📅 Friday, February 7th – Saturday, February 8, 2025 (In-person screenings)
🕐 7:00 pm Friday, 10:30 am & 1:00 pm Saturday
📍 Majestic Bay Theatres: 2044 NW Market St, Seattle (Ballard)
💰 Opening Night $16, Saturday Pass $40 (Member discounts available)
💻 Available online Friday, February 7th – Thursday, February 13th
The National Nordic Museum’s Sámi Film Festival is a yearly celebration that honors the rich heritage and storytelling traditions of the Sámi, an Indigenous people of the northernmost parts of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The seventh edition of the fest—which is curated by visual artist Matti Aikio—brings together a diverse collection of Sámi short films, documentaries, and new and classic feature films.
Biegga, bieggá/Wind Is Winding, a short about grief and journeying, and Skierri: Land of the Dwarf Birches, a feature film, are opening the festival at Majestic Bay Theatres on Friday, February 7th. Released in 1982 and directed by Markku Lehmuskallio, Skierri follows the life of a Sápmi, a migratory reindeer herder, and was the first Finnish feature-length film to include Sámi people speaking their language. The rest of the weekend includes screenings of an experimental short about the relationship between Indigenous peoples and technological progress, two documentaries about Sámi architecture, and a conversation between fest curator Matti Aikio and Dr. Troy Storfjell, professor of Native American and Indigenous studies at Pacific Lutheran University.
Though the IRL screenings in Seattle are limited to February 7th to 8th, the festival will run virtually until February 13th with a $25 virtual pass ($20 for National Nordic Museum members).
💁♂️ Pro tips
🎟️ Save with museum membership for both in-person and virtual screenings
🌐 Can’t make it in person? Virtual festival runs through Feb 13th ($25)
🍽️ Plenty of dinner options on Market Street before opening night
🗓️ Friday, February 7th @ 7 pm
- Biegga, bieggá / Wind Is Winding
Dirs. Jenni Laiti and Lada Suomenrinne | 9 min | Year: 2024 - Skierri: Land of the Dwarf Birches
Dir. Markku Lehmuskallio | 118 min| Year: 1982
🗓️ Saturday, February 8th @ 10:30 am
- Dajan – I Say
Dirs. Alice Márja Jektevik and Kim Saarinen | 4 min | 2024 - Post-Capitalist Architecture TV, Part 2: On Nomadism and Flow
Dirs: Joar Nango & Ken Are Bongo | 36 min| 2020 - Maiìlmmittkus / At the Shadow of the World
Dirs: Hans Pieski and Arttu Nieminen | 8 min | 2024 - Post-Capitalist Architecture TV, Part 5: Gumpi
Dirs: Joar Nango & Ken Are Bongo | 36 min | 2020
🗓️ Saturday, February 8th @ 1 pm
- Sámi Bojá / Sámi Boy
Dir. Elle Sofe Henriksen | 8 min | 2015 - Juhani Lihtonen’s Arctic Report: Towards North, Towards North
Dir. Juhani Lihtonen| 42 min | 1972 - Conversation between Curator, Matti Aikio and Dr. Troy Storfjell, Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Pacific Lutheran University
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