Imagine Sápmi på Biograf Panora i Malmö i samarbete med Page 28

20 november 2025 på Panora i Malmö

Imagine Sápmi – Govahala Sámi
Sámi Queer Moving Images – Sámi queer ealli govat 

Denna Trans Day of Remembrance bjuder vi på ett queersamiskt kortfilmsprogram med filmer som utforskar queer samisk glädje, community och en dekolonial värld. Vi minns de som kom före, firar vårt community och drömmer om en bättre värld tillsammans.

Arrangörer: PAGE 28, SAQMI, Folkets Bio Malmö och Antirasistiska Filmdagar.

Imagine Sápmi är ett pågående levande arkiv inom SAQMI – The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images, som samlar in, bevarar, visar och föreställer sig hur samisk queerhet kan se ut och kännas i rörliga bilder. 

Samlingen vill synliggöra samisk queer kultur, kamp och liv genom tiderna, möjliggöra visningar och sammanhang där de kan ses och diskuteras, inspirera och skapa nya möjligheter och möten. Imagine Sápmi ingår även i visningsprojektet Queer Moving History som sedan 2020 visat nya och gamla filmer i kuraterade program för publik i olika sammanhang.

“Syftet med Queer Moving History är dels att lyfta upp berättelser med en queer historisk tillbakablick, dels synliggöra queera och samtida berättelser och perspektiv och dels låta dessa berättelser – historiska och samtida möta en ny publik. Projektet Queer Moving History vill med ett intersektionellt perspektiv synliggöra normer, konstnärliga vinklar på samhällsfrågor och vice versa, historieskrivningens betydelse för dagens kamper för mänskliga rättigheter”.

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English:

Imagine Sápmi is a living, ongoing archive within SAQMI – The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images, which collects, preserves, shows, and imagines what Sámi queerness can look and feel like in moving images. This collection aims to make Sámi queer culture, its struggles, and lives visible across time, by enabling screenings and contexts where to see and discuss the films.

The project wants to inspire and create new possibilities and encounters. Imagine Sápmi is a part of the screening project Queer Moving History, which has curated public film programs for various contexts since 2020, bringing together contemporary and older films.  

More about the program:

SHORT FILM PROGRAM: Längd: 60 min

Whispers of Reindeer Milk by Mihkkal Hætta and Ándaras Leonardsen
(2023, 18 min)
Sápmi/Norway
Language: No Language

Short synopsis:
This Sámi short explores an alternative universe in Sápmi where they managed to remove the primordial knowledge from the colonists. The film is composed of open, meditative, persistent images from different landscapes in Sápmi, and is a journey to and from these lands.

Bio: Text from 2025 Tromsö IFF:
Mihkkal Hætta is a 22-year-old Sámi filmmaker from Guovdageaidnu. Hætta wants to add a completely new genre to the ever-growing selection of Sámi films. Hætta has big ambitions; he wants to transfer the Sámi storytelling tradition to the screen and conquer the hearts of his audience through Sámi arthouse films.

ÁHKUIN by Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi (Sámi) & Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen with Ááná Jyyrki Sáárá-Máárjá / Saara-Maria Salonen
(2024, 19 min)
Sápmi/Finland
Language: Northern Sámi with English subtitles

Short synopsis:
A transcendent and playful documentary journey following three generations of a Sámi family united across time via joik – a distinct Sámi oral tradition that combines song, storytelling and reciprocity.

Long synopsis:
With the singular Sámi oral storytelling tradition of joik at its center, ÁHKUIN is a visual and musical call-and-response between a grandmother and her descendants. Archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku (dir. Sunná Máret Nousuniemi’s grandmother) unspool as a connective thread across time, inviting the viewer through a portal into this corner of Sápmi. Here, the rhythms of time are set by the daily tasks that assured the survival of those who came before; seemingly mundane chores – carrying water from the river, setting up the sauna, boiling reindeer bone marrow – offer up gifts of memory, music, and Indigenous knowledge.

As in Indigenous communities the world over, colonization has profoundly shaped recent Sámi history through stories of loss. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from sources as diverse as duodji (Sámi handicrafts and land-based knowledge systems), the work of David Lynch, Pauliina Peodoroff’s Matriarkaatti (Matriarchy), and the environmentally focused, community-based art of Niillas Holmberg, Jenni Laiti and Outi Pieski, ÁHKUIN presents a melancholy yet playful Sámi story with lessons for a new era defined by giving and receiving.

