In Persona: Ülo Pikkov (Tallinn)

“I have found myself asking: How could film be art, since all the major arts arise in some way out of religion? Now I can answer: Because movies arise out of magic.” – Stanley Cavell (1979) Vorwort Animasophy 2010This quote from philosopher Stanley Cavell was chosen by the Estonian Ülo Pikkov as preface for his theoretical work “Animasophy” (2010). And so, when Ülo Pikkov completed a questionnaire from a film festival and one question asked about his favourite word, he simply wrote: “magic”. In his films, he is searching for this magic.Born in 1976 in Tallinn, Pikkov studied animation at the Turku School of Art and Media in Finland, at the Institute of Law, University of Tartu, with a focus on Media and Copyright, and is currently working on his doctorate at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Since 1996, he has directed many award-winning animated films, and in 2006 he founded his production company Silmviburlane for animated and documentary films. He is particularly fascinated by this combination of reality and fiction, and his films always also include real stories and moments. When researching for the stop-motion film “Empty Space”, for example, Ülo Pikkov interviewed a woman who had believed her father to be dead because he had had to hide for years in the 1950s from the Soviet terror. Ülo Pikkov’s film shows a puppet version of their former house built by the father with his daughter inside: the film is the embodiment of his dream of a normal life. Besides making films, Ülo Pikkov writes stories for children and adults, articles about film, and his work “Animasophy: Theoretical Writings on the Animated Film”, published in 2010, examines the soul and wisdom and thus love of animation. His most recent success is the Estonian-Danish stop-motion co-production “Letting go”, which won the ANIDOX Residency with the support of theEuropean Capital of Culture Aarhus in 2017.

Lahtilaskmise lugu (Letting Go)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Dänemark, Estland / 11/2017 / 00:11:10 min.

Tühi ruum (Empty Space)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 05/2016 / 00:10:19 min.

Zebra (Zebra)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 2015 / 00:05:46 min.

Tik-Tak (Tik-Tak)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 11/2014 / 00:09:30 min.

The End (The End)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 2013 / 00:05:34 min.

Keha Mälu (Body Memory)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 2011 / 00:09:37 min.

Gone with the wind (Gone with the wind)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 2009 / 00:01:31 min.

Dialogos (Dialogos)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 2008 / 00:04:46 min.

Elu Maitse (Taste of Life)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 2006 / 00:11:39 min.

Bermuda (Bermuda)

Regie Director: Ülo Pikkov / Estland / 1998 / 00:10:54 min.