Photographer Anton Corbijn at Fotografiska in Stockholm.

by Magnus Fröderberg

Maybe the story is different, but one thing is for sure: each and everyone of us can experience Anton Corbijn’s personal photographic touch this spring until 15th of April. The exhibition is dedicated to artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Richard Prince, Lucian Freud too name a few. This project is also aimed at his love of the musical and creative spirit.

Lucian Freud 2008

By Anton Corbijn

Damien Hirst 2011

by Anton Corbijn

The magic of the pictures is their unique intimacy revealing how well he is acquainted with the subject, form and role. In this series of portraits Corbijn shows an extremely personal vision of the Creative Class that draws viewers into the complexity of the creative process in an unexpected way.

Alexander McQueen 2007

by Anton Corbijn

Corbijn remains faithful to the analogue tradition. He still photographs with black and white film, with little planning and no additional lighting. Shots look spontaneous, hinting back to his 70s-80s works.

The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to his two movies – “Control”, the story of Ian Curtis and his band Joy Division and “The American”, a crime drama adapted from the novel “A Very Private Gentleman” by Martin Booth.

Control

By Anton Corbijn

One remarkable hall is full of screens, showing two slideshows with his “the making of”  pictures. The photos are so nicely narrated that I have experienced all the great moments from the films: Curtis on stage, with his wife, club owner and sound producer, Polish journalist, that house; or: Sweden, Italy, beautiful women, guns, that lake.

Exhibition is curated by Michelle Marie Roy.

Fotografiska

in Stockholm

Pink Flamingos

by John Waters

Any info on the films? Your feelings on each movie?

This is an Alternative American Film Festival focused on camp movies, which rely on postmodern views of art and culture. Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism, not in terms of beauty, but in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylisation. Camp art is often decorative art, emphasising texture, sensuous surface, and the style at the expense of content. Films are often characterised by the absence of linear narrative, the use of various abstracting techniques- out-of-focus, painting or scratching on film, rapid editing, the use of asynchronous sound or even the absence of any sound track, they grope the limits and experiment with film ethics and form.

I love each movie as my own baby – that gives me septuplets.

Liquid Sky

by Slava Tsukerman

Is this your first festival, why these films?

First in the sense of doing it basically alone, but actually in 2007 we made a two- day extreme sports event in Haapsalu “Extreme Fest” with my friends, where duties were divided between six of us.

Everything seems to be on-line, previously on VHS. Have you ever seen any of these movies at a cinema house before?

No, never, which is why it is happening in the first place.

What about more modern day alternative American movies. Most of these films are older than you, what makes them enduring and how did you get to know them?

The first one I saw was “Pink Flamingos”, after that I got the germ of indi and B, even C and Z category films. Because they dare to be different, experiment and give new dimensions of understanding film as a medium.

There is one film “Skinned Deep” by Gabriel Bartalos that is from the 21st century to show that this esoteric approach can effectively be applied today.

The festival is alternative American, why not just alternative?

Why an Alternative American Film Festival? Because all the films on the list are American. There are so many precious and culturally important treasures that otherwise would not reach an Estonian audience, because we are flooded by the Hollywood mainstream.

Is there one film above all others that you admire the most and what is it that makes you so keen on it?

I do not want to make one movie more important than the others. The films are all chosen for a particular reason, to give a brief overview of ‘camp’ movies. They all are different and have their own magic in them. The list is a whole.

The Evil Dead

by Sam Raimi

Anybody you’d like to thank for making this happen? (The festival)

Everybody, life, and especially Tiina Savi.

A message for anyone reading this article and thinking, “oh what shall I do in the first week of March?” (are there such people still?)

Sounds like new-age hippy shit, but peace and love fellow soldiers! Take a bath.

Ascension of the Demonoids

by George Kuchar

Thursday 1.03.2012 OPENING NIGHT

19:00 “Sins of the Fleshapoids”

Friday 2.03.

17:00 “Sins of the Fleshapoids”
21:00 “Pink Flamingos”

Saturday 3.03.

17:00 “Pink Flamingos”
21:00 “Liquid Sky”

Sunday 4.03.

17:00 “Liquid Sky”
21:00 “The Evil Dead”

Sins of the Fleshapoids

by Mike Kuchar

Monday 5.03

17:00 “The Evil Dead”
21:00 “Vinyl”

Tuesday 6.03

17:00 “Vinyl”
21:00 “Skinned Deep”

Wednesday 7.03

17:00 “Skinned Deep”
21:00 “Ascension of the Demonoids”

Vinyl

by Andy Warhol

Tallinn DJ and music enthusiast Ott Kelpman interviews Blondes, a duo from New York, bringing the temple back into house.

“It’s near impossible for me to describe their use of synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines, without getting into pretentious metaphors about Mayans clobbering robots as seen through the eyes of someone on ketamine… ” Drowned In Sound

OK: What’s the story behind Blondes, at least it seems that you are not naturally blonde yourselves?

B: The curtains don’t always match the carpets

OK: Genrewise, I’ve noticed that you’ve been called almost every dance music genre out there: from Hypno-dance- / Chillwave- / Psych-house- / Synth-duo and Trance reinventors for example. When cutting out the categorising, what is it that you prefer to be filed under or described as?

