Searching for greener cinema: researchers map the environmental impact of Finnish films over a century

Cinema has a carbon footprint just like any other industrial sector. In addition, through its images and stories, it shapes our perceptions of what, for instance, forest, motoring or meat consumption mean. The Eco-History of Finnish Cinema project surveys the ecological impacts of all Finnish feature films from the early 20th century to the present day.

What is it all about?

• Films have diverse environmental impacts. In terms of content, films may raise environmental awareness or, conversely, normalise overconsumption and pollution. The environmental footprint of film productions is also considerable, as their carbon-intensive infrastructure produces a great deal of waste and surplus material, starting from the basic raw material of film stock previously in use, namely cellulose, to the transport of film crews and the generators used for outdoor filming, and ending with the cooling energy required for the archiving of films.
• The aim of the Ecological History of Finnish Cinema project is to study the history of Finnish feature films from the early 1900s to today, from the perspectives of both eco-critical content analysis and production-critical impact research. The SEE project directs its attention to the films themselves, film production practices and values, film policy and the film economy.
• The researchers involved in the project are PhD, Docent Kimmo Laine; Professor of Media Studies Pietari Kääpä; PhD Noora Kallioniemi; PhD, Docent Silja Laine; Doctor of Film Studies Aymeric Pantet; PhD Tommi Römpötti; PhD, Docent Laura Saarenmaa; and MA Hebe Ronkainen.
• The project is funded for four years by the Kone Foundation and began in 2024.   

Film is both what is shown and what is left unseen. 

When the camera films uninhabited wilderness or an iconic Finnish landscape, it does not show the camera equipment, the crew, the transport infrastructure required, the kilometres travelled, the procurement of sets, costumes and props, the accommodation, the catering, the distribution of the film, and so forth. 

“The deeper into nature you go to film, the more energy you have to take there,” says Kimmo Laine, principal investigator of the Ecological of Finnish Cinema project. “When you go further away from population centres, you need electricity. This is generated by generators, which in turn run on petrol.” 

“And films are made where one can get to. That is, where there is a road – asphalt – in other words oil. Filming locations follow road infrastructure,” adds Silja Laine. 

Behind the illusion created by film there lies not only a large amount of technology and people, but also their actions, habits and attitudes – all as part of the surrounding environment. 

On screen and behind the scenes: exploring the eco-history of Finnish cinema for the first time

Films have been studied from an environmental perspective for decades, but their production-related environmental impacts have not been examined to the same extent. The project seeks to bring these two approaches together and to further outline the ways in which contents and productions intertwine. 

In examining film content, the group of eight researchers focuses on, for example, characters and narrative, and how they connect to different environmental themes. The themes under investigation include the use of natural resources, agriculture and forestry, urbanisation, technology and industrialisation, transport, and the use of nature as metaphor. 

In studying production, focus is largely on archival sources, such as account books and equipment lists. These provide information, for instance, on the energy consumption of lighting equipment, the materials used for costumes, and what is eaten during filming. 

Noora Kallioniemi recounts finding a receipt from the country’s largest delicatessen in the archives of the Pekka Puupää films of the 1950s. “It was interesting, because this was in the years after the period of rationing, and it mattered a great deal if meat was bought for the crew.” 

The SEE project aims to produce a comprehensive overview of Finnish feature films from the early 20th century to the present. This amounts to some 1,700 full-length films. 

“Whereas I used to focus on what a film looks like, we now look at the image to understand how that was achieved,” explains Tommi Römpötti. 

“Now we are digging up petrol receipts,” adds Kimmo Laine. 

The first serious attempt at ecological filmmaking 

“One pioneering film in terms of its production was Aku Louhimies’s Unknown Soldier. The researchers recently published an article on the film’s production and forest imagery in the journal Lähikuva. 

“The crew were given precise instructions, for example, on how to move about in the forest and whether moss could be trodden on. The film was one of the first serious attempts to make cinema ecologically,” Laine says. 

But since filmmaking – and especially war films – is also always about spectacle, Louhimies’s production was no pure ecological utopia. What was not highlighted in the Finnish public sphere was that in the same film a record number of trees were blown up. 

“In those years, the climate of opinion was highly pro-ecological, which is probably why the film was marketed in that way. But nowhere was it mentioned that an international explosives team set a world record for the amount of dynamite used in a single take,” notes Römpötti. 

Unknown Soldier premiered in 2017, and according to Römpötti it was still some time before environmental regulations for film productions were introduced. 

“Nowadays, the Finnish Film Foundation requires an environmental plan to be included in funding applications, otherwise a film cannot receive support at all. But this requirement has only been in force since April this year,” Römpötti says.
 

In search of more environmentally friendly practices

The project also aims to identify ecological practices that could be applied in contemporary production. The project’s partner is Ekosetti, a guide for greener production aimed at the Finnish film and television industry. 

“Towards the end of the research we will go through the practices with them, and they will act as our mouthpiece towards the Film Foundation and filmmakers,” Laine explains. 

For example, during the studio era – the 1930s to the 1950s – sets and costumes were recycled from one production to another in ways very different from today. The filming equipment was also permanent and not moved around as it is today. Laine points out, however, that at that time this was not about ecology but about economy. 

According to Laura Saarenmaa, the move from the studio era to package productions – that is, from permanent production facilities to sourcing equipment, crew and locations anew for each production – was largely driven by audience behaviour. 

“In the era of streaming services people go to the cinema less, so films cannot be made in the same quantities as before. Yet the fact that large audiences gather in a cinema to watch a film is more ecological than everyone watching separately on their own devices.”