Fistpress : An Intimate Friend 

2012, animated lecture, still images, live narration, stereo sound

30'00

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Fistpress : An Intimate Friend is a bittersweet coming of age tale, a folk history, a memory of migration and a documentary of the early Finnish presence in Northern Ontario. Both personal and archival, this presentation recounts tales of migrant labour, radicalism, diasporic matchmaking and funeral processions. Fist Press (Nyrkki Lehti) is the name of Finnish handwritten newsletters in North America that were said to serve new immigrants as “guides, interpreters, teachers and intimate friends”.

 

Sound by Drew Barnet