B: Blonde wave / e-lox / psych grime or grime psych / let someone else do it house. But all the ones you mentioned apply.

warehouse

Blondes in a warehouse

OK: You have said that your goal is to make music that you experience in the same way the audience does. Your music really is something to dive in and get lost to, trippy and mesmerizing. So how does your working process look like and is it easy to get yourselves in this state of trance, naturally high on sound?

B: Totally, though I would say it’s not our goal it is our process. I would say that it’s something to dive into and get lost in because of the fact that we’re lost in it while making it.

OK: With making psychedelic dance music, you probably into some earlier prog-rock and some spaced-out stuff as well? Mentioning some names who do you follow and like, you know, big-time?

B: A lot of the 70s German kraut kosmiche thing has been a huge influence: Manuel Gottsching, Neu, Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh, etc. They have inspired us to arrive at a certain vibe or feeling in our music.

Manuel Göttsching

aka Ash Ra Temple

OK: A few words about the remixes that you’ve made – from Rihanna to Harald Grosskopf, which is a pretty wide spectrum, so if doing a remix, do you see it as a field of opportunities blending your own vision with the original piece, or how would you describe it?

B: We see doing a remix as basically making a whole new track with elements that we grab and manipulate from the originals.  It’s more like sampling than remixing really.  With Rihanna we were really into that synth loop that was constantly playing on the radio at that time and wanted to build it into a faster party jam. Most of the other remixes are us playing our gear making something new.

OK: As I heard Robert Miles did a remix for Pleasure on your new album, I felt like getting into a time-machine and traveling to euro-house era at mid 90s. No, I mean in a good way because the remix is pretty ace… but how do you find your way to collaborating with different artists? (Like having Meredith Monk in your track Lover).

B: Meredith Monk was just a sample we grabbed from an old recording called Rally.  We’ve yet to collaborate with anybody actually.

OK: Congratulations on the day that your brand new debut album is out – there are already some very nice reviews. So what’s the year/future going to be for you, lots of touring around or working on new stuff?

B: Thanks! Yeah, that’s the plan. Still figuring it all out, but it’s basically just touring and trying to get back into the studio. We’ve just finished a remix for the Field too, so keep an eye out for that.  Really excited to come to Estonia and play in Tallinn on Friday!

OK: Finally, what should people expect from your gig? I’ve heard they say that Blondes’ live sets are always different, I would love a comment on that.

B: They can be different as we improvise a lot of the structure and match the vibe of the show. We foresee a magical bumping party full of love. Come say hi.

OK: Thank You very much, guys! Really looking forward to see you on Friday! Dress warm! We also made an origami-screen for your special visuals!

http://soundcloud.com/blondes
http://www.blondeblondeblondes.com/

blondes_1

Blondes

It’s that time of year again to get educated. For the third year running Docpoint Tallinn, a documentary film festival, is playing in Tallinn from January 27th – 29th with it’s big sister festival occurring simultaneously in Helsinki. Bigger than ever, less is more as the funding cuts bite the team work harder and smarter to bring you more. One of the Tallinn co-ordinators Tristan Priimägi answers a few questions.

The main programme is in English, the side programme is in Estonian.

Sõprus and Kumu are the main two places, Artis is specially reserved for the Soviet programme. There is a sub programme of soviet films (with Estonian subtitles).

www.kino.ee
www.kinosoprus.ee
www.ekm.ee

Kumaré

© Vikram Ghandi

What is the big film this year following from last years amazing Videocracy?

This year we have very many award winning films from Amsterdam, Leipzig etc.. all the main festival winners are represented. The Amsterdam winner Planet of Snail, Amsterdam is the most important documentary film festival right now.

Why do you rate Amsterdam so highly?

They have some bold choices, good programming and logistically good. It feels loose but is never loose, it’s not too strict either.  This festival happens in November.

Bananas

© Johan Hallberg

This is the 3rd time you have organised this festival and you were instrumental in starting it? Where do you get the energy from for such a venture, what motivates you still?

We felt there was a need for this type of event and the opportunity presented itself, i.e. we didn’t actually have to start from scratch, but could build on a model that was already established by the Finns. And it is frankly quite pleasing, if the public loves a film that we have chosen and brought here. It makes everything worth while.

Planet Kirsan

© Magdalena Pieta

When a doc. is made and screened and we learn more about something happening we previously were unaware of, how does this then impact on the subjects, do you have any stories of how a doc has led to some big changes in the protaganists lives?

Well, the classic example always is Errol Morris’ “Thin Blue Line”, a reenactment of a crime, that lead to the authorities reopening the case and freeing an innocent man from prison. I think docs are instrumental in changing the overall discourse on certain subjects, influencing public opinion. From newer times, Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” springs to mind. But, of course the threapeutic effect on single individuals, who can get their stories told, is just as valuable.

5 Broken Cameras

© Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

Which of the docs will there be a chance to see on TV if anyone misses the festival, do you push ETV to take documentaries too?

With most of these, this is the only chance to see the films. Unless ETV will pick them up later, but that is a longshot. I don’t push ETV in any way, they have a very competent person taling care of the doc program, Marje Jurthsenko.

