Guests

JASMIN SAVOY BROWN

Jasmin Savoy Brown (b. 1994, Alameda, California, USA) brings some genuine star power to Night Visions in Sound of Violence, Alex Noyer’s highly unique horror thriller featuring her in a groundbreaking starring role.

She is perhaps best known for playing Evie Murphy in the critically-acclaimed HBO’s drama series The Leftovers opposite Justin Theroux and Regina King. Widely accepted as one of the more revolutionary shows in recent memory, The Leftovers became the highest ranked show of the 2010’s according to a study of decade-end lists by Metacritic.

Brown also gained notoriety playing series regular character and historical figure Emilia Bassano on the TNT drama series Will, which tells the story of a young William Shakespeare. She then went on to play Alison Adams in the Shondaland / ABC court drama series For The People alongside Britt Robertson. Her additional credits include Freeform’s Stitchers, Netflix’s Love, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Disney XD’s LEGO Star Wars: All Stars, FOX’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Lane 1974, and Laggies.

In 2022 Brown is to become a member of a familiar hall of fame as one of the stars of the highly anticipated Scream reboot, joining franchise alumni Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. Another upcoming career highlight will be seen in the Showtime series Yellowjackets, in which Brown stars alongside Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci.

Brown is currently working on an indie rock album influenced by the sounds of Olivia Dean, Angie McMahon and Maggie Rogers. She is an advocate for women’s healthcare, normalizing discussions on mental health, uplifting the LGBTQ+ community, and has been vocal about her experience with endometriosis. She continues to speak out about the need for diversity and representation in the media and beyond.

Jasmin Savoy Brown will be presenting Sound of Violence to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Thursday, December 2, at 06.00 PM at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi
Sunday, December 5, at 01.45 (noon) at Cinema Orion

NIKIAS CHRYSSOS

Nikias Chryssos (b. 1978) comes to Helsinki with his highly anticipated second feature A Pure Place, a wonderfully bizarre tale of a Jim Jonesesque cult founded on a dogma of extreme “cleanliness” and set on a secluded island in Greece. After having directed several award-winning short films, Chryssos made his international breakthrough on the feature films front with Der Bunker (2015). The twisted masterpiece earned him comparisons to the likes of David Lynch and John Waters and also grew to be a surprise hit in the Official Selection of Night Visions International Film Festival in Helsinki.

With roots both in Germany and in Greece, Chryssos studied film and video production in the United Kingdom and directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany. In 2012, he founded the production company Kataskop Film, through which he also produced his debut feature Der Bunker. A Pure Place was developed in the Résidence du Festival de Cannes.

Nikias Chryssos will be presenting A Pure Place to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Friday, December 3, at 04.00 PM at Cinema Orion
Saturday, December 4, at 08.45 PM at WHS Teatteri Union

ALEX NOYER

Alex Noyer arrives to Helsinki with Sound of Violence, his first feature as a director and a screenwriter. Bound to shake the system of the Night Visions audience with its highly original and multi-layered horror/thriller premise, Sound of Violence also features some echoes of this year’s Oscar magnet Sound of Metal.

Raised in a Finnish & French art and media family, Paris-born Noyer studied advertising in London. In 2008 he founded You Know Films. He first wrote and produced the short documentary A Conversation with Julian Schnabel, an intimate insight into the mind of the influential artist and filmmaker. His first feature length documentary New York Influence City focuses on the New York art scene and features notorious artists such as Peter Halley, Tony Oursler and Ryan McGinness. The film premiered at Artprojx 2011, part of The Armory show before selling to PBS and Sky Arts.

This lead to the development of 808, the acclaimed documentary on the legendary TR-808 drum machine, featuring the likes of Phil Collins, The Beastie Boys, Pharrell Williams, Diplo, New Order, Fatboy Slim, Questlove and Rick Rubin. Noyer produced and executive produced 808 in association with Atlantic Records. The film became the first music documentary released on Apple Music.

With over 17 years of storytelling experience and a lifelong passion for genre films, Noyer set out to direct innovative thrillers and horror films. Prior to Sound of Violence, he directed the award-winning genre bending short Conductor, which was also a hit in the Official Selection of Night Visions International Film Festival in 2018.

Alex Noyer will be presenting Sound of Violence to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Thursday, December 2, at 06.00 PM at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi
Sunday, December 5, at 01.45 (noon) at Cinema Orion

PHILIPP “VIRUS” REICHENHEIM

Philipp Reichenheim (b. 1971 in West Berlin, West Germany), also known as Philipp Virus, arrives to Night Visions with Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr., an in-depth documentary on its titular icon of US alternative rock.

Reichenheim is a director and visual artist living and working in Berlin. Since 1993 he has directed and produced over 100 music videos and a couple of short films which have gained worldwide attention at numerous music stations and film festivals. For more than a decade he has worked with artists and bands such as Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, Dinosaur Jr., Kim Gordon, The Stooges and Thurston Moore.

