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TRAILER:
"Noora" is screening in Friday 11, 2024, 7:00 pm Program
Description:
Noora is a dance short film that follows Noora's movement. She is a dancer. Her body's impulses are generated in the moment from contact with different environments. Noora has congenital bone fragility, Osteogenesis Imperfecta. She uses a wheelchair as a dancing aid and in it, she can move widely, but feels isolated from the surrounding environment. She is searching ways to move, focusing on possibilities rather than on limitations. On the ground, she feels the ground against her skin. In the water she can let go of her wheelchair. Noora's toes sink into the mud bottom, which pulsates with her steps. The water supports her fragile body with its pressure and surrounded by it she dares to move more freely, her body is more elastic, her expressions and range of motion are greater.
Credits:
Anna Kekkonen
Writer
Jenny Timonen
Writer
Anna Kekkonen
Producer
Noora Västinen
Key Cast
Director Biography - Anna Kekkonen
Anna Kekkonen is a Finnish filmmaker. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Audiovisual Media Culture from University of Lapland, Finland. Beside film making, she is a passionate diver and underwater cinematographer, which has taken her around the world for 17 years. The themes of her films are strongly inspired by her own physical sensations underwater. She approaches her films through physicality, movement, senses and diversity. What emerges when we are surrounded by such an element that forces us to sense beyond what we consider normal. Along with filming her own films her biggest filming jobs were two fulldome nature documentaries “Baltic Sea” and “The Embrace of the Ocean”. Her debut film, a short documentary Surface and alongside short dance film Noora got their premiere in late 2023.
Director Statement
For me the water element has always been an impressive element. First time I dived underwater I experienced something so radically different in my body that I felt that I had to learn moving all over again. It gave me the opportunity to experience my body in a way that was not possible before and opened up new perspectives.
Through my own experiences I got interested in how people who have some disability and limitations to move on land can take advantage of being in the water and I came up with two films, Noora and Surface.
While interviewing people with different disabilities I noticed specifically that they felt that there are still strong misleading beliefs of restrictions towards people who use moving aids and whose disabilities are visible, like people who use wheelchairs. Although for handicapped people wheelchair enables movement, there are a lot of contradictory thoughts towards them because of how they feel people perceive them while using moving aids.
In the dance film Noora, Noora herself suggested she wanted to play her wheelchair. She wanted to break the thought of how a wheelchair should traditionally be used by putting herself in active instead of passive role, to the role of the subject instead of the receiving object.
It brings us to a question: who has power to tell what people with disabilities can or can't do? Often limitations are made by people who do not have disabilities themselves even though the most valuable knowledge comes from the people with the disabilities, their own personal experiences. Also we have to widen our thoughts that moving can be achieved in many creative ways, there is no one way to do that.
That is also why the film strongly emphasizes experientiality, the relationship between the human body, it´s movement and environment. It's shown visually. Water provides the film with a strong expression, an environment where the experience is conveyed strongly through images, without words.
Dance movie Noora is about possibilities, not restrictions. All bodies have the opportunity to dance, there are many ways to achieve it.
In the film Noora searches for unique ways to move. She uses water to express herself as freely as possible. It allows her freedom to walk and dance bigger. Her movements in water are lighter, wider and more flexible. She says that she feels that water supports her fragile body, it does not judge.
Ratings
- Year2024
- Runtime7:40
- CountryFinland
TRAILER:
"Noora" is screening in Friday 11, 2024, 7:00 pm Program
Description:
Noora is a dance short film that follows Noora's movement. She is a dancer. Her body's impulses are generated in the moment from contact with different environments. Noora has congenital bone fragility, Osteogenesis Imperfecta. She uses a wheelchair as a dancing aid and in it, she can move widely, but feels isolated from the surrounding environment. She is searching ways to move, focusing on possibilities rather than on limitations. On the ground, she feels the ground against her skin. In the water she can let go of her wheelchair. Noora's toes sink into the mud bottom, which pulsates with her steps. The water supports her fragile body with its pressure and surrounded by it she dares to move more freely, her body is more elastic, her expressions and range of motion are greater.
Credits:
Anna Kekkonen
Writer
Jenny Timonen
Writer
Anna Kekkonen
Producer
Noora Västinen
Key Cast
Director Biography - Anna Kekkonen
Anna Kekkonen is a Finnish filmmaker. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Audiovisual Media Culture from University of Lapland, Finland. Beside film making, she is a passionate diver and underwater cinematographer, which has taken her around the world for 17 years. The themes of her films are strongly inspired by her own physical sensations underwater. She approaches her films through physicality, movement, senses and diversity. What emerges when we are surrounded by such an element that forces us to sense beyond what we consider normal. Along with filming her own films her biggest filming jobs were two fulldome nature documentaries “Baltic Sea” and “The Embrace of the Ocean”. Her debut film, a short documentary Surface and alongside short dance film Noora got their premiere in late 2023.
Director Statement
For me the water element has always been an impressive element. First time I dived underwater I experienced something so radically different in my body that I felt that I had to learn moving all over again. It gave me the opportunity to experience my body in a way that was not possible before and opened up new perspectives.
Through my own experiences I got interested in how people who have some disability and limitations to move on land can take advantage of being in the water and I came up with two films, Noora and Surface.
While interviewing people with different disabilities I noticed specifically that they felt that there are still strong misleading beliefs of restrictions towards people who use moving aids and whose disabilities are visible, like people who use wheelchairs. Although for handicapped people wheelchair enables movement, there are a lot of contradictory thoughts towards them because of how they feel people perceive them while using moving aids.
In the dance film Noora, Noora herself suggested she wanted to play her wheelchair. She wanted to break the thought of how a wheelchair should traditionally be used by putting herself in active instead of passive role, to the role of the subject instead of the receiving object.
It brings us to a question: who has power to tell what people with disabilities can or can't do? Often limitations are made by people who do not have disabilities themselves even though the most valuable knowledge comes from the people with the disabilities, their own personal experiences. Also we have to widen our thoughts that moving can be achieved in many creative ways, there is no one way to do that.
That is also why the film strongly emphasizes experientiality, the relationship between the human body, it´s movement and environment. It's shown visually. Water provides the film with a strong expression, an environment where the experience is conveyed strongly through images, without words.
Dance movie Noora is about possibilities, not restrictions. All bodies have the opportunity to dance, there are many ways to achieve it.
In the film Noora searches for unique ways to move. She uses water to express herself as freely as possible. It allows her freedom to walk and dance bigger. Her movements in water are lighter, wider and more flexible. She says that she feels that water supports her fragile body, it does not judge.
Ratings
- Year2024
- Runtime7:40
- CountryFinland