Urfilm shorts 2 is a collection of short films by indigenous filmmakers from Sápmi, Aotearoa and Peru. There is no advance booking of tickets. 

Screening time: 50 minutes.

Čuovgga ráhku sisa čákŋalit / Crawling into a tear of light (Sápmi)

Čuovgga ráhku sisa čákŋalit explores the moment a tear in the world opens up, and something transitions into a new form, from one state to another; through fire, rituals, death and life. The film travels between different worlds that all might say something about the invisible channels connecting humans, earth, and spirit. 

Through the meticulous timing in the darkroom, the right amount of chemicals, and feeling your way with your fingertips, the analog film comes alive, from silver-blank frames to seconds of movement. In what might seem like magic, a piece of living imagery is suddenly there. It’s a story about the experience of repeated attempts to create life, where small coincidences determine the way, and normal life blends with lab-work and medical precision. It’s also a story about the old tradition of Ođđabeaigállat that happens every New Year's Eve in Olmmáivággi. In this ritual the valleys inhabitants put on fearsome masks, clothing and bells, and wander through the valley scaring spectators watching them from the side of the road. The ritual is likely to have it's roots in rites of fertility, to get rid of the old and create fresh ground for the new.

Directors: Elina Waage Mikalsen and Magnus Skei Holmen.

Kusi Smiles (Peru)

Kusi gets triggered by joining a traditional family gathering in the Andes. Unable to sing since her mom passed away, Kusi is confronted by her grief and embarks on a path of healing among sisterhood and connecting with the land.

Director: Sisa Quispe.

Red-Shaded Green / Röopses rovnedamme goh kruana (Sápmi)

Red-Shaded Green is a poetic documentary about the destruction of nature in the name of green energy. The film is narrated in South Sámi, an endangered language with only 500 speakers. The film’s soundtrack is a joik or yoik, a traditional form of song in Sámi music. As an art form, each joik is meant to reflect or evoke a person, animal, or place.

The film’s joik, In Memory of the Mountains, is composed and joiked by South Sámi writer and narrator Emma Sofie Joma Rustad. She composed it when seeing the massive wind turbines above the Fosen peninsula for the first time, as a homage to the untouched nature that once was.

The film was made as part of a training programme called “Witness: Arctic Indigenous Voices” by Arctic Indigenous Film Fund and Telefilm Canada. The workshop consisted of five Arctic Indigenous directors making their own films about how climate change affects the people of the Arctic.

Director: Johannes Vang.

Payback (Aotearoa)

When a welfare department’s insidious prejudice can no longer be tolerated, a group of unlikely heroes band together against a narrow-minded caseworker.

Director: Mia Blake.