Paavoharju . Travelling in spaces

Film treatment

Paavoharju is an ecsentric forestband of bornagain Christian jesus-hippies from Savonlinna. We fall deep in to the mysteries of Paavoharju through an American jewish Christian filmmaker Jesse. Being a vagabond and a citizen of the world Jesse ends up to a Paavoharju concert in London, which leads him to come to Finland to shoot a film of Paavoharju. In Finland Jesse starts to think about the influence of the spaces for a human mind. Being from a Christian family with a hippie backround he’s identity is formed by a narrow universe that is 6000 years old and the mysteries of infinite universe of UFO’s that he’s heard from his uncle-Larry an old hippie. The basic scientific problem introduced in the film is: is the universe 6000 years old of 7 billion years old. As you can imagine the difference of these times is huge and it also affects to the volume of the universe and, most importantly, to the human memories. Jesse starts to have this feeling that he is getting lost in an infinite universe that is not only 7 billion years old but that there are billions of lightyears of empty space and billions of paraller universes which live their own life without no-one to ever see or hear them. In these spaces the memories of you, your memories, your body and everything you have ever created will float for forever and no-one will never see or hear or find them. The sense of this floating is a familiar feeling for Jesse, having lived his youth in Hong Kong and having travelled all around the world, apart from his family and kin. All these universes Jesse finds in the music of Paavoharju and in the spaces where they live. These ecsentric musicians live in the forest huts, 500 m2 cave where's a lot of dump all around, a pool full of dead swollen hedgehogs and a couple bunks for sleeping. These spaces are like micro-universes that open Jesse’s understanding for the macro-universe. His mind is also expanded when he has a paranormal experience with a co-writer and a co-director of the film. They have an exactly same experience of going from dizziness of mind to an abnormal clarity of mind, at the exactly same moment.

This is a weird band documentary of a weird band. We use the bands music, mythology and the places where they live to open our minds to the memories. Towards the end Jesse realizes that he is loosing the memories of his own family while living in another continent. The generation that was before him is going towards the grave and with them he is loosing his memories and his identity. It’s all lost in space, in emptiness.

Film consists of atmospheric scenes of Paavoharju –spaces (that are plenty) and the directors voiceover where he speaks about his memories and experiences. Paavoharju makes the music for the film and mixes the natural sounds and voices. There are also interviews from Paavoharju members and friends where they speak about the stories of spaces, such as when they found a dead hanged body from the old factory in which they lived. The age of the universe will go unanswered, but the film portrays a feeling of both small and infinite universe, and a feeling when your mind expands from the small universe to the infinite or vice versa.