The short film The Stone Putter is a cinematic portrait of a serious and physically strong middle-aged woman, deeply focused on throwing stones in a desert-like landscape. How did she get here? What do the stones symbolize – as alien in the landscape as the woman herself in her black dress? Here you can sense a story about both sadness, integrity and stubbornness, about intersecting paths and about continuing forward without bowing to others. Both the stones and the woman are filmed from a variety of angles, giving the viewer an opportunity to experience the event from different perspectives, and for a moment possibly drop the anthropocentric gaze.
Trailer
Swedish title: Den sista mannen
RETARDATION is the second short film in the Male Nature Studies series.
”The Great Acceleration” gained momentum in the 1950s with the Western man at the wheel. The growth curves turned sharply upwards and so did, and still do, the human impact on the biosphere. But what if this man begins to see himself as a small part of nature instead of striving to "conquer" it? What if he abandons the pursuit of status and the ever-expanding claims to power? What if he slows down and throws his paralyzing yoke? Is he still a Man then?
In RETARDATION, Nils Agdler visualizes ideas of another future man – the resigned man, the regressed man, the liberated man, and possibly – the last man.
Trailer
Swedish title: Den nya mannen
REBIRTH is the first short film in the Male Nature Studies series.
The conception of "The New Man" emerged in the 1970s, and has since then reappeared from time to time, with varying ideals about how he should look, feel and act. There are often major inherent conflicts within the same ideal, which can cause great confusion for the man at the individual level.
In REBIRTH, Nils Agdler visualizes ideas of a coming new man, the unprotected and vulnerable man, the new-born man and the man as nature.
Brothers to Sisters: Välimiehet performing “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves”. A short film by Nils Agdler & Timo Menke.
Brothers to Sisters is an ongoing series of choir works, initially produced in collaboration with the Porin Mies-Laulu male choirs in Pori, Finland. A male choir version of Annie Lennox’s and D. A. Stewart’s Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves (1985) is performed by the Välimiehet choir: the younger male generation reflects changes in gender roles and masculinity, insofar as the paragon of masculinity has been the role of the man as the family’s breadwinner.
Brothers to Sisters
Short film by Nils Agdler & Fröydi Laszlo.
A man sets off for a mountain expedition in search for a special stone, the Heartstone. It has been asleep in the river for thousands of years. Like a defibrillator he slowly awakens the stone by the movement of his footsteps. When the man finds his beloved Heartstone, he first caresses it with a gentle hand and then ties it up, dragging it through water, moss and mud. Through an inner voice, the Heartstone tries to communicate it’s ambivalent feelings of being treated this way.
Trailer
Short film by Nils Agdler & Timo Menke.
Donations are often regarded as selfless good deeds, and are expected to be voluntary, free and anonymous, though they may raise sensitive ethical questions. Made in Denmark focuses on the commercial distribution of sperm in Denmark, from the perspective of anonymous donors. Danish legislation (unlike that of most European countries) allows for anonymous sperm donations, leading to increasing fertility tourism from other European countries. Sperm banks operate in a complex grey area on several levels, marketing human sperm as a processed product. Special attention has been given to issues relating to masculinity and fatherhood, and how masculinity is manifested at the sperm banks and clinics. The film is based on personal interviews conducted with anonymous sperm donors and clinic managers in Copenhagen, Odense and Aarhus in Denmark.
Made in Denmark
Swedish title: Flykten från fälten
Short film by Nils Agdler & Timo Menke.
Electricity is a natural but invisible component in modern life. The new and controversial phenomena electro-hypersensitivity, concerning oversensitivity against electro- magnetic fields from mobile telephony, power lines etc., drastically throw light upon our dependence on electricity. What would happen in our society if more and more people would become oversensitive? What would a society without electricity look like? The footage was mainly filmed with a spring-driven 16 mm camera, but we also used a digital video camera, some historical footage, and stills. The sound was recorded on an old tape recorder in order to minimize the electromagnetic stress during the interviews.
Fugitives from the fields
