The Best Lover
Year: 2023
Duration: 00:13:17 min.
Director: Ninni Korkalo
Producer: Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo
The Best Lover is a short film about loving yourself. It plays with the myths of love in pursuit of the revolutionary power of self-love. Feminist humor bubbles and confuses as artificial intelligence mines the definition of the best lover, and the retired Queen of the Galaxy addresses the inhabitants of Earth. As in a love scene, the image focuses on sunsets and waterfalls, shifting the act of love towards nature. The most important thing is to swear an oath of love – naturally to yourself.
The film begins in the dark. The viewer is asked to say an oath of love. Darkness unfolds into a sweet montage, where the pleasures of self-love alternate with tinted nature images.
The colorful visions end up in a green forest. On the soundtrack, The Therapist and The Collective Mind are talking. The Therapist asks: “What is a Best Lover?” With the enthusiasm of youth, The Collective Mind mines data and tries to find a suitable definition.
Barbarella wants to give an emphatic speech to the inhabitants of the Earth. This Jane Fonda-inspired diva’s life mission in her retirement years is to guide humanity to a culture of love. Being heard and understood requires effort even from the queen of the galaxies.
Bursting with feminist laughter and metaphorical montage, the short film looks for a sincere opportunity to save the entire living community. The Best Lover was inspired by the thoughts of professor, writer and activist bell hooks (1952–2021), who deal with the radical power of self-love, in English self-love.
Ninni Korkalo (b. 1982) is a visual and media artist. She studied Fine Arts at the Imatra Art School, having graduated in 2008. Korkalo graduated as Master of Arts from University of Lapland from the Applied Visual Arts Master program. She works with moving image. Her works have been shown in exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 2005. Basis of Korkalo’s work is the curiosity on humanity and the possibility in art to suggest new or different kind of realities.
There are three steps to the media art space Mediabox, but the work is also available for viewing on a tablet by request.
Mediabox is Forum Box gallery’s space dedicated to media art. The program is co-curated with AV-arkki.