El Documental del mes - SCREAMING MEN - el Documental del mes

The Finnish word huutaa means anything man can do with a loud voice: scream, shriek, screech, cry, howl, roar with laughter… And this is the word that gives rise to the Mieskuoro Huutajat, (the screaming men), a unique mail choir from Finland. Dressed in black suits, white shirts, and rubber tie, its members perform the repertoire by shouting and screaming. It was 15 years ago when the idea of creating this group came up in a bar table. Since then, all sorts of texts are adapted into screaming material: law texts, poems, operating instructions, children’s songs or the anthems of the countries they visit. Led by the conductor Petri Sirviö, the choir has become an international phenomenon, receiving the same reaction everywhere: the audience has been bewildered. This documentary offers us the opportunity to accompany this group during its travels to France, Island and even Tokyo.

Mika Ronkainen knows very well the Mieskuoro Huutajat so he was member of this particular choir from 1994 to 1998. Although Screaming Men is his theatrical distribution debut, his previous work includes the prize-winning and acclaimed documentaries Before the Flood, Father's Day, Oulu Burning, and Car Bonus. Ronkainen has predominantly depicted social themes set in northern Finland, from where he comes from. The most recent example is Freetime Machos, selected in 2010 in DocsBarcelona International Documentary Film Festival. 

> Special Mention in Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. Denmark, 2003.

> International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The Netherlands, 2003.

> Sheffield Documentary Film Festival. United Kingdom, 2004.