So, in that sense you should definitely grab the chance and come to the movies.

If a Tree Should Fall

A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Any local documentaries coming up which you can talk about with some excitement?

There are three or four docs every year coming out in Estonia, that are more exciting than average. We already have a good score with the first one called “Another Dimension” – a 30 minute documentary abut the Estonian christian pop quartet Sõnajalg, with a metaphysical twist.

Any guests this year or special workshops/screenings/discussions?

Quite a few of the foreign films and also Estonian retro screenings have authors or main characters present, who are very much ready to answer your questions after the film!

For more details

www.docpoint.ee

Get to know Hypnobooster – the Swirling Kahuna from Tallinn. He stages a myriad of sceneries, some may be suitable for listening to when it’s a full moon.  He lets you wander through any kind of door you like.

Outrageous performance disco-rock band from London tours the Baltic States, expanding into Europe and seducing urbanists with their sex songs of the future!

Remember those powerful lyrics in early rock songs or the vivid fashion decisions of the disco era? The Coolness is bringing the colours back, but is very skeptic about the poetry. Will the Twitter era reduce lyrics in songs to 140 symbols? I spoke about the future with Chaz John Ross and the guys from The Coolness at Patarei Kultuuritolm festival this summer. Were their predictions right?

How can you describe your band?

The Coolness – future sex songs, sex songs of the future with electronic sound. The lyrics are simple, because we think people in the future will speak fewer words, so we decided to put “our Bob Dylan” in a sentence or two.  Our music is very performance based. We want to look like Kiss or AC/DC, but sound futuristic; and that doesn’t mean we only press a lot of buttons on the stage. It’s important not to take everything seriously, everyone loves Fun.

When did you start playing?

Since 2007 and we developed over the years so now it’s like a full band and dancers. Vinny (plays for 3 years) and David (for 1 year) were the last to join. Ed and I (Chaz) were for the whole time.

So there were different members or you played in karaoke fashion?

Yeah, I mean, songs let themselves to be more disco orientated and it’s not as good to perform it in a DJ fashion. When I initially started, it was more electronic and I didn’t rely on the members – they came later.

The Coolness

by Billa Baldwin

Vintage The Coolness

By Billa Baldwin

Is there a philosophy?

(Chaz) I guess it’s just music I like and maybe it’s just me as a person who makes them a bit sexual, but not all the songs are about sex. Music is actually about freedom in self and losing your inhibitions that is transformed to be played at parties.  Some songs have a melancholic twist, but  it’s just whatever works  around four guys rocking on a stage…

Music lost its rock edge. We find that every band is dressing in black and playing shoegaze or “Joy Division”. In a word: they trying to be cool and we are the opposite, we are almost anti-cool – we just missed the boat, we are The Boatmissers, that was the original band name.

What influenced you?

A lot of music we listen to is psychedelic, and rock, and classics. I guess it’s a cross between disco and rock, but it could be more direct.

The Coolness - axe

by Billa Baldwin

Indoors or outdoors?

We are playing mostly in parties organized by ourselves or by club promoters in London and I think the outdoor festival thing we are only developing. Like I said, we started from DJ’ing and now we are a rock show. In London we put on warehouse parties and raves in East London, but a lot of warehouses are shutting down and that is another reason we move to Europe – to look for alternative scenes, like this one (Patarei Kultuuritolm). It is a roundabout in London right now: you see, when law enforcers suffocate proper clubs – underground scene is growing and when they are suffocating rave venues it’s the other way round. Right now the underground venues are suffocated because of the Olympics and we are branching out to Europe, because we can’t do our thing in London. And we can’t play London forever.

Are you huge in London?

I think in London, in terms of an underground band and not having labels and doing our own DIY thing, we are easily one of the biggest bands. We do one party a month and from 500 to a 1000 people come.

The Coolness is Cooler Than You

By Nick Scott

What can you say about your live performances?

We are trying to break the barriers: we’re doing a lot of stage invasions, everybody stands on our wires, and everybody can sing in our microphones; we want to bring that spontaneous element to life. We are here to mess, but most of the time we are good (laughs). We believe in the spirit of music and taking risks, so sometimes we make mistakes, but at the same time we make gigs where the whole crowd goes bananas, everyone gets naked and dances on the stage.

So is it how the music of the future looks like according to your point of view? More spontaneous, more connected to the dialogue with the audience?

There always will be commercial music and there will be like us in an underground bubble.

And do you sell your music?

Well, we have the option, but since downloading era begun, we sell the feeling and the connections people get when coming to The Coolness gigs. Most of the feeling is made by people who come to our concerts.

Future plans?

We’re looking on video quite a lot, because now it’s not enough to write only the song – there must be a visual projection with it and a documentary, we’re trying to communicate in a way people will understand us in the future. We have unconfirmed European dates as well – we want to take our show on the road. Book us, we’re available for weddings and bar gigs and we never swear on stage, never :)

Nov 9th Weds  - Kodu Bar Tallinn DJ set
Nov 10th Thurs – Nälg Tartu DJ set
Nov 11th Fri – Vabandust Tallinn – Live
Nov 12th Sat – Loftas Vilnius – Live

http://www.facebook.com/tenderlovingcoolness
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=237413812986856

How do you think, is it something new to the world?

