Finnish conceptual artist Mox Mäkelä premiered her experimental film From Behind The Teeth at IFFR. For this occasion, I got the chance to interview her about her film and ways of working. 

In From Behind The Teeth, Mäkelä and scientist Mikael Fortelius play a game of chess using teeth as board pieces. The audience watches this scene from behind two rows of teeth as they play the game and have an associative conversation. Supplemented with digital collages, archive images and music, From Behind The Teeth challenges the viewer to reflect on what film is and to take part in the stream of thoughts.

Although there seems to be a lot of resemblance with 1920’s surrealism and dadaism, as Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray play an alienating game of chess in René Clairs film Entr’acte, Mäkelä does not want to link herself to specific genres. As she says in the interview, genres place her in boxes and take away her artistic freedom. ‘It’s more important for the people who are studying my film, but I don’t see the need for that. Though, I find it very interesting to see which names, genres or makers are going to be attached to my work.’

Mäkelä’s films are very experimental and perhaps more challenging than commercial films. Nevertheless, her films are being received with a lot of praise from people in the industry as well as the audience. As Mäkelä says herself; ‘It’s both a blessing and a sadness to be considered as an outcast in the film industry. There’s no guarantee that my films will be a success, which is difficult sometimes. But when they do have success, my films can be very impactful and this keeps the dignity in my work as well.’ Her ideology in making films is ‘Doing it on my own terms.’ And this shows. Mäkelä’s work is highly original and with From Behind The Teeth she proves this once again.

Often Mäkelä works with a lot of her own archive material, which can also be seen in From Behind The Teeth. This is a major source of inspiration for her unique ideas. She layers it and works from experimenting with these archive materials. ‘For me it is like going on a quest or adventure to search between all of my material and find pieces to cooperate in my film.’

Being together with the blank canvas is also a way for Mäkelä to seek inspiration. There are no set rules for anything in her movies. Mäkelä works piece by piece and the decisions she makes come from listening. She often looks for the musical note of the image, before contracting the image itself. The rhythm of a film is therefore one of the most important elements to her. Mäkelä starts from a soundtrack, for which she uses voice actors, and builds the image from that soundtrack.

For example, From Behind The Teeth had no script. She built the image around the improvised, deep conversations she had with Fortelius.

The conversation I had with Mäkelä also touched upon some philosophical questions, which was not very surprising considering the philosophical nature of From Behind The Teeth.

To Mäkelä, there’s a comfort in the span of the world existing in regard to the span of human life. ‘We are just a little speckle on that timeline. If you think about that, we will also fall out of the timeline and the world will restore itself again. There’s joy in existence, keeping the world’s sadness at bay. You have to remind yourself to not feel paralysed in front of the state of the world. It gives you more reason to enjoy and to fight for what you believe in the way that you live your life artistically. If there’s darkness, you will understand the importance of light.’

Mäkelä wishes with From Behind The Teeth to ‘open up a creative world in others.’ I think her film will most certainly provoke that, and I’m looking forward to her next projects.

Written by Fé Baan