Future Is Not What It Used To Be
2003: A Musical Odyssey 2003 / Tulevaisuus ei ole entisensä / Finland 2002
A portrait of underground pioneer of electronic art, musician, experimental filmmaker and thinker Erkki Kurenniemi.
Synopsis
Since the 1960s the whole of western society has been affected by the gradual incursion of computers and electronics into daily life. The film introduces the highly distinctive character Erkki Kurenniemi (1941), a top specialist in his field who, since the Sixties, apart from the computerisation of society, has been studying (privately and underground) the options of involving the computer in the art world. He constructs unique musical instruments and robotic machines, he makes experimental films and combines his professional tasks with artistic experiments. He regards software as the parallel of the human soul. The film brings together unique archives and Kurenniemi’s current project in which he tries maniacally to capture and conserve his experiences, his mentality and his whole life. Last year Kurenniemi became a new international discovery: not only as a result of this film, with its moments of humour and absurdity, but also thanks to the tribute paid to him by cult music band Pan Sonic.
About the film
52 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Mika Taanila
/ Dir. of Photography Jussi Eerola
/ Music Erkki Kurenniemi, Jukka Ruohomäki
/ Editor Mika Taanila
/ Producer Ulla Simonen
/ Production Kinotar Oy
/ Cast Erkki Kurenniemi
/ Contact Kinotar Oy, The Finnish Film Foundation
www: www.kinotar.com
About the director
Mika Taanila (b. 1965) studied cultural anthropology in Helsinki, later video in Lahti. He made a documentary about background or piped music, Thank You for The Music (1997), a film about sci-fi architecture Futuro - A New Stance or Tomorrow (1998), and he worked on installations with the band Pan Sonic.
Contacts
Kinotar Oy
Meritullinkatu 33 E, 00170, Helsinki
Finland
Phone: +358 9 135 1864
Fax: +358 9 135 7864
E-mail: kinotar@kinotar.com
The Finnish Film Foundation
Kanavakatu 12, 2nd floor, 00160, Helsinki
Finland
Phone: +358 962 203 00
Fax: +358 962 203 050
E-mail: ses@ses.fi
