This year Slush came back bigger and better than ever with 20 000 attendees, 2 600 startups, 1 600 investors and 600 journalists. Slush was held dec 4-5 in Messukeskus, the Helsinki Exhibition Center. The trends of this year included artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning, blockchain and sustainability. There were lots of inspirational speakers including Werner Vogels, Julia Hartz, Katarina Berg and Casey Winters.
Middle Feast -- one of the business teams of the Business Program.
Startup Refugees is one of the leading NGOs in Finland that helps asylum seekers and refugees by assisting them with starting a business or finding employment. I met with Maiju Mitrunen, the Head of Business & Employment Programs, in their office in Helsinki and we talked a little bit about the work they do.
A group of around 20 members of the far-right group, who call themselves “Soldiers of Odin” arranged a show off in the Puhos shopping mall in eastern Helsinki on Monday evening, frightening and intimidating immigrants. Puhos is a small shopping mall adjacent to Itis. The outdated mall has been rented out to mainly ethnic shops and restaurants. Visitors of the mall are almost all from Somali, Kurdish, Arab and other immigrant groups.
Mohammed received two negative decisions to his request for asylum and exhausted from the process, he returned voluntarily to Iraq. He now lives in Baghdad. In a phone call, Mohammed talks about why he left Iraq, the case and how he’s getting on back at home.
Taha fled Iraq for love. Unfortunately that’s not a reason good enough to stay in his adopted home in Finland. He went underground and now lives in Kirkkonummi with a Finnish family who wanted to help. Taha is one of thousands of undocumented immigrants in Finland.
THE31st HELSINKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, also referred to as Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy), came to a close on Sunday, having drawn in record breaking numbers. This year’s film festival attracted more than 60,000 visitors and featured almost 500 screenings.
It has now been three years since the biggest migration wave flowed into Europe in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people headed towards the European continent. Although news coming from the Middle East showed a dramatic escalation in migration after the extensive uprisings and revolutions, none of the governments or politicians in the European Union were expecting what is known today as the European migrant crisis.
Helsinki fashion week is the first fashion event focusing on 100% sustainable production and brands. This year the event was held in an exciting old oil tank, transformed into exhibition centre, located in Laajasalo, Helsinki. While the shows were held inside the oil tank, and an eco village was set up outside.
Like much of Europe, Finland is cultivating a flourishing casino industry. As of writing, there are a total of eight cities throughout Finland that are home to at least one casino, with 16 gambling facilities situated amongst these territories.
The Baltic Sea is one of the key things that makes Helsinki the city it is. In addition to beauty and diverse possibilities for relaxing it provides us with a gateway to the world and its oceans.
Unfortunately, the Baltic is not doing great. Eutrophication remains a big problem that hampers achieving a good status of the sea.
THE FORECAST for the weekend of the 21st Tuska Open Air Metal Festival was not looking too good the week before. Torrential rains were promised for Friday and Saturday with temperatures around 10 degrees Celsius - Finnish summer at its best. Metalheads from all around the world were praying to the weather gods and stocking up on raincoats, rubber boots and gloves in preparation for yet another wet festival.
The frequent occurrence of extreme climate conditions is threatening the life of urban dwellers. Currently, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 70 percent. With rapid growth of urbanization comes rapid changes in the landscape that affect the climate and air quality in urban areas, leading to higher temperatures – or “heat islands” – higher emissions, and more ambient pollutions. During the summer, the higher urban temperatures may lead to more frequent health problems, and actually increase the mortality rate among the most vulnerable urban dwellers including elders and less economically fortunate, for example.
It has been suggested that author J.R.R Tolkien was greatly affected by Finnish mythologies. It was claimed that the “Kalevala”, a 19th-century work of epic poetry, which is regarded as one of the most significant works of Finnish literature, heavily influenced Tolkien. And so he wrote:
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost…”
The author of this piece was born and raised in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The city, both ethereal and nonchalant, is fairly seldom ventured into.
THE31st HELSINKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, also referred to as Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy), came to a close on Sunday, having drawn in record breaking numbers. This year’s film festival attracted more than 60,000 visitors and featured almost 500 screenings.
The numbers reveal how the festival’s popularity continues to grow, this year one out of every four screenings was sold out.
The festival brings together films and filmmakers from all over the world. This year’s honorary guest was none other than Spike Lee, who came to present his latest film, BlacKkKlansman. In addition to the screening of his Cannes Grand Prix-winning film, his 1989 film Do the Right Thing was presented in combination with a Masterclass on September 22 at the newly renovated Korjaamo Kino Bio Rex theatre.
Other guests included Australian director Stephan Elliott, known for his film Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, who returned to HIFF to present his latest film Swinging Safari, a satire of Australian suburbia set in the 1970s. Actor Shia La Beouf also featured on this year’s list of guests presenting #TakeMeAnywhere, a documentary produced by art collective La Beouf, Rönkkö and Turner. The film documents the trio’s digital road trip where strangers were invited to pick up the artists from coordinates posted on the project’s website and take them to a location of their choosing. German-French-Iranian director Emily Atef also visited the festival to present her film, 3 Days in Quiberon, a depiction of actress Romy Scheider’s final interview.
Local talent was also celebrated during the festival. Finnish films that were featured at the festival included Selma Vilhunen’sStupid Young Heart (2018), Anna Eriksson’sM (2018), and Teemu Nikki’sEuthanizer (2017). Finnish actress, Laura Birn, won this year’s Nordic Flair Award, an award granted to those who have helped draw international attention to Nordic talent.
The festival also features an industry sidebar, Finnish Film Affair, which presents Finnish films to international buyers and journalists. This year’s winner of the Best Pitch Award, given to works in progress, was Tuffi Films’ One-Off Incident, a project directed by 15 female writers and directors.
To those who missed out on the festival – you still have a chance to catch some of the films featured. Yle will feature a selection of the festival’s films on its channels. In addition to this, the Love & Anarchy Tour will present the festival’s most popular films to selected locations including Turku, Kuopio, Joensuu and Vaasa.
MARIA TIMKO
Source: HIFF
Photo: Director Spike Lee included a masterclass in his visit to this year’s Love & Anarchy film festival
