Film Director & Media Artist
In my narrative films, I examine communities, norms, and the stigmas they produce—focusing on those for whom these expectations become too narrow. My media art approaches the same theme from the inside out: using games and play as methods to study how individuals act within a community and build it together. These two practices are complementary—narrative cinema and participatory media art are two different ways of asking the same fundamental question.
About the Practice I work at the intersection of narrative cinema and contemporary art, creating dialogue between lived experience, cultural structures, and the fragile ways we sustain relationships.
My cinematic work explores emotionally charged experiences—friendship ruptures, paranoia, and identity—through genres ranging from comedy to horror, often with an absurd or darkly playful tone. Currently, I am developing several feature-length screenplays that expand these themes into broader narratives of power dynamics and human adaptation in unstable environments.
Alongside cinema, my media art practice examines games and play as metaphors for adult life. My current work in progress, Switch Place – Adjidji Ya, explores the diaspora experiences of Beninese people living in Finland, using play traditions as a lens to study identity, memory, and belonging. Looking forward, I am developing a new research project based in Japan, where I plan to continue this inquiry into cultural play traditions and their social resonances.
Latest
- February 2026: My latest feature film project, Camouflage (Suojavärit), was selected for the Kehittämö program shortlist (Finnish Cultural Foundation & AVEK).
- Late 2025: Completion of “I Remember You“, a collaborative short film created together with a group of young people. The project focuses on collective storytelling and shared lived experiences.
- Work in Progress: Switch Place – Adjidji Ya, artistic research on Beninese diaspora experiences in Finland.
Showreel
Narrative showreel (2011-2018). Edited by Saara Välimäki
Narrative showreel (2011-2018). Edited by Saara Välimäki
MARJO VIITALA 