Kino Forest retrospective, a tribute to the 150th anniversary of Metsähallitus (The Finnish Forest Administration), curated by Ms. Tuulikki Halla.

Jätkien ja tukkien valtamailla

In the Land of the Lumberjack. FI 1946. PC: Finlandia-Kuva. D: Yrjö Haapanen. Documentary. 10 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 2 Sep 2009. - Print ok. - A documentary on the Finnish lumbercamps in the North in the winter. Lumber industry was Finland's number one industry, but now it has changed. The whole work chain of the lumberjack now belongs to history; in the 1960s everything changed.