MOVING PEOPLE AND IMAGES RESIDENCY

Finnish Film Affair is delighted to continue its residency programme, organised and developed with the Academy of Moving People and Images (AMPI). As part of the programme, FFA is providing an industry residency scheme for a promising filmmaker from AMPI alumni. This unique residency opportunity offers the participant a chance to develop industry-related skills as well as to showcase their talent during Finnish Film Affair.

The recipient of this year’s industry residency is Samuel Boateng. The selection committee consisted of AMPI advisory board members Panos Balomenos and Hamy Ramezan and Head of FFA and Nordic Flair Maria Pirkkalainen-Barber, with Founder and Artistic Director of AMPI Erol Mintaş as an observer.

The Academy of Moving People and Images is a platform founded in Helsinki by filmmaker Erol Mintaş for mobile/moving people—those who have arrived in Finland for different reasons; be they displaced people, forced immigrants, students, asylum seekers, employees, or those who immigrated for love. The Academy provides wider professional support and access to resources and the community, encouraging participants to learn through practice. Currently, the Academy offers AMPI+ Workshops, designed to provide advanced training for Academy of Moving People and Images (AMPI) alums and other filmmakers from diverse backgrounds with prior filmmaking experience. The participants are selected or invited from AMPI alums, and new AMPI+ calls are made specifically for this purpose. All of the AMPI+ intensive workshops are hands-on, tailored according to participants’ wishes and needs, and facilitated by expert tutors and industry professionals.

Photo credit: Studiopeee

Finnish Film Affair’s 2023 AMPI Filmmaker in Residence: Samuel Boateng

FILMMAKER IN RESIDENCE: SAMUEL BOATENG

Samuel Boateng (b. 1994) is a cinematographer-director of filmmaking/docufilmmaking, born and raised in Italy by Ghanaian parents. After moving to Finland in 2016, Boateng centred his work on telling stories that ‘are not talked about enough and deserved to be told’ – therefore changing mainstream narratives through storytelling.

During 2020, he focused on short films and music videos, collaborating with other videographers and filmmakers, and since the beginning of 2021, he has worked with different dancers, building and performing theatrical shows. He has created collaborations with different theatres, such as Aleksanterinteatteri, STOA, and Musiiikkitalo, amongst others. 

He graduated from the Academy of Moving People and Images (AMPI) in November 2022, having his first short film The Road Not Taken projected at Helsinki’s Bio Rex Lasipalatsi Theatre.