Opening Films

Club Classics: Video Art

The motto is set by Chase and Dance, by Kadriann Kibus and Liina Paakspuu. It’s the beginning of a new century in Estonia and we follow a group of young people preparing to go out at night. The dance floor is transformed into a space where the moves are about hooking up: we observe the performance of the game of conquest. The proposal of the video-art programme is to continue into the night in this y2k register: a simulation of other sensations and other clubbing rituals. A space of escape from the linear body, approaching the embrace of expandable reality. From a private pole dance in a queer context; to passages in a bathroom; to a state of doom, lulled by a (floating) dance of its own; to the potential – or almost inevitable – walk of shame. This selection seeks a touch of the (ir)real that we conquer in this (possible) full being, in a proximity to interdimensionality beyond (or without) words: “maybe the sign that we’re on our own, but on our own together, trying to find the ways we can endure the end of this world.” (McKenzie Wark, 2023).
This programme was made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), and in particular Marika Agu, as well as the generosity of the artists present.

School Visit — Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA)

Founded in 1914, the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) is the oldest and only public university of visual culture in Estonia.  Students from all parts of the world are engaged in studies and research to cultivate their analytical abilities and critical thinking with the aim to develop into environmentally and socially conscientious creators. The EKA Animation department was established in 2006. The main goal of the programme is to successfully educate creators of animated films, providing them with theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The further aim is to contribute to the global development of animation as an art form. We encourage our students to create their films through their own unique approaches as we put an emphasis on students realising themselves as fully fledged artists with their own philosophies, ideas and creative processes.
The film selection for BEAST 2024 contains MA and BA graduate films from the past 3 years spanning several techniques and different narrative approaches. The selection of films encompass the artistic variety of the students as authors, as well as the reflection of the department’s curriculum.

Director Focus — Triin Ruumet

Expectations of character archetypes don’t always follow a linear or flat (shall we say superficial) one-dimensionality: this is where we find the true potential of the art of representing the “human being” in cinematic art. The behavior of individuals can take on anything from the most beautiful and sincere to the most disturbing and troubled forms. Triin Ruumet’s work can be found in this space of exploring the obscurity of the psyche, building universes that are as complex as they are rich, as unexpected as they are revealing. Something that could already be felt in great force in her first feature, The Days that Confused, and which is maintained with the same verve, albeit with different traits, in Dark Paradise. The film follows Karmen and her half-brother Viktor on a (bizarre) journey of mourning the death of their father. Paradise is far from the destination mapped out by each of these characters in this psychothriller: the hell that surrounds them and that they help to build is the endless, insatiable flame that drives them to (their) end.

Tartu Docs: Arts of Survival

Tartu, in southern Estonia, is this year’s European Capital of Culture. As part of the events and program, the “Arts of Survival” project was developed. In 2022, eight filmmakers from Estonia and other countries were invited to portray different stories and themes from the southern Estonian region through documentary film. In 2024, the result of their artistic residency was formalized and the films were released in a set called “Wild South”. BEAST presents a selection of three short films from this project: The River and A Cat by Maria Aua, Hilda Ha. Off the Grid, by Eva Kübar, and The House, by Carl Olsson. A selection of observation records on scales ranging from the micro to the macro cosmos: navigating between the experiences of cats, fungi, constellations, and human beings. 

This program was created with the support of the team responsible for the Arts of Survival project of the Tartu European Capital of Culture 2024.

Retrospektiva

The Estonian film retrospective focuses on five documentaries from the 1970s and 1980s: Tänav 79 by Heli Speek, Linnaloom by Peeter Tooming, Lasnamäe by Mark Soosaar, Teel by Valeria Anderson and Allika poole mineja by Peeter Tooming. Beginning a journey of the cinematic landscape from the center (of movement) of Tallinn, we continue through the suburbs, traveling to the forest. Throughout this journey, marked by few words but strong and exciting musical tracks, a light urban, suburban, and countryside portrait is drawn, following in the footsteps of the human, the animal, and the natural. The session doesn’t stop there: the experience includes newsreels from the 1960s and advertisements from the 1980s, created by Eesti Reklaamfilm, interspersed with the films and following the thematic line proposed by them.