Description

”In the ’camera-less’ experiment Tectonic Plate, visual-artist Mika Taanila’s photograms and poet Harry Salmenniemi’s stark intertitles simulate the jet-laggy anxiety of international air travel. Pages from security pamphlets are distorted into rough particles of grain; a five-minute zoom-out transforms words into geometric patterns. These shifts between legibility and abstraction often literally force the viewer’s eyes to refocus, dislocating both cognitive and sensory perception; the resulting dissociative panic produces a very bodily feeling of free fall. The physically droughts photograms, which alternatively evoke encephalographs or airport x-rays of carry-on items, anchor the out-of-body paranoia in an unshakable tactility. Opening the stylish bound book of Salmenniemi’s text in the box set (which also contains two shorts by Taanila) reawakens the sensory trauma: ”I am an accident that is happening to someone else.” – Chloe Lizotte, Film Comment (NYC)

Mika Taanila’s cameraless feature film Tectonic Plate (2016, ”Mannerlaatta”) is released in June 2017 on dual language (English / Finnish) Blu-ray edition. The box set contains also two volumes of books with the original texts written for the film by the poet Harry Salmenniemi and an illustrated booklet.

* Blu-ray:

Tectonic Plate (74 min)
Mannerlaatta (74 min)
A Physical Ring (4 min)
Optical Sound (6 min)

Commentary audio feature: Olaf Möller in conversation with Mika Taanila

* Harry Salmenniemi: Text for Tectonic Plate, translated by Lola Rogers (126 pages)

* Harry Salmenniemi: Teksti elokuvaan Mannerlaatta (126 pages)

* An illustrated booklet: Tytti Rantanen’s article ”An Eye in the Dark” and Juha-Pekka Kilpiö’s ”Intremedial Tectonics: An Interview with Mika Taanila and Harry Salmenniemi” (32 pages)

Region free Blu-ray. Audio 5.1, except A Physical Ring 2.0. Size: 192x140x34 mm. Weight: 590g.

Limited edition of 300 copies.

Tectonic Plate Blu-ray Box is an interdiscplinary release. Its core element is a region free Blu-ray disc, which contains the film Tectonic Plate in both language versions: the original Finnish language version as and its English translation produced for international audience. The film contains lot of on-screen text, written by poet Harry Salmenniemi and translated by Lola Rogers. Sound design is by Olli Huhtanen, electronic music score by Mika Vainio.

The Blu-ray disc contains an audio commentary track where German film critic/historian Olaf Möller discussed the film project with Mika Taanila. In extra features the disc has two short films by Taanila. A Physical Ring (2002) is an experimental found footage film and the first collaboration between Mika Taanila and Mika Vainio. When making the short film Optical Sound (2005), the director used the same technique as in Tectonic Plate – photocopying directly on clear 35 mm film – for the first time.

Besides the Blu-ray content, the box contains the full texts written by Harry Salmenniemi in two separate volumes (English / Finnish). An additional booklet contains a long interview with Taanila and Salmenniemi on making of the film and a speculative article by Tytti Rantanen.

Graphic design for Tectonic Plate Blu-ray Box is by Markus Pyörälä.

Mannerlaatta / Tectonic Plate:
director: Mika Taanila, text: Harry Salmenniemi, English translation: Lola Rogers, music: Mika Vainio, graphic design: Markus Pyörälä, sound design: Olli Huhtanen, producer: Jussi Eerola / Testifilmi.

Elokuvayhtiö Testifilmi Oy is a production company founded in 2014 focusing on ambitious film art. The founders of the Helsinki-based company are Jussi Eerola, Mika Taanila and IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund ja Visa Suonpää). Tectonic Plate is Testifilmi’s first Blu-ray release.