Buffalo Int'l Film Festival

Friday, October 11, 2024 - 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM - Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center

"Áhkuin"

Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi + Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen (Dir), 20 minutes, Gáregasnjárga / Finland, New York State Premiere

In N. Sami and English w/ English subtitles.

With the singular Sámi oral storytelling tradition of joik at its center, Áhkuin is a visual and musical call-and-response between a grandmother and her descendants. Archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku (Dir. Nousuniemi’s grandmother) unspool as a connective thread across time, inviting the viewer through a portal into this corner of Sápmi. Here, the rhythms of time are set by the daily tasks that assured the survival of those who came before; seemingly mundane chores — carrying water from the river, setting up the sauna, boiling reindeer bone marrow — offer up gifts of memory, music, and Indigenous knowledge.