Katja: Kik in der Kok is definitely a good reason to show art and video work never shown in Estonia before. Also on the global scale we are dealing with effectively radical young contemporary art that is not afraid to engage with bad taste, questionable aesthetics and ethical choices. It is also a kind of event that tries to go beyond some of the traditional festival formats and create a wholesome and sometimes troublesome experience that reflects our life today.

You also write in the press-release, that this will be a cross-media event. In what way?

Anna: First of all it is film, secondly it is Internet, and we are also planning to have some gallery space for performances and installations. So it is more about video arts and live participation. One of the main goals is actually to make people participate, become part of this culture, not to be only a passive viewer, but maybe we will make some games or experiments where they can film themselves and do something they wouldn’t normally do. We will also have an afterparty with music.

Will it be only in Helios?

Katja: The festival is full time in Helios, including the after party and cleaning session after it. We hope to sustain the novelty of the festival by holding it in this old yet fresh space in Tallinn.

What will be the 2011 event about?

Anna: well, don’t tell it to our sponsors (laughs), but we are expected to be the most scandalous project of the Tallinn 2011 program. For us the last theme exhausted itself and we don’t want to dig into pornography further, because we just lost interest in this topic and now we would like to research more into present day, but not with pornography, but how people generally express their sexuality through new mediums like the Internet, Youtube, cameras and mobile phones. On the other hand we see it as a research into the archeology of pornography, because certain elements in those videos we are going to show, they come from old times and we would like to give the viewer a different perspective on it. Not just to take one separate period of time, like Now, but also related to what was before it, to see it in a more continuous line. For us it is really a research project, rather than a scandalous statement on the liberty of sexual rights.

First time you made it in 2007, was the team same then?

Anna: No, it was me, Katja and Edward Milhuisen. Katja and Edward work mostly with the program of the festival and I helped with organising, sponsorships, lectures and more technical stuff. But the idea originated in the 9^th grade at school, where we were studying together with Katja. We were just sitting together and it was one of our jokes that when we grow up, we are going to make a porn film festival. At one point Katja mentioned that to Edward and he said: “Yes, why don’t you do that?!”, so he was the trigger behind the project. A small and cozy team.

What can you tell me about the name of the festival?

Anna: Oh, that was the whole story. I think I still have that A4 paper with different sketches of the name, and they were absolutely dry on inspiration, but it came from this book that I read, when I was a child about old stories of Tallinn. There was a story of Kik in de Kok tower’s guard, who had an amazing cook – his wife. Every time when she cooked something he couldn’t guess what she made and after he started working in this tower he could see the kitchen from a window and he started to guess always what she prepared for him. She became depressed about this and her husband felt sorry for her and said that he could see everything from the window. So we used this cliché symbol of a standing tower and the name sounds good.

Yes, it sounds like “kick in the cock”.

Anna: yes, so it has both sexual connotations and relates to Tallinn, as well as to the phallic symbol of the tower. But I don’t remember how this story came out, probably we were trying different symbols of Estonia and this fitted the most.

How do you find material for the project?

Anna: This a bit painful, but interesting process: when Katja was working on her graduation project – The Post Internet Survival Guide, she was going to a lot of web pages and image databases, where she saw images that were interesting and surprising. I guess this was her first inspiration and she collected a large database of different Youtube videos as well. From there this material grew, me and Margo Niit also joined and we started to look for full feature films as well as festivals or artists profile.

I think I saw a mobile picture of naked Kersten Kõrge sleeping on the sofa in Margo’s Facebook profile; can that be included as a piece for the festival? (joking)

Anna: No (laughs), we would like to see it in a more complex way. This sexual reality isn’t just a naked body; some of those videos have no relation whatsoever to the naked body, but maybe what the person does to the body: wears different costumes, putting on some strange masks. Depends what they want to express with that, or there is a whole subculture of people just showing their abs with titles like “nice belly”. You can’t see the face, only their abdominal muscles that turn side to side. The amazing thing is that comments below these videos are a lot more positive than to any other videos and you know how usually trolling works: usually you get comments like “bullshit”, “you’re an idiot”, but for these ones you get “wow, great belly”, “Hollywood abs” and so on. Really! So sexuality can be really different, not only two naked people riding each other, which was more of a theme of the first festival.

Is your role in the project same as the last time?

Anna: Yes, more or less the same. Well, since our team has different backgrounds and everyone has something to add, first of all we are going to participate in a long dialog from which we are going to find new directions to show to our viewer. Basically I’m helping out with the media plan and organisational questions. We don’t have strict divisions or functions, for example, for Margo it is more convenient to deal with financial things, since he lives here. This time we are doing all officially, which for me and Katja is a different world.

How does Tallinn 2011 help you?

Katja: Tallinn Capital of Culture foundation helped us to finance a large part of the festival. Without them the festival would not be happening.

Day 1 (4.11.)

