Veljko Vidak's Cinéma Laika: Screening and Director Q & A

Speakers

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  Veljko Vidak

  Veljko Vidak is a Croatian artist and Filmmaker. He grew up in the Dalmatian back country, dividing his time between school and work on the family farm.

  Bio
  

  Veljko Vidak

  Veljko Vidak is a Croatian artist and Filmmaker. He grew up in the Dalmatian back country, dividing his time between school and work on the family farm.

  When war broke out in ex-Yugoslavia, he was 17 years old. He managed to enroll in the University of History while preparing his application to the Academy of Fine Arts of Zagreb, where he would be graduated as a painter.

  In 2004, he was awarded a grant that enabled him to go to Paris, at the Cité internationale des arts. Fascinated by the cultural effervescence of this city, which he had only visited in films, he chose to settle there permanently. He assiduously attended the Cinémathèque française and reinforced his cinephile culture.

  In 2009 he moved for a time to Berlin. This saw him turn to video, making pieces on the themes of history and the subconscious. He exhibits regularly in France and his works have traveled the world.

  On returning to Paris, he decided to deepen his knowledge of cinematographic techniques and began a master’s degree in film directing. He then made his first shorts and a medium length film. 

  Cinéma Laika is his first documentary feature.

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  Andrew K. Nestingen

  Andrew K. Nestingen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington. Nestingen’s research is organized around the question: How does textual form figure in the way people construct, imagine, and regulate their social worlds?

  Bio
  

  Andrew K. Nestingen

  Andrew K. Nestingen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington. Nestingen’s research is organized around the question: How does textual form figure in the way people construct, imagine, and regulate their social worlds?

  His most recent book is The Cinema of Aki Kaurismäki: Contrarian Stories (2013), published in the Wallflower imprint of Columbia University Press. His Scandinavian Crime Fiction, co-edited with Paula Arvas, was published by the University of Wales Press in 2011. Other books of his include Crime and Fantasy in Scandinavia: Fiction, Film, and Social Change (2008) published by the University of Washington Press in the New Directions in Scandinavian Studies series, and Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition (2005), co-edited with Trevor Elkington. He has written articles on Aki Kaurismäki, Stieg Larsson, Leena Lehtolainen, Henning Mankell, Finnish cinema, Nordic cinema, and film authorship, among other topics. He is associate editor of the Journal of Scandinavian Cinema and review editor of Scandinavian Studies.