Skönärit is a collage film about seafarers based on archival footage shot around the globe by sailors themselves. Skönäri is old Finnish sailor slang, meaning a seafarer. The script is based on the logbooks, letters and telegrams the filmmaker obtained alongside the footage from a small Finnish port town called Rauma. Through the tragic true-life story of a young sailor, Jalmar Yrjänen, the film portrays the life of those working at sea at the mercy of the natural elements, while also touching upon themes of colonialism and globalization.
Country
FinlandYear
2025Length
63'
Category
ExperimentalPremiere
Italian
Screenplay
Milja ViitaCinematography
Ari Mylly, Jukka Salokaarto, John Konkola, Sakari Leino, Martti Mankonen, Yrjö MankonenOptical film printing & processing
Milja ViitaEditing
Milja ViitaMusic
Rauma Youth Band, Kalle Kataja, Juho LaitinenFoley sounds
Miro MantereSound design
Veli GranöProduction
Milja ViitaDistribution
The Centre for Finnish Media Art AV-arkki, Light ConeFunding
Lönnström Art Museum, RaumaSynopsis
Biography
Milja Viita is an artist and filmmaker based in Porvoo, Finland. Her works often deal with nature or natural science observations, and they convey a strong personality in relation to the wider social phenomena. In 2022 she was chosen to release the 6th Contemporary Art Project by Lönnström Art Museum. Viita’s experimental film Animal Bridge U-3033 won the Risto Jarva Award at the Tampere Film Festival in 2019. She is an alumni of Art University Helsinki, where she teaches filmmaking today.
Statement
I’m inspired by the markings found in archives, the truth and its variations they might convey. I found the seafarers’ letters, logbooks, and telegrams from the late 19th and early 20th century in a small Finnish port city of Rauma, and was touched by the voice of the young sailor Jalmar Yrjänen. The retired sea captains from the same port town gave me dozens of S8 films they had shot around the globe decades after Jalmar’s time on Earth. I was fascinated by the beauty and playful attitude of the films, but also the different echelons of time that were present – the planetary time and deep history, as well as the layered nature of human life. I found myself asking, what and who will be remembered of the times we are living now. I used the footage I received from the old sea captains to tell the story of Jalmar, working like a micro-historian, but with an attitude of an artist, and with a heart of a poet.
— Milja Viita
Archival materials
Super8 films and private family archives of the seafarers from the Rauma Maritime Museum (Rauma, Finland), in particular letters by Jalmari Yrjänen and his family, testimonies of the crew of the ship M/S Mercur and Captain Louko, and logbooks of the M/S Mercur (8.12.1925), S/S Tor (1942-1944), and S/S Transdal (1965-1966).
Screenings
