LATEST NEWS
Documentaries Rhymes and Nonsense and Brave Boys will be screened at Oulu
International Children Film Festival 2008. Ryhmes and Nonsense is a
documentary by Kim Finn, Cecilia Rosenlew and John Hakalax that take us on
a fascinating journey from Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland to the works
of the Scandinavian nursery rhymes master Lennart Hellsing.
Brave Boys (aka Tappra gossar) has been nominated for Best Documentary at
the Golden Tambourine Festival in Russia. Previously this year Brave Boys
screened at San Diego Children's Film Festival in the USA.
COMPANY
Hakalax Productions Oy was founded in Helsinki 1992. The company produces TV-programmes, documentaries, ads and music videos for international as well as domestic release.
The company currently produces several TV-documentary productions for
international distribution. The films are dealing with as varying themes
as school bullying, murder stories set in the glamrock world and African
sea pirates.
In 2007 Manhattan Rendez-vous was awarded Best of Festival at Berkeley
Video and Film Festival, the biggest independent film festival in Northern
California. The documentary with music composed by the guitarist of Brand
New Heavies follows the underground sculptor Kim Simonsson as he makes his
way into the art establishment of Manhattan. The film screened also the
same year in the competition for Best Documentary at Raindance Film
Festival, the biggest independent film festival in the UK. The same year
Marketing Psychosis of the 3rd Degree was awarded with a Honorable Mention
at Golden Tambourine Festival, one of the leading documentary festivals in
Russia.
In 2006 the cinema documentary RIOT-ON! (directed & written by Kim Finn and produced by John Hakalax) became the FIRST Finnish made documentary EVER to be aired prime time by the BBC in the UK. RIOT-ON! won the Grand Festival Award at Berkeley Video and Film Festival, the biggest independent film festival in Northern California. In 2005 the film was awarded with a Special Jury Commendation at Raindance Film Festival, the biggest independent film festival in the UK. The same year the film was short listed for the Grierson Award, which is the most prestigious documentary prize in UK. Worldwide hits like Super Size Me and Metallica Somekind of Monster were together with RIOT-ON! among the eight films short listed for Best International Cinema Documentary. The film unfolds the darkly comic story of a Nokia and Newscorporation financed business disaster from the over-hyped mobile start-up era.
In 2004 Hakalax Productions delivered two documentaries for the international market: Raiders of the Lost Kung fu, a documentary revealing the dark side of original kung fu in China, and Sobhraj - or how to be friends with a serial killer, a documentary about one of the most notorious killers in Asia. Both productions were financed by Finnish Broadcasting Company. Sobhraj – or how to be friends with a serial killer has been sold to more than 35 countries, while Raiders of the Lost Kung Fu has been aired by Canal Planète in more than ten French speaking territories and released on DVD in Australia and New Zealand.