19:00 Introduction EST
19:25 Film: ‘Youtube anthropology 01’ ENG
20:15 Lecture by Kiwa EST
20:45  Introduction to Ryan Trecartin’s work EST
20:50  Ryan Trecartin ‘Sibling Topics’ ENG
21:35 Drinks!
22:00 (free) ‘Wariazone’ ENG+ID +EST sub.
Kiwa & Terje Toomistu;
Q&A with Kiwa after the movie EST

Day 2 (5.11.)

14:00  Introduction EST
14:10 Talk & dicussion with Thijs Witty ENG
14:55 Short film: ‘An Internet Date
with Sasha Grey’, Luke Gilford,
Chris Cumingham ENG
15:15  Film: ‘Youtube anthropology 02’ ENG
16:30 Short film:
Billy Rennekamp (USA) aka Ralph’s ENG
16:50 Lecture / Skype performance:
Kaisa Eiche & Maria Rõhu EST
17:15 Film: ‘P.opular S.ky (section ish)’,
Ryan Trecartin ENG
18:05 Performance: Helga Wretman ENG
19:00 Introduction EST
19:05 Wendy Vainity
collection of short animations ENG
19:25 Documentary:
‘Because We Are Visual’ ENG
20:30 Performance: ‘The Coming Community’
Sam Hancocks ENG
21:15 (free) Film: ‘Zuma: Tales of a Sexual Gladiator’
~ 85min ENG (sub)

23:00 Afterparty

LIVE

Egyptian Lover with Jamie Jupiter (USA✈)
New York City Survivors (FIN✈)
Chungin & The Strap-On Faggots
Deathcats
Sex Drive Live
Marco Tasane w. beats and dance!
Quueennaive

DJ

4-got-10
Katja Adrikova
Antelia ja Ketomees
Berl
Hiiesalu

Congratulations Andres on the festival STALKER and the ‘cassette’ “Stalking Stalker” (Stalker book and musical interpretations) it is clear that you are something of a Stalker nut. For those not so familiar with the legacy of Stalker and Tallinn, what is the connection?

Well, not exactly a Stalker nut, but some kind of a nutcracker, I hope. The film was indeed mostly shot in and on the outskirts of Tallinn from 1977 till 1978. In fact, Andrei Tarkovsky shot it twice, and we are now organizing a festival to celebrate Tarkovsky’s impact on cinema as a whole and his great effort as a thoughtful human being and an artist. There are several locations that still carry physical marks of his presence while he was shooting “Stalker”.

Is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner to the west what Stalker is to the East, it contains the same core themes about identity, humanity and meaning.

Identity yes, and basically it’s about human beings, even though they are robots, it’s still about people. And I think Tarkovsky is obviously concerned about man, the contemporary human and humankind. The Sci-fi element is through the original story Stalker was based upon, the Strugatsky’s ‘Roadside Picnic’, which was a sci-fi novel. Although Tarkovsky, he turned it into something different, something mystic. He is a mystic, and most of all he is a poet and an artist. By the way, he thought that art and film are bigger than life. But the comparison between Blade Runner and Stalker is there. Maybe it’s rather surprising to some that Stalker is first place in many film charts, serious film critics, film historians and directors consider Stalker to be the most important film of all time. It sits alongside other films from Hollywood such as Blade Runner and Citizen Kane quite comfortably.

Citizen Kane, the rise of the media mogul, a breed to affect and manipulate the world. Is art still meaningful, has science replaced art?

They say, and I agree, that artists are the new proletarians, they are the ones who do the hard work and everybody else in this industry is living off their work, but that is another issue. Speaking of the science connection, Tarkovsky shot another sci-fi movie, Solaris, which he was not that satisfied with, so he went on and into a much darker place with Stalker. He completely changed the main Stalker character from the book. In the book he was a macho character, a leader, an adventurer. The Stalker in his film is a tender man, always in doubt, he is questioning life, himself, questioning everything. And the Zone, the Zone is described as a life form. Something with a consciousness of its own. It’s the main character in the film although it never really speaks, it’s distant. I’m guessing that would be the how you would possibly describe the ethereal ‘somebody’, the divine creature. He has that relationship, a religious relationship with the Zone. I mainly try to derive new themes from the movie and jump into a different place hence the subtitle of the festival, Contemporary Fairy Tales. Reaching for something that is kind of there but it still doesn’t have a name yet, and that is definitely an adventurers approach.

I appreciate people who appreciate that attitude, the avant-garde basically.

We have reached one of the filming locations, next to the harbour across from the Linnahall (city hall) next to Ökosaar where they shot one of the first scenes in the movie. It happens right after the café scene where the writer, the professor and Stalker first meet. It was early morning the writer had been partying all night long. And the scene features an open top sports car with a beautiful lady. It was famous model and beauty queen, Faime Jürno, and mother of great guitarist and rock band leader Tambet Jürno. During the 70s she was even more well known than Carmen Kass is now.

The STALKER festival begins on Aug 24th and runs until 28th in Tallinn as part of the European Capital of Culture 2011 initiative, can you explain how the events connect together and what lasting effect you would like to have from this?

