Editor

A large and varied group of documentary film makers around the world gathers in Helsinki when the 11th DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival kicks off today at 24th January.

The main guest of the festival is the Israeli director Eyal Sivan, who has been dealing critically with the political situations in the Middle East and Europe. Also Aliona van der Horst, the director of the shaking Water Children, and the protagonist of the film, an artist Tomoko Mukaiyama, who has been making art out of menstrual blood, visit the festival - as well as Vikram Gandhi, the director of the bubbling documentary about a fake guru, Kumaré.

DocPoint also proudly presents a retrospective of photographer, film maker Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. Finnish- born Konttinen is a founder member of Amber Film & Photography Collective, which has been documenting working class and marginalized communities in the North East of England since the late 1960s. Recently inscribed in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register, the narrative of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's photography and Amber's films were recognized as being of 'outstanding national value and importance to the United Kingdom.

The silent film concert of the year is Rien que les heures (1926) by Alberto Cavalcanti. The film moves through Paris from dusk till dawn and its original modernist music has been re-arranged by Maud Nelissen from Holland. Nelissen arrives at the festival to perform the music with the violinist Lucio Degani and the cellist Francesco Ferrarini from Italy.

As an answer to the requests from the audience, DocPoint has included an extra film in its programme. Anu Kuivalainen's award winning Aranda (2011) follows the journey and everyday life of the marine research vessel at the Baltic Sea. The film is screened on Sunday 29th Jan at 6 pm at Kinopalatsi.

The 11th DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival takes place at the cinemas of Helsinki city centre on 24th - 29th Jan 2012. The ticket sales has started at DocPoint e-commerce, at Bio Rex ticket pre-sales offices and at Finnkino.