SQUASHMEN (Work in Progress)
Experimental screenwriting / long-form fiction film
This research and creation project has been made possible with generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts. Expected to move into production in 2024-2025.
TRAPP (2023)
Light/ film/ sound expanded cinema installation adapted to space| 35mm/ digital light | stereo
This work examines the impact of historic German film actor Ruth Leuwerik upon ideals of Western femininity. Leuwerik starred as Maria Von Trapp in the 1956 film Die Trapp-Familie (The Trapp Family), a precursor to the popular Hollywood version The Sound of Music. Working with remnants of this 35 mm film sourced from the Berlin archives in this time-based light and sound installation, the power of Leuwerik’s mediated identity is being dismantled and reconstructed. Through this transfeminist and counter-archival act, Ruth gets released from her celluloid construction, giving her dimension and boundless possibility.
This work has been developed in the S.P.A.C.E Residency with LaborBerlin in Berlin, Germany and supported by SK Arts.
EXHIBITIONS
2025 TRAPP – 38. Stuttgarter Filmwinter – Festival for Expanded Media, GER
2024 TRAPP – C’Cap (Winnipeg Underground Film Festival), Winnipeg, CAN
2023 TRAPP – the spacious body and its archival frame, Dunlop Art Gallery – Sherwood, Regina, CAN
CARCASS (2022)
Multi-screen projection adapted to space | stereo | 16mm to digital | loop
Transfuturistic expanded cinema piece about posthistoric times on this planet and the survival of a queer variant. Filmed on 16mm film and turned into a digital multi-projection work with sound and tactile objects.
EXHIBITIONS
2022 CARCASS – The Posthistoric Queer, Neutral Ground Artist Run Centre, Regina, CAN
NIPPLE SERIES (2022)
- Milki Way – digital video | light&sand | 16:9 | colour | stereo | loop
- Niptune – digital video | 3x projection mapping on a ball | colour | live sound performance
A series of Time-based media installations exploring the experience of going through gender affirmation surgery and getting to know the new surface of the reconstructed nipple.
EXHIBITIONS
2022 Niptune, projection art performance, Nuit Blanche Regina, CAN
2022 Milki Way, time based installation, Gallery Fikka, Porvoo Art Factory, Porvoo, FIN
MAN MADE (2022)
16mm to digital | 16:9 | colour | stereo | 8:08 | Canada
MAN MADE, a repurposed narrative of a boy who gets introduced to the wonders of life by a beautiful shining trumpet. But the struggle to be oneself has only begun. Utilizing found 16mm footage and both digital and analog manipulation techniques, Mikkola pierces conventional masculinity with a transformative queer gaze.
SCREENINGS
2023 ANALOGICA, Bolzano, ITA
2023 Festival Silhouette, Paris, FRA
2023 Quebec City Film Festival, Quebec City, CAN
2023 Qaleidoscope Queer Film and Performance on Tour, Queer City Cinema, Several locations, CAN
2023 Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, Scotland, UK 2023 With the Other curated by Tytti Rantanen, R&A Spring Break festival, Helsinki, FIN
2022 Queer City Cinema Film Festival, Regina, CAN
2022 Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Winnipeg, CAN
Currently in distribution by
VIA KARELIA (2021)
16mm + SD | 16:9 | colour | stereo | 12:35 | Finland / Canada
Experimental Documentary about Karelian Isthmus, intergenerational trauma and bloodlines.
