WET hosts: Great Grandmother’s Hat
27 October 2022 8pm
WET, Hillevliet 90
A screening of Ĺ aamšiÇ© – Oldemors lue – Great Grandmother’s Hat (Anstein Mikkelsen & Harry Johansen, 60m, 2022)
Language: Finnish, Norwegian and Sámi with English subtitles.
Donations welcome! All proceeds will go directly to the filmmakers.
WET is excited to host this event programmed by artist Angelica Falkeling. Here are some words from Angelica:
Since 2019, I have been working in dialogue with artist and duodji (craftsperson) Venke Tørmænen. We got to know each other during a plant dyeing workshop in Røst, an island off the coast of northern Norway. I was on the island researching the archangelica plant, which is used in herbal medicine for abortion and erotic pleasure. Tørmænen visited a festival in Røst as a workshop organiser and I took part.
My recent video installation Tacit Knowledge (on view at Textielmuseum Tilburg until November 11) includes some footage from that workshop. People have been asking, why are you not telling her story? But I thought, why should I be the one to tell it? So, as an extension of that work, I decided to organise screenings of Great Grandmother’s Hat, a documentary made by the indigenous filmmakers Anstein Mikkelsen and Harry Johansen.
The directors follow Venke Tørmænen as she struggles to find a person to teach her how to sew a Skolt Sámi konelua, a type of hat worn by women in her region. TørmĹ“nen’s great-grandmother wears it in a picture; she later finds a similar hat in a museum. The film follows her in the process of negotiating access in order to learn from the object, and tracks her attempts to find a duodji who can teach her to make one.
Great Grandmother’s Hat tells us about Nordic colonialism, geography, resources, duodji, crafts, trauma recovery, and storytelling. The hat’s pattern tells stories of place and community. TørmĹ“nen says, “I feel that when I can sew it and put it on my head, the ring is closed. I want the world to know that we [Sámi] exist. We are here and we live here.”
Thanks to WET film, Harry Johansen, Anstein Mikkelsen, and Venke Tørmænen.
Credits:
Production: Siivet As and Govas film & mediaproduksjon
Script & directors: Harry Johansen, Anstein Mikkelsen
Photography: Harry Johansen
Editing: Anstein Mikkelsen
Sound: Hanna-Maaria Kiprianoff
Music: Halvdan Nedrejord
Choir: Fossekallen