Sodankylä Forever

Admission Info:
Tickets to the four parts of Sodankylä Forever, screening on two consecutive nights, are being sold as one ticket package. For tickets to both nights click here

Surely the most singular of events in the annual calendar of film culture, the Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the arctic circle—where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Anssi Mänttäri and Peter Von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of directors and each day begins with a two-hour discussion. To mark the festival’s silver anniversary, festival director Peter Von Bagh edited together highlights from these dialogues to create an epic four-part choral history of cinema drawn from the anecdotes, insights, and wisdom of his all-star cast: Coppola, Fuller, Forman, Chabrol, Corman, Demy, Kieslowski, Kiarostami, Varda, Oliveira, Erice, Rouch, Gilliam, Jancso—and 64 more! Ranging across innumerable topics (war, censorship, movie stars, formative influences, America, neorealism) these voices, many now passed away, engage in a personal dialogue across the years that’s by turns charming, profound, hilarious and moving. Call it Finland’s idiosyncratic and playful answer to Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinema!

Peter Von Bagh will present the program over the course of two evenings:
October 11: Part 1: History of a Century & Part 2: The Yearning for the First Cinema Experience (149m)
October 12: Part 3: Eternal Time & Part 4: Drama of Light (112m)