Location:
ÁHKUIN was filmed in Gáregasnjárga, a Sámi village where three rivers meet – Anárjohka, Gáregasjohka and Basijohka. Gáregasnjárga is at the border of what is now Finland and Norway.

Director Biographies:
Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi (they/them) is a queer Sámi and Finnish audiovisual artist and storyteller. Their debut short documentary Boso mu ruovttoluotta – Breathe Me Back to Life received the Best Short Film Award at Nuuk International Film Festival and The Moving People and Images Award at the Love & Anarchy Film Festival in 2022.

Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen is a Sámi artist and storyteller based in Guhtur, Sápmi. Kumpulainen tells stories in various forms, including theatre, singing, songwriting, composing, directing and acting. Currently he is studying traditional Sámi handicrafts, specializing in burl, reindeer antler and bone as the main materials.

EANA DIEHTÁ by Máret Ásllat Ivvár Ovllá Ritni Ráste, Ritni Ráste Pieski (he/they), Guhtur-Niillasa Sire Nanna Pessi, Pessi Jouste (they/them), Wanda Holopainen (they/them).
(2023, 5 min)
Sápmi/Finland
Language: Northern Sámi and Finnish with English subtitles

Eana diehtá is a shortfilm about sámi queer joy and the meaning of community. It celebrates decolonial dreams and knowledge coming from the elders & Eana, the Land.

Nature is and has always been queer. We are still here, we are still queer.

Eana diehtá is a collaboration between three storytellers: poem and oral storytelling by Máret Ásllat Ivvár Ovllá Ritni Ráste, Ritni Ráste Pieski (he/they), auditional storytelling, composition and music by Guhtur-Niillasa Sire Nanna Pessi, Pessi Jouste (they/them) and visual storytelling, filming and editing Wanda Holopainen (they/them). 

This short film was made independently for Sápmi Pride and is dedicated to our community at all times.

More info about the film makers:

Máret Ásllat Ivvár Ovllá Nilla Ritni, Ritni Pieski (he/they) @ritnitearsis a queer Deanu-Sámi performance artist and activist. In art, they are busy with drag, decoloniality, queering up, joy and playfulness. Pieski has been active with queer Sámi issues. He was the main organiser of Sápmi Pride in 2021.

Wanda Holopainen (they/them) @whoisataa is an art activist, documentarian, and storyteller. Their creative journey revolves around narratives, documentation, identity, and the art of communication. Through their artistic endeavors, Wanda endeavors to reshape and challenge our conventional understanding of the world.

Presently, Wanda is deeply engaged in the realm of analogue filming, utilizing this medium to deconstruct the lenses of colonialism and capitalism. This approach serves as a means to unveil new perspectives and insights. Beyond their personal projects, Wanda holds a significant role as the co-founder and creative director of Ataá Agency, a platform dedicated to pushing creative boundaries and fostering meaningful artistic endeavors in the production of content and knowledge

Guhtur-Niillasa Sire Nanna Pessi, Pessi Jouste (they/them) @pessiyoste is a Sámi musician, violinist, composer and activist.They have a special interest in influencing through art, which they explore in particular through their band VIMMA. Jouste also plays regularly in the bands Ulla Pirttijärvi & Ulda and Suõmmkar. They have studied classical music at Tampere Conservatory and rhythm music at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Skádja by Eili Bråstad
(2022, 17 min)
Sápmi/ Norway
Language: Northern Sámi, English subtitles
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Short synopsis: 
A sudden meeting between two women in the forest triggers their longings and doubts. Can they overcome their trauma? Skádja is an exploration of nature, spirituality, passion and movement – a queer tale about finding inner strength.
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Bio: 
Eili Bråstad (she/her) is a visual artist from the arctic part of Norway, currently based in Oslo.  
She works with film/video, photography and live visual performance, and is often combining elements of her Sámi and Kvääni background with more experimental, subcultural aesthetics. From a queer perspective, she explores the connection between time, identity and movement. Starting out as a photographer, Bråstad also has film education, a BA in moving images and a MA in fine art. 

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After the screening it will be a Q&A with Anna Linder, Artistic Director of SAQMI and Levi Karvonen, Advisory Group Imagine Sápmi.

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Imagine Sápmi is possible due to the support of Swedish Arts Council.