Created with the help of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
SCREENINGS
2023 Finnish Art 2: AV-Arkki Now, Minimalen, Trondheim, NO
2022 Lost – Search, Cultura Week, Helsinki, FIN 2022 Peripheries Experimental Film and Video Festival, Boston, US
2022 Internationales Frauen* Film Fest, Köln, GER
2022 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Oberhausen, GER
2022 Tranås at the Fringe, Tranås, SWE
2022 West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival, Morgantown, US
2021 Domestic Documents: Spaces of Care & Crisis curated by Lena Chen, Pleasure Dome, online, CAN
2021 Moving Homeward curated by Sylvia Nowak and Ana Luisa Bernardez, Pleasure Dome, online, CAN
2021 Helsinki International Film Festival, Helsinki, FIN
2021 Winner of Best Short Film, Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards, Regina, CAN
2021 Mimesis Documentary Festival, Boulder, US
2022 ISHTMUS, 16mm film installation, Gallery Fikka, Porvoo Art Factory, Porvoo, FIN
Currently in distribution by
MASCING (2020)
sd to digital | 4:3 | colour | stereo | 10:07 | Canada
Partially improvised video performance. The filmmaker sets their trans masculinity into a dialog with an old VHS tape.
SCREENINGS
2023 Trans Fest Stockholm, Stockholm, SWE
2020 Interface Video Art Festival, Rijeka, HRV
Currently in distribution by Video Out Distribution
ARIES (2020)
16mm, colour, silent, Canada, 3′ 20
Experimental documentary about the circulation of time.
SCREENINGS
2024 dresdner schmalfilmtage, Dresden, GER
2023 PRISME #6, Nantes, FRA
2022 OBSKURA, Rennes, FRA
2021 WNDX Festival of Moving Image, Winnipeg, CAN
2021 The 16mm Film Festival Harkat, Mumbai, IN
2021 Saskatchewan Filmpool Membership Screening, Regina, SK, CAN
2021 Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, Montréal, CAN
2021 Future of Film Showcase, Canadian Public Broadcasting Company – CBC Gem, online, CAN
2021 Mediabox Gallery, Helsinki, FIN
2021 Peripheries Experimental Film and Video Festival, Boston, US
2021 Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong
Currently in distibution by
MAGDALEENA ( 2019 )
digital / 16mm, colour, sound, Canada / Finland, 14’ 21
Experimental fiction about gaze, hierarchy and trauma.
Created with the help of the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperation and the University of Regina.
SCREENINGS
2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, NL
2020 Helsinki International Film Festival, Helsinki, FIN
2019 Winner of Technical Achievement, Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards, Regina, CAN
WAVES ( 2017 )
digital, colour, sound, Canada / Jamaica, 7’ 00
Experimental collaboration between Lee Campbell, Tytti Arola and Elian Mikkola.
Created with the help of the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperation.
SCREENINGS
2020 Screening Under the Steeple, Cathedral Village Arts Festival, Regina, SK, CAN
2019 All Nuit Long Videodance curated by Kim-Sanh Châu and Guillaume Vallée, Montréal en Lumière, QC, CAN
2018 Winner of Best Student Film, Living Skies Student Film Festival, Regina, CAN
2018 Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival, Morgantown, US
2018 AE Film Festival, Minnesota, US
2018 Flamingo Film Festival, South Florida, US
2018 Horizontal Variances curated by Colton Bates & Amber Christensen, Saskatchewan Filmpool Coop, Regina, SK, CAN
2017 Pile of Bones Underground Film Festival, Regina, CAN
SAARI ( 2016 )
digital / sd, colour, sound, Canada / Finland, 6′ 00
Experimental short documentary about loss and longing.
Created with the help of the University of Regina.
SCREENINGS
2019 Memory in Place of Survival: Recent short docs from Saskatchewan curated by Alex Rogalski, Gimme Some Truth Documentary Film Festival, Winnipeg, MB, CAN
2018 Accents of Air and Earth curated by Mike Rollo, VISIONS, Montréal, QC, CAN
2017 TIFF: Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, student program, Toronto, CAN
2017 WNDX Festival of Moving Image, Winnipeg, CAN
2016 Living Skies Student Film Festival, Regina, CAN
2016 Winner of Best Sound Design/Best Overall, Flamingo Film Festival, South Florida, US
2016 Winner of Creative Vision Award, AE Film Festival, Minnesota, US
2016 Winner of Best Student Film / Technical Achievement, Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards, Regina, CAN
2016 Montreal Underground Film Festival, Montréal, CAN
2016 Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, student program, Montréal, CAN
Elian Mikkola 