News and media
R&A Shorts
August 26th 2021
A Burning Voice has been selected to compete in the R&A Shorts at the Helsinki International Film Festival Love & Anarchy!
The pre-selection jury has chosen 34 entries to the National Competition of Cut to the Chase – R&A Shorts programme of Love & Anarchy from the 155 short films submitted. The films will be shown Sept 22-25 and the winner will be announced on Sept 25th.
R&A Shorts-info
Finnish and European premiere
August 25th 2021
A Burning Voice will have its European and Finnish premiere at the ACCAC Culture 2.0 Festival on Aug 25th at 7 p.m. local time (EEST; UTC+03:00).
The festival will be online August 25-28th 2021. The programme includes music and dance performances, movies, art exhibition, Special eSports tournament and seminars.
The organiser ACCAC (Accessible Arts and Culture) association was founded in Tampere, Finland in 2011. The goal of the ACCAC is to improve accessibility in the culture and events field, to promote equal participation in cultural events for all people and to raise awareness, inclusion and diversity.
ACCAC Finland is the founding member of the global ACCAC network. In 2021 the network covers 13 countries around the globe.
A long journey
August 4th 2021
"It took almost 10 years to finish a film about acid violence"
The Finnish newspapers Karjalainen and Savon Sanomat published an article about the journey of A Burning Voice.
The choreographer Anna Venäläinen and director Pirjo Ojala were interviewed by Kimmo Nevalainen.
Little news
July 16th 2021
"A Finnish documentary about acid violence will be seen in the US"
Our world premiere was noticed at the Finnish newspapers Savon Sanomat and Sanomalehti Karjalainen.
Text Miia Hartikainen.
World Premiere
June 19th 2021
We are happy to announce that the documentary film A Burning Voice will have its world premiere at LA Shorts International Film Festival (USA) on July 17th 2021.
LA Shorts International Film Festival ranks among the most prestigious and largest short film festivals in the world. The festival is accredited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Celebrating 25 years, LA Shorts is the longest-running short film festival in Los Angeles.
The festival will be only online this year (on demand) and it will run July 1-31.
A Burning Voice finished
March 3rd 2021
We are happy to announce that the documentary film A Burning Voice is now finished.
Considering the circumstances it might still take a long time until we have a premiere but we work on it and hopefully we’ll be able to gather together at some point.
Meanwhile, let’s do our best to keep ourselves and the people (and other animals) around us healthy and safe.
A Burning Voice
October 20th 2019
As previously stated, we were going to shoot part of our American protagonist Karli’s story in Kuopio, Finland last August. Unfortunately she had to cancel. And as some of the crucial funding turned out negative, we have made the decision to carry on making the film Burning Voices with only one protagonist, instead of three. Though this decision was a difficult and heartbreaking one to make, after almost ten years of turning every possible stone to find the resources to make this film, we were at the point where the decision just had to be made.
The film will focus on Deus’, our Ugandan protagonist’s, story, and thus the name will probably be changed to ”A Burning Voice”. The film will be, of course, slightly different from what we originally had in mind, but nevertheless, it will be artistic, independent and made with care.
We wish to thank Mehwish, Karli and Acid Survivors Foundation Pakistan for their patience and collaboration these past years and wish them all the best for the future. And, we also wish to thank you for your patience and support!
Grants and plans for filming
June 3rd 2019
Thanks to the Arts Promotion Centre Finland/North Savo Regional Fund and Regional Dance Foundation of Eastern Finland, we are able to carry on shooting Burning Voices.
The plan is to shoot one of the blackbox studio parts with our protagonist from the US, Karli Butler, in Kuopio, Finland in August 2019.
Indiegogo campaign closed
February 1st 2019
The Burning Voices Indiegogo campaign is closed now. Our project is still going on - we still have two countries to travel
to and the editing phase ahead of us.
Right now we are focusing on getting the sufficient funds to finish the film.
