Bring a pillow and your comfy clothes and settle in for an evening of Indigenous short films at Objectspace.

These screenings will take place within our current exhibition by Joar Nango and collaborators, Building an archive of Indigenous architecture. The exhibition includes a variety of video works from experimental shorts through to Nango and Ken Are Bongo’s documentary series Post-Capitalist Architecture TV.

To extend the storytelling of this exhibition project, we invited Ken Are Bongo to compile a programme of short films for this special evening viewing. 

Ken Are has selected 5 short films that will run for a total of 60 minutes. 

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Film programme:

Biegga Savkala Duoddariid Duohken les Soames
Norway, 2007, 10 min.
Genre: Family, history, romance, short
Director: Ken Are Bongo, Elle Sofe Henriksen
As dancers travel through time and space, enjoying the wonders of the sky, they find different objects that connect them to their Sami ancestors. The film's impressionistic imagery is inspired by the work of Sami poet Synnove Persen.

Ara Marumaru
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2018, 8min.
Genre: Drama, short
Director: Ken Are Bongo, Richard Curtis, Devery Jacobs
At her lowest point, a mother walks away from her baby only to realise her mistake, now she must face the spirit world to claim her back. Created in 72 hours for the Native Slam III filmmaking challenge at the Māoriland Film Festival.

Almmiravddas
Sápmi, Norway, 2022, 7 min.
Genre: Short
Director: Johan Sara Jr.
A quiet moment at the horizon where the daughters and sons of Sápmi joiks the bright midsummer night until dawn. With their silky-smooth movements, they form silhouettes in the haze of tomorrow’s and future’s dreams.

Human Habitat
Norway, 2020, 8min.
Genre: Drama, short, experimental, dance
Director: Flavia Devonas Hoffmann
Human Habitat has its origin in the clash between untouched nature and growing industry in the Arctic and explores the oscillation between human resistibility and fragility. A female dancer takes us on an associative, non-narrative journey through emotional states facing the changes from a sustainable to a destructive relationship of humans and landscape. Dance, music and film are equated in this experimental short film.

Sámiin Leat Rievttit / The Sámi Have Rights
Norway, 2019, 11 min.
Genre: Short
Directors: Elle Márjá Eira, Mai-Lis Eira
The filmmakers behind this project are reindeer owners and they tell about the situation that the Sámi reindeer herders are in today. “It’s about our rights and survival of reindeer husbandry. Many reindeer herders have to go to court to defend their reindeer herding pastures and land. In order for us to discuss this, we must also look back at the Sámi history”.

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Ken Are Bongo is a film director and cinematographer who grew up in a reindeer herding family from Kautokeino. He was educated at the Nordland College of Art and Film in Kabelvåg and has worked in film and television since 2006. His creative journey is enriched by a specialization in Indigenous storytelling and a deep connection to the Arctic climate. He recently made his debut as a cinematographer on a feature film with the Netflix production Stolen. Additionally, he was the cinematographer for the documentary Ealat and an episode of the Cannes award-winning TV series Makta for NRK, all directed by Elle Márjá Eira. He is now developing his own projects. 

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This event is planned to accompany Building an archive of Indigenous architecture: Joar Nango and collaborators. This exhibition is supported by Nordisk Kulturfond’s Globus initiative and The Warren Trust.