Looking back with Juha Mäkinen
Juha might seem unassuming but he is a true EB legend, with over 10 years of cabins, cults and cabarets under his belt. Join me as we namedrop the big hitters that got their start in kinos and reminisce about the wildest shoots along the ride.
I sat down with Juha in a Kalasatama bar on an early summer afternoon and it didn't take long before memories started flooding in. The first recollections date to around 2013 when Kino was temporarily organized in Espoo by the now award winning producer Emilia Haukka (Mummola, Neiti Aika, Fucking with Nobody). Juha started out shy but gathered the courage to act in a short and had great experiences right from the start. He was asked to edit for another project and was soon approached by filmmakers from all directions with material to cut. Before long he was urged to pitch his own ideas.
One of his first pitches was realized alongside Eeva Putro (Tove, Tuntematon Sotilas). The film was a spoof of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver ( 1976). Juha got the idea in a struck of lightning- manner when he was assisting in test shooting on another project and riding a cargo bike with DP riding on bike's cargo box. In the film, Juha plays disturbed man, obsessed about Scorsese film, imagining cargo bike to be his NYC taxi and kidnapping people to be his passengers.
The positive experiences are too many to keep track of, but Malmi Vice stands out as a special movie. Long story short: In the end of the film, there was logistically big sequence, shot at- now closed- Malmi airport, where Malmi Vice police team ambushes and arrests dangerous drug lord who lands with his plane to the airport runway. The sequence involved a hired pilot who flew ten lapses(including landings and take offs) for the project and almost got our ambitious director sued for trespassing mid-shoot. The whole film was just barely possible thanks to meticulous planning and still stands in a league of its own in term of insane pitches brought to life in a kino.
If Juha had anything to whisper to his former self in those first years of cabarets it would be "Go for it, man! Anna palaa! Don't think about it too much."
Kinos are fun, yes, but for Juha they have been a life saver. “I feel indebted to them, they have given me so much confidence”, he confesses. Borrowing the words of Hannaleena Hauru (Fucking with Nobody, Parvet) “Kino is the best film school” You get to make films at your own pace and try whatever you feel like. There's no failing at Kino.
For some people kino is merely a launching pad to the film industry but to Juha there's nothing like it "I just keep coming back every year, it's the highlight of the summer".
As Richard Marx blares out from the speakers “I will be right there waiting for you"
I close the interview in a somber mood. So many memories have been created and so many are still ahead.
