Last yoik in Saami forests?

The heavy cuttings in forests of Finnish Lapland, even in indigenous Saami peoples home area have continued last fifty years. The traditional, freely grazing reindeer herding, dependent of the old growth forests, has been loosing its resources but not any complaint or protests has managed to strop the process.

In spring 2005 Saami reindeer herders made an alliance with environmenta organisations. The international pressure mobilized by Greenpeace made multinational Finnish forest company Stora Enso to stop buying the wood from conflict areas. And so Finnish state owned company Mets?hallitus has stop the cuttings.

The situation gets even more dramatic when loggers party builds up their own camp, “Antiterror infocamp” nearby Greenpeace forest station. People from that camp start constant threatening and noisy disturbing. Kalevi Paadar, a saami reindeer herder from village of Nellim, makes with his brothers a complaint to UN Human rights commission.

Schedule

Director: Hannu Hyvönen

Hannu Hyvönen is a 53 year old environmentalist, campaigner, journalist and documentarian. His pacifist radio play Ohi on was broadcast in 1985 on Yle in Finland. He has also produced a radio documentary following indigenous peoples youth conference in Saamiland 1996.

Since 1998 he has been member of viedeocooperative Signs of Life which is making environmentally orientated documentaries and educational videos. He has directed a documentary Organics for forests (2000) and is working with many ongoing documentary projects.

The first version of documentary 'Last yoik in Saami forests' was presented in 2006. The distribution version is updated in December 2007.

Finland
2007
58 Min.
Finnish
9
Director: Hannu Hyvönen
Script: Hannu Hyvönen, Pauliina Feodoroff
Cinematography: Maarten van Rouveay, Rikhard Saukko, Hannu Hyvönen, Ossi Kakko, Greenpeace campers
Editing: Rikhard Saukko, Hannu Hyvönen, Ossi Kakko
Music: Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Ulla Pirttijärvi, Wimme Saari, Niilas Somby
Narrator: Rita Thomasen
Editor: Hannu Hyvönen
Website URL: www.elonmerkki.net/en