Two Public Lectures on Documentaries by Kimmo Ohtonen at BFM

On May 28th, documentarist and journalist Kimmo Ohtonen invites you to join him on two original lectures and discussion sessions on The Essence of Story - how to tell powerful stories in documentary films.

The first 90 minute discussion explores fundamental aspects of all documentary film making; how to construct your film through coherent and compelling storytelling. What narrative elements are needed in a documentary film, which deals with real human beings in the framework of the real world? Alongside this conceptual exploration of Story Kimmo will also discuss certain crucial production stages of documentary filmmaking. There is not just one right way to operate as a documentarist, but there are numerous different ways to make documentary films. However, by mastering certain concrete productional processes, from research to casting and filming itself, you can achieve your goals as a documentarist. Kimmo will hope to share his views and experiences on the documentary filmmaking and create enthusiastic conversation between him and attendants.

Kimmo’s second lecture The Case with the Story descends into the world of documentary filmmaking in the Arctic through a documentary case study. For over two years, Kimmo has been working on a documentary on the life in the Arctic, how local people share the same environment with the fiercest predator on the planet: the polar bear. Kimmo will explore documentary filmmaking through his personal experiences in the challenging environment of Svalbard. How to operate in a different culture? How to film in a hostile environment. And most of all, how to keep your vision intact in the real world, where things do not always go the way you hope. Documentary filmmaking is a marriage of pre-planning and reaction, and this is something Kimmo has learned in his arctic adventures.

Seminar will be held on May 28th, from 10:00 to 13:30 at the Baltic Film and Media School, Narva mnt 27, Tallinn. The working language is English.

For registering to the seminar please write to liis.mutli@overall.ee by May 21st.

Kimmo has worked in the television and media industry both in the UK and Finland for the past 12 years. He has worked for broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). Currently, Kimmo scriptwrites and presents an international documentary series on people's relationship to the nature in the Nordic countries. The series will air in various countries in Europe in the Autumn 2016. In addition to his work on television, currently Kimmo writes and photographs a book on brown bears.

Alongside his work on various documentary films and series Kimmo has spent years studying the essence of storytelling in filmic reality. "In the heart of every film, both fictional and factual, is the art of story. Trying to understand the ways in which story evolves in various circumstances is something of a passion to me. Telling and hearing stories is one of the fundamental privileges of being a human being. Stories are part of us everyone, important part of every culture - like a spiritual oxygen.