The story of Finnish jazz in officially considered to begin from the arrival of steamboat S/S Andania to Helsinki in the summer of 1926 – or more precisely from the moment when the Andania American Jazz-Band, formed by members of the ship’s orchestra and led by 19-year old saxophonist Tommy Tuomikoski (1907-1937) performed in the restaurant Oopperakellari. The Art Town Film Festival joins in the 100th anniversary celebrations of this event by presenting a series of Finnish short film from the past decades, whose both musical and filmic style ranges from the traditional to the modern. The screening is opened by works directed by Finnish top cinematographer Osmo Harkimo: Old House Jazz (1961), shot in the legendary Helsinki jazz club Old House (aka “The Badger’s Nest”), and the short experimental dance film Opus H²O (1962) shot in the Lauttasaari water tower. Erkko Kivikoski‘s EP-X-503 from the same year documents Pentti Lasanen’s band cutting a record at the Helsinki House of Culture, and is followed by Kivimies (1964), a playful mini-city symphony ending up in a jazz club, made by Fennada-Filmi’s animators Martti Utriainen and Sauli Rantamäki (both two films were edited by the recently departed master Juho Gartz). Topping up the screening is Edward Vesala – Percussionist (1973/2026), a recording studio portrait of the titular modern jazz giant constructed out of silent film material discovered in the late Philip von Knorring’s archives with a reconstructed soundtrack by Petri Kuljuntausta, previously only seen in Mänttä Art Festival’s short film screening in Kino Säde in the summer of 2026. (HT Nuotio)
Language: no dialogue