Artist introduction: Kirsikka Paakkinen

Kirsikka Paakkinen is a Finnish filmmaker and artist. She is part of the Finnish NAT, hosted by Turku UAS.
Instagram: @kirsikkapaakkinen

I am a filmmaker and artist originally from eastern Finland, South Karelia, now based in Turku in the southwest. I hold a Master of Fine Arts in Film from HDK-Valand, the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Gothenburg. I also have a degree in Cultural Management from the Humak University of Applied Sciences in Finland and studied audiovisual media culture and photography at the University of Lapland.

I work across short documentary, short fiction, and video art. My graduation film, the short documentary When the Mill Hill Trees Spoke to Me (2021), premiered at The Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund in the Next Nordic Generation competition series and has since been screened at numerous international film festivals. The film won the Films For Our Future award at the Lucca Film Festival in 2022.

Making of photos from filming When the Mill Hill Trees Spoke to Me:

Nature as inspiration

I am particularly interested in humans’ relationship with nature – its many dimensions and contradictions. Being in nature and experiences related to nature fascinate me immensely, especially a kind of experience of the sacred, that inexplicable sense of wonder and peace that natural environments can evoke. My interest in nature stems from my childhood. I grew up in a small village where nature is strongly present in everyday life.

Navigating ethics, emotion, and expression

Both writing and image creation have always been important forms of self-expression and creation for me. Filmmaking allows me to combine them, while also incorporating sound and music. I love the comprehensiveness and immersiveness of cinema.

Making films requires making countless choices and decisions. Whether it’s fiction or a documentary, the filmmaker has a huge ethical responsibility, both during the process and after it’s finished. The work often also requires a long conscious and somewhat unconscious process. You have to do research and try to absorb complex, sometimes surprising elements, as well as find some common factor within them, thread a needle through it all. Intuition also plays a big role in my work.

Latest work

Lainasaari

My latest work was the experimental video work Lainassaari (2023), which was shot on 16mm film. It was created for the group exhibition Trees, Parks, People at the Regional Museum of Lapland where various artists explored the meaning of urban nature.

The edge of Endurance

I am currently working on a feature-length documentary titled The Edge of Endurance (Sietokyvyn rajoilla) inspired by research by cultural anthropologist Eemi Nordström. The film investigates Nordic people’s relationship with nature through the themes of control, sustaining, and coexistence among blood-sucking insects. The project has received development support from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), the Finnish Film Foundation, and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, and the Oulu Culture Foundation, among others.