As the festival is on for the first time this year, we do speak a lot about Tarkovsky and the issues derived, I would like the festival to develop into a strong cultural landmark, that will be much more than a mere homage to “Stalker”. I think this year’s programme strongly hints at what can be and what will be. All the artists, performers, composers and film makers in the festival line-up are strong charismatic people. People of independent minds. Artists like Planningtorock or Ilpo Väisänen or the film directors Paradjanov, Chris Marker or Bela Tarr most certainly represent greatness.

What is the attraction of Tarkovsky all these years later, why is he so enduring?

I think, like all truly great artists, Tarkovsky had a strong vision in his creations, and beacause he kept with it so persistently, which was one of the reasons he got to shoot only seven films. And his honesty.

Now we are at a 2nd location from the film. The letters on the chimney were painted 33 years ago, still very well preserved. UN, and this is the angle they shot it from, next to this former heating centre and energy plant. From the 1930s this was giving power to Tallinn. This is also a location where we will have some of the concerts and livecinema, the concerts from August 26th will be opened by Veiko Õunpuu, Mart Taniel and Ülo Krigul as The Stylophonic Orchestra of Eurasia. But the festival starts at the Temnikova Kasela gallery, Lastekodu 1, with Tarkovsky’s polaroids on Aug 24th. Called Bright Bright Day and then the film programme will go on for 5 days at Kino Sõprus.

The musical selection which has accompanied your beautiful book is very appropriate, haunting and harmonious, is it a purely personal selection?

Thank you for appreciating it. I believe it was more or less an autocratic process, but I listened to other people as much as I listened to my heart, so I hope it’s a heart-to-heart experience. I want it to sound like a journey to the Zone. All the tracks have a somewhat independent consciousness to them. They live their own lives, if you please… And an element of timelessness was kept in focus during the selection process. Arvo Pärt’s “Pari intervallo” is the kernel of the CD. Music is 50% organised sounds and 50% emotions and the physicality or your own reality, while you’re experiencing the music.

A great movie is something which demands a deeper look, it leaves you with questions. The more you have to think the more meaning you can find in your own life. It can help you fit better into your own skin.

Well, there you go, the best definition of the best pieces of art is something that gives you new life and new breath and have a great impact on you, But also great art is always personal, each person has a relationship with what they got out of it, and that is very important as well. It can’t be defined what it is, but it speaks to you. It’s a personal relationship.

The main purpose of art that it humanizes, enables one to become more aware, empathic, tolerant less fearful more open minded, I hope so.

Exactly, it tears you out from your little automations, you get out of the routine, that is exactly the mechanism there. So, once again, we are after that. J’accuse, you should try to revisit the great masters, why are they great, where are the new ones? It always makes sense to commit a little patricide, not tearing it down completely but questioning, this is how you start a relationship.

Stalker is obviously a truly powerful semioligical landmark for several generations of people not only from Estonia and other former Soviet Union countries, but from all around the world. And as the film is important not only for it filmic qualities but also the wonderful soundtrack many sound artists consider this work by Eduard Artemyev, as one of the most inspiring sound art pieces. For example Ilpo Väisänen, coming from Finland, who is one of the PanSonic duo guys with Mika Vainio, is coming, also featuring on the cassette. He has the most conceptual piece on the cassete called Stress Light and it very much creates the atmosphere of the film. It‘s important to explore the feeling/mood in which the director was shooting this film. They were still Soviet union times, the film represents the situation beetween the opposition of the powers and the people, and also the negativity and jealousy of the co-creators and other film makers.

How did such an anti-authoritarian movie get made? There is a displayed a subversive and blatant form of rebellion, looking for something more in life other than a system can provide, going outside of the conventional, allowed reality.

It is about being on the verge of some personal crisis the reason they go into the Zone. Especially Stalker trying to take care of his family but also obsessed with the Zone, he had some other relationship with the Zone, The oppression, depression,  impression, and expression of the times all hinge on these extremely difficulty conditions.

I like the comparison that Peeter Laurits makes in the cassette Stalking Stalker to promote the festival and tell the story. There is Stalker and the punk phenomena and the negation of his surroundings as they were. It gives you a picture and speaks to the people who understand what punk meant or what it still does mean. In 1979 and the film was premiered in Tallinn at cinema Sõprus in Soviet Estonia. He was a teenager going through all these hesitations and doubts.

The weird thing is punk in the former Soviet Union was initially mainly for intellectuals. At that moment, the end of the 70s early 80s good music, important music and literature was only available to a few people, the intellectuals. The intellectuals’ part was also characterised in the case of many punk bands the utilization of masterful writings and poetry by great Estonian poets and intellectuals. Realise that everything in those years came with a 10 year delay. So punk, known to the mass of Estonian people, actually broke at the very end of the 80s, not 70s. When Stalker was premiered in 1979 only a few knew about punk, but it really grew popular at the end of 80s with Glasnost, Perestroika and the fall of Berlin Wall. A time for freedom movements in all the Eastern European countries. That was the ideological metamorphosis of punk during the 80s in Former Soviet Union

Now we are standing next to a 3rd location for the filming. It was where they were in the landrover and the guards were shooting at them. It‘s a corridor a little street. They are about to open this a Stalker Street and preserve it as you can see it in the movie, this street has stayed this way since those days. It is well preserved. Here you get that déjà vu feeling.