We will send campaign updates to keep the supporters informed. Thank you for the support! <3
Five teasers - Deus
January 16th 2019
We have published five teasers from Uganda now and here are all of them in one clip: A Dark Place, On Writing, A Ghost, On Acceptance & A Wish. Subtitles in English and Finnish available, just click ”CC” to choose.
Filming in Uganda
August 28th 2018
The first leg of the three done! The Burning Voices team has just finished filming with one
of the main characters, Deus Twesigye. Busy and amazing three+ weeks in Uganda - and
really nice footage which to edit now.
Karli's TEDx talk
May 30th 2018
One of the Burning Voices protagonists, Karli Butler, gave her first TEDx talk, titled
Reimagining Forgiveness, on May 1st and the video is now available online!
Visa problem and a new plan
March 4th 2018
The Burning Voices team’s visas to Pakistan have been denied. Not giving up on Pakistan
yet but the order of the countries will be changed. The current plan is to travel first to
Uganda and the United States.
A grant to the Burning Voices team
February 14th 2018
The Finnish Cultural Foundation has awarded a grant to the Burning Voices team. The grant will cover a part of the artistic work and travel costs to Uganda and USA.
Four months and counting
November 18th 2017
Still waiting for the take off - the newspaper Savon Sanomat interviewed us about our visa wait.
Text Vuokko Viljakka, pic Olli Herranen.
A new video
November 15th 2017
Here is the video from the camera/movement workshop the Burning Voices crew had at Sotku theatre, Kuopio, Finland in August 2017. Thank you for the support ITAK , the Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland!
Dance: Anna Venäläinen
Cinematography and editing: Antti Savolainen
Assistant editor: Tero Peltoniemi
Music: Amongst Others by Rooibos - Doppelgänger from artlist.io
A tale of Survivors
September 29th 2017
Anna Venäläinen talks about her role as a choreographer in Burning Voices.
Newspaper Karjalainen. Text Kimmo Nevalainen, pic Jouni Turunen.
A friend of subtle sounds
September 20th 2017
Anu Sorsa talks about the work of a sound designer and the upcoming journey to Pakistan, and Pirjo Ojala tells about Burning Voices in the Savon Sanomat newspaper.
Text Vuokko Viljakka, pic Marko Happo.
A new video
August 3rd 2017
Since the crowdfunding campaign ended almost two months ago, we’ve been recharging our batteries, mailing the perks we can at this point, working in various projects and of course planning the Burning Voices film and the journey to Pakistan, where we hope to travel in October.
Our crew had a two-day meeting in Leppävirta, Finland in June, filling in visa applications and making some camera-movement tests.
Looking forward to a busy, inspiring autumn. Thank you for making it possible.
The crowdfunding campaign InDemand
June 5th 2017
Our Indiegogo campaign was successfully funded on June 4, 2017. Thank you for the support! We have now started planning the first filming period which takes place in Pakistan.
The campaign is InDemand now, which means you can still support the making of this film! The new funds raised go towards the production costs in Pakistan (until autumn 2017), Uganda and USA and the post-production costs (editing/graphic design/music).
Thunderclap
May 11th 2017
Please support our Thunderclap campaign so we can get a social media boost on May 25th!
Directed by Women
April 18th 2017
Pirjo Ojala and Anna Venäläinen: Identity and humanity. An interview by Barbara Ann O'Leary.
April 4th 2017
We have done the research and development, now it's time to get into production. Please support our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign!
Thank you!
Burning Voices in Finnish media
Kansan Tahto Newspaper 18.9.2015
Burning Voices – Finnish filmmaker making a documentary about acid attack victims.
Written by Anna Raudaskoski.
Savon Sanomat Newspaper 30.3.2013
Someone else in the mirror – Documentary: The victims of acid attack tell about how their identity has changed in Pirjo Ojala’s movie.
Written by Veera Jääskeläinen.
Lehtiset Magazine 2/2013
Berlinale Talent Campus – Intensive course preparing filmmakers to go out to the world.
Written by Metsämarja Aittokoski.
YLE TV-news 12.2.2013
Berlinale Talent Campus.