As a cameraman he captured claustrophobic pictures of the place where RAF terrorist Meins died for Gerd Conrad’s Starbuck Holger Meins in 2002. Miron Zownir’s documentary about Werner Herzog’s Kaspar Hauser actor Bruno S. – Estrangement is Death was co-produced by his company Virus Films (premiered at the Berlinale-Panorama 2003).

In 2011 Reichenheim`s short film The Animal You Hide got nominated for the Preis für junge Filmkunst given by the Deutsche Filmakademie & Nationalgalerie fuer junge Kunst. In 2012 & 2016 Reichenheim was awarded golden records for directing music videos. In 2015 Jim Jarmusch included arhive material by Reichenheim in his Iggy & The Stooges documentary Gimme Danger.

Reichenheim is currently working on his debut feature, a thriller called Schatten / Shadows and a documentary on Berlin ‘s Digital Hardcore Pioneers Atari Teenage Riot.

Philipp “Virus” Reichenheim will be presenting Freakscene: The Sotry of Dinosaur Jr. to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Thursday, December 2, at 06.00 PM at Cinema Orion
Saturday, December 4, at 04.45 PM at WHS Teatteri Union

JEAN-MICHEL ROUX

Jean-Michel Roux (b. 1964, Nancy, France) arrives to Helsinki to present his nearly-forgotten first feature The Thousand Wonders of the Universe (Les mille merveilles de l’univers, 1997). This sci-fi dystopia with a stellar cast was an anomaly in the ranks of the French film industry at the time of its release, drawing comparisons to the works of Enki Bilal and Philip K. Dick.

Having directed his first short film, a fantasy story Wild District (Quartier Sauvage) at the age of 19, Roux also drew inspiration from the works of Philip K. Dick in his subsequent shorts The Voice of the Desert (La Voix du Désert, 1987) and Too Near the Gods (Trop pres des Dieux, 1992). After the release of The Thousand Wonders of the Universe he was doing location scouting in Iceland for his next sci-fi feature, which is when he became fascinated with the Icelandic beliefs on supernatural and the otherworldly and turned this into a feature length documentary Investigation into the Invisible World (Enquête sur le monde invisible, 2002). His second documentary shot in Iceland, The Mysteries of Snæfellsjökull (Les Mystères du Snæfellsjökull, 2009), focuses on the mythology surrounding the titular volcano. His latest feature length documentary An Angel of the North, an exploration on Hugo Simberg’s painting The Wounded Angel, was released in 2017.

Jean-Michel Roux will be presenting The Thousand Wonders of the Universe to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Friday, December 3, at 11.00 PM at WHS Teatteri Union
Sunday, December 5, at 12.00 (noon) at WHS Teatteri Union

LAURA UGOLINI

Laura Ugolini comes to Helsinki to present Dystopia, a satirical and edgy horror short with four kick-ass female protagonists. In addition to having directed short films, Ugolini has worked as an assistant director on several genre-related feature productions in Italy and in Norway. She worked as one of the assistant directors on the anthology The Profane Exhibit (2013), with genre icons such as Ruggero Deodato, Jose Mojica Marins, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Sergio Stivaletti among its directors. On the Norwegian genre film front, she has worked in the capacity of an assistant director in Tommy Wirkola’s Netflix hit The Trip (2021) and André Øvredal’s Mortal (2020).

Laura Ugolini will be presenting Dystopia to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings (screening alongside the feature Mother Schmuckers):

Wednesday, December 1, at 09.00 PM at WHS Teatteri Union
Saturday, December 4, at 11.15 PM at WHS Teatteri Union

JOHAN VON SYDOW

Johan von Sydow (b. 1961) arrives to Helsinki with his latest directorial effort Tiny Tim: King for a Day, a highly impressive and cinematic documentary on the incredible life story of its titular character, a struggling musician who became a counterculture icon, praised by the likes of Bob Dylan and John Lennon in the US of the 60s. One of the Sweden’s leading TV critics described von Sydow’s two first documentaries, Mare Kandre (2009) and The Jussi Björling Saga (2011), as “the two best Swedish cultural docs in the 2000s”. According to another local critic, his film Ratata through the 80s (2013) was “a benchmark for future Swedish documentaries on pop music”. The Jussi Björling Saga also received a nomination in the Documentary of the Year category in the Swedish TV awards Kristallen.

Von Sydow has studied photography, journalism, acting, russian, and is also sometimes struggling as an amateur stand-up comedian. In addition to directing, von Sydow works these days as a staff producer at the arts and culture department of Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT.

Johan von Sydow will be presenting Tiny Tim: King for a Day to the Night Visions audience at its both festival screenings:

Wednesday, December 1, at 05.00 PM at WHS Teatteri Union
Saturday, December 4, at 06.45 PM at WHS Teatteri Union