What is the ending of the films significance and the daughter who as a result of Stalkers trips to the Zone manifests some strange abilities?

She has some supernatural powers, as she was born after her father had been visiting the Zone. Tarkovsky likes to play, the conditions during the making of the film were serious, it made a strong impact on him and his creation. It still is important to stress that all his films should not be taken so seriously. Like the bible it is not complete but an issue for interpretation. Look at it also from a humourous point, for example the scene with Tambet‘s mother takes off in the car, its mundane, normal but funny, Tarkovsky like to have fun. The genius of Tarkovsky is the great dialogue which not many people know how to write. What is said ,the soundtrack, the visual langauge and the extremely long takes. He is a magician in the way he transforms the camera shots, most of them are long, its miraculous. At one point you are here and even though you are looking at it with full awareness you still find yourself in a compeletely different situation but visually it doesn’t look very different from where you had been a minute ago. That’s why it is so much appreciated.

Who would like to thank for supporting and enabling this event to happen in the way which you have envisaged.

I would like to thank Aadam Kaarma, the graphic designer, who made all the wonderful artworks for us, and of course, Tiina Savi, one of the heads of cinema “Sõprus” and the producer for STALKER. Certainly, without the help of Aivar Tõnso, the Tallinn 2011′s coordinator and the Lord of Estonian adventurous music, we wouldn’t be doing this. In advance, I would most of all like to thank all the people who are going to be enjoying STALKER’s contemporary fairytales.

Get more info here: www.stalkertallinn.com

Native Americans have been visiting Estonia since the days of independence on a regular cycle. This small nation with its own tribal history has a fierce respect and love of nature which goes hand in hand with the Native American’s tradition and spirit. In July 2011, amongst the timeless beauty and wildlife, some of it biting, in the country park of Lahemaa, 150 people gathered. The first camp was in 1996 and the idea of Toomas and Tarmo Urb after they had visited America where they stayed near the Grand Canyon.

Introducing the Native Americans

There are spiritual representatives from the Hopi/ Hawasupai (Mona Polacca), Mandan Hidatsa Arikara (Kathy Whitman-Elkwoman), Zapoteca (Epifanio Ramirez and Marta L Mendoza) Navajo (Jerry Nelson, Tony Redhouse) and Tohono O’dham tribes (Rupert Encinas) to join together with Estonians from all walks of life and their families to form one family in a long weekend of sweat lodge ceremony, song & dance, drumming and craftwork.

The first ceremony is the erection of the Teepee. An artform in itself the teepee is a sacred place, for living, meeting and where ceremonies take place. While it is a task traditionally performed by women this time it is the men who put it up under the close supervision of a Navajo chief (Jerry Nelson) situated to face the rising sun.

Earth, Air, Fire and Water

Men head into the woods to gather materials for the four sweat lodges, built metres from the beach. At the same time the firepit is dug to an exact criteria, a semi circle showing the journey of the sun and a person’s life.

When the lodges begin the evening sun has already set in the sky for hours. Each lodge has it’s guide with a unique approach to the ceremony. A primeval wonder exists within, dark, humid and very hot, a representation of the world, a journey, the beginning of the world and our world. The lodge is the mother’s womb and the heat and discomfort experienced are her pain in giving birth. The essence of the sweat lodge is FIRE-EARTH-AIR-WATER, heated for hours are the glowing red rocks from the Earth and baked in the Fire, there is steam which erupts from them and blasts your skin as water is added. Water is carefully rationed after each session to rehydrate and a prayer of thanks resounds. An overall effect of celebration, prayer, of ritual and healing is overwhelming, songs in Indian dialects as well as Estonian reverberate. Staggering from the sweat lodge and racing to the sea to plunge into the cool waters the feeling of connection, poetry and beauty of the world arrives back into the thorniest of souls.

Appreciation

Appreciation for the simple wonders are revisited until one becomes a part and in awe of nature. The Estonian love of sauna transmutes effortlessly to the sweat lodge and a no alcohol rule is observed in sweat sessions invariably longer than a traditional sauna. The Native American’s intolerance to alcohol is well known, their society has been undermined and penned in through the use of this alien substance, wrecking the fabric of their existence.

Still the Native Americans are forgiving, embracing and accepting a relationship with the earth which goes back thousands of years and today is more relevant and timely than ever.

All my relations

Everyone is transformed by the sweat lodge, first time visitors pledge to return while for many participants it is their umpteenth year. Our Native American guests are gentle yet firm with the heat, drumming, songs and prayers, running many sessions in a day with serenity and humility underpinned by a presence of mind and strength coming from a connection with nature. Everyone shares in this and experiences, a re-building, re-discovering and understanding of our planet and the environment around us. I realise again many life essential facts and behaviours, am filled with a new joy and respect and arrived back where I belong, as a part of and intrinsic to the source of nature which is all around us. It is so easy to take everything for granted and forget to acknowledge and appreciate. Thank you for the reminder. All my relations.

Priit Kuusik one of the camp’s organisers shares his thoughts on 15 years of cooperation:

Beginning

At the begining of the camp people are curious, there is still a material focus, noticing the differences in appearance, judging and asking questions. People are judging, judging, little details seem important, the mind is running away instead of being in the moment.

Teepee

Putting up the teepee is a big part of the tradition, how the poles connect, again it is a prayer while erecting it. The teepee is almost a church, it has meaning, a construction for shelter and prayer.

Backbone

The backbone of the weekend is  the sweat lodge, and why it is important for Native Americans and us is because it is a place of deep healing. In the reservations there are always numerous sweat lodges taking place during the week, they are used for healing family troubles, alochol issues, a place to come together as a community and share problems, it is a timeless sacred ritual. Here in Estonina we are lucky that their traditions are being shared with us. Perhaps the only main difference between the ceremony here and in America is that there they know the songs better and they pray openly and talk about their problems more freely.

Open talk

In America the people talk for a long time when they are in the sweat lodge. They talk about things openly and everyone can then pray for them or themselves and recognise everyone has similar problems, the praying and healing are very important aspects. The Estonian smoke sauna is a tradition and a ritual in its own way, especially the preparation and maybe the birch to beat your neighbours, and putting and some herbs on the rocks. But often no traditional singing comes with this, there are no ritualistic songs for sauna, or such a spiritual aspect, this is more for the camp fire or the song festival. The Estonian smoke sauna captures some of the sweat lodge tradition, it takes time, you have to sit with your thoughts, follow a procedure.

Ritual

The Native Americans have ritual at the centre of their culture, a certain order is always followed in the sweat lodge ceremony. The person who conducts the ceremony is responsible, he guides the people through it. Everything has a meaning, tradition starts from how the sweat lodge is built, how the stones are collected, the wood that is used. The materials are grandmothers and grandfathers, everything has to be treated with respect, all manner of life, the world around us and other people.  When you take a rock,  and you put it down in a pile, you put it down carefully, you can pray with it, give thanks. Everything is done in the correct way, with respect and sensitivity, you are involved in a big tradition here made up of many small traditions. It’s important to keep the tradition going. And our guests are keen to share that with us.

Basic Elements of Life

The camp is not a holiday for everyone, it is different for every person, if you can help out, and give something from or of yourself then the experience is richer and more possibilities emerge. It can be a hands on workshop, if you have the chance, be willing, everyone can help everyone out. The basic elemets of life are all represented here. You see the connection in everything, how everyone is related and the levels involved. Especially in the sweat lodge you are connected with the elemental world, and realise that it should be respected as such, and that gives you great satisfaction in your life away from the camp as well.

So the spirits can hear you

The sunrise ceremony is also another part of the weekend, another part of the whole, a big prayer, where everything is connected. The dancing is letting mother earth know that you are here, you are expressing your love and giving a massage to her with your feet. With singing you sing to the creator and to your ancestors. It’s preferable to pray openly, to pray aloud so the spirits can hear you. Although some people prefer to pray silently and that is OK too.

Rock Man, ‘Water Woman’

The area surrounding the lodges should be quiet, the only people are the water women and the rock men. Men bringing hot rocks to the ceremony master, and water regularly refilled for the gaps in the sessions. Other than that the only sound would be the sound of the prayers and songs within. A job of responsibilty is that of the rock man. A team with pitchforks servicing the sweat lodges, setting the fire, fetching the wood, heating the rocks for hours, then carefully taking the rocks to the tent at the request of the ceremony leader. Following instructions precisely is essential for safety as well as the ritual. There is a rhythm and an order for presenting the rocks. It’s also a job which begins early in the morning and is an honour and privilege, to take care of the people.  For the past 10 years there have been 3 of us who have done this job and enjoyed it every year. Our experience has built up in the process, in the past there have been complications, the rocks not hot enough etc. It’s better to pray with heat:-)

Change

During the camp you notice changes in people, the first few days people are not so open, not so easy going….then thanks to the traditions we go through together people are healed, become more like they should be in this world. If people are unaware of their actions it makes you wonder why? How can people forget how to behave? You see the bad habit of commenting, talking, using their opinion, instead of listening. Here there is no importance in opinion, the conductor of the ceremony talks, if he asks you to talk you do, if you want to speak then you ask permission. It is very respectful, very normal.

“Suusabaasis on tantsupidu” is the name of a series of events, which have taken place mainly @Von Krahl, but also  represented a few times in Tartu’s Genklubi. And also @ Tapper under the name “Suusabaasis on progepidu”(which refers to the styles represented at these specific events).

The scale of styles, which have been represented during the events’ history, has been large: folk, jazz, noise, prog, fusion, death metal etc. The philosophy behind the events is: play and create whatever turns you on. If it turns me on, then you’re welcome to play on some of the events I organise.

“Suusabaasis on tantsupidu” has had the honour to host bands from Canada (The Wilderness of Manitoba), Portugal (Cabaz), Italy (Gipsy Rufina) and Finland (The Irrationals, Kings of Nippon, Collarbone, Black River Bluesman) +different bands from Estonia: Aides, Mimicry, Phlox, Animal Drama, Lack of Eoins, Paabel etc.

Hope for the future: To organise co-operation between Estonia and Finland and an event where we could create a mixture of dance acts, music and theatre.

Phlox

At Von Krahl, Tallinn

Speed King

by Mats Õun