KINBAKU - Art of Bondage a documentary about the Japanese bondage culture in Tokyo premiered at the documentary competition of the 40th Tampere Film Festival 2010. At the same festival I Draw, Therefore I Am screened in competition for best feature documentary. Both films are produced by Hakalax Productions and partially financed by Finnish Broadcasting Company.

The one hour version of the documentary I Draw Therefore I Am will have its world premiere at the 13th Black Nights Film Festival 27.11.-6.12.2009 in Tallinn.

All's Well That Ends Well? (aka Loppu hyvin, kaikki hyvin?) will have its domestic festival premiere at Oulu International Children Film Festival 16-22.11.2009.

KINBAKU - Art of Bondage, a documentary about the Japanese bondage culture in Tokyo directed by Jouni Hokkanen and produced by John Hakalax, is completed and available for international film festivals. The film is financed by Finnish Broadcasting Company and AVEK.

The second part of I Draw Therefore I Am is broadcasted by Finnish Broadcasting Company.

Finnish Broadcasting Company airs the first part of I Draw Therefore I Am, a two part documentary directed by Kim Finn and John Hakalax.

All's Well That Ends Well? (aka Loppu hyvin, kaikki hyvin?), a documentary about school bullying directed by Kim Finn and John Hakalax, is broadcasted by Finnish Broadcasting Company.

Directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn

Oulu International Children's Film Festival screens documentaries Rhyme and Nonsense and Brave Boys.

http://www.ouka.fi/lef/en/films/rhymes_nonsense.htm

Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival screens Brave Boys. The documentary was nominated for Best Documentary at Golden Tambourine Film Festival in Russia earlier in the Autumn.

http://www.lachildrensfilm.org/film.psp?id=505

Rhymes and Nonsense, a documentary directed by Kim Finn, Cecilia Rosenlew and John Hakalax with the Scandinavian rhyme master Lennart Hellsing in the main role, is broadcasted by Finnish TV.

Directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn

The Finnish Broadcasting Company airs Det var en gång (aka Once Upon A Time), a documentary about the the history of fairy tales produced by John Hakalax and written & directed by Cecilia Rosenlew and Kim Finn.

Directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn

TAPPRA GOSSAR (aka Brave Boys) has been completed. It's a film about 12 year old boys. Mathias sings in a Finnish boy choir and dreams of a career as an opera singer. Isak is a hockey goalkeeper from Sweden aiming at a career in the NHL. Oleg dances ballet in Estonia and has his sights set on the Bolshoi theatre. In the documentary we see how they experience works like Huckleberry Finn and Robinson Crusoe and we see their conversations with Scandinavian authors such as Ulf Stark. The Finnish Broadcasting Company commissioned film will be aired by public broadcasters throughout Scandinavia.

Directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn

MANHATTAN RENDEZ-VOUS wins Best of Festival at Berkeley Video and Film Festival 2007, the biggest independent film festival in Northern California. The Finnish Broadcasting Company commissioned documentary will be aired by public broadcasters throughout Scandinavia

Directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn

REKLAMPSYKOS (aka Marketing Psychosis of the 3rd Degree) awarded with a Honorable Mention at Golden Tambourine Festival 2007. The Finnish Broadcasting Company commissioned documentary will be aired by public broadcasters throughout Scandinavia.

Directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn

Hakalax Productions signs a contract with YLE/FST5 for the production of the documentary TAPPRA GOSSAR (aka Brave Boys) which will be shot in Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg Spring 2007. TAPPRA GOSSAR will be directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn. The film is expected to be aired by all Scandinavian governmental channels.

Hakalax Productions wins with Evia the Grande One Award for Best Viral ad campaign at the Grande One 2007 which is todays biggest digimedia competition in Finland. The prize was given for the Case Stenfors campaign created by the ad company Evia and the production company Hakalax Productions.

Marketing Psychosis of the 3rd Degree qualifies for the final in Prix Visionica, where it is competing with high profile documentaries like the Japanese Cyborg Revolution (NHK commissioned) and Behind the Couch (BBC broadcasted).

www.prixvisionica.pl

The Israeli digital channel DBS broadcasts the documentary RIOT-ON in Israel. DBS has according to the distribution deal also the rights to air RIOT-ON! in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and any other areas controlled by the state of Israel.

Canal Plus in Spain will start airing Kim Finn’s prize-winning documentary RIOT-ON! on the 21st of March. There will be a multitude of transmissions of the program in Spain throughout Spring 2007. The program will be aired under the name “Sexo, mentiras y juegos para moviles” and it is dubbed in Spanish. Read more here.

Hakalax Productions is currently negotiating a launch of “Sexo, mentiras y juegos para moviles” in South America.

Estonian TV will broadcast RIOT ON! on the 14th of February 2007.

The documentaries THE ENTICING WORLD OF FAIRY TALES – Part I. and Part II. (aka Sagornas Förtrollande Värld - Del I. och II.) are post produced by Hakalax Productions. Kim Finn is co-writer and editor, while Cecilia Rosenlew acts as writer/director. The films which are produced by John Hakalax and Cecilia Rosenlew are expected to be completed by end of February 2007. Financing is provided by Finnish Broadcasting Company and the films are expected to be aired by all public broadcasters in Scandinavia by end of 2008.

The New York City shoot of KIM – PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL SCULPTOR, a documentary about a Finnish sculptor favoured by the New York art establishment, has been completed. The film is financed by Finnish Broadcasting Company and will be aired by all public broadcasters in Scandinavia by end of 2008.

MARKETING PSYCHOSIS OF THE 3RD DEGREE, the latest documentary of John Hakalax and Kim Finn has been completed. The film deals with the rapid expansion of digital ads in public places. It was shot in London, New York, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Stockholm and Helsinki. Financing was provided by Finnish Broadcasting Company. The film is expected to be aired by all public broadcasters in the Nordic countries by end of 2008.

The Australian distributor Shock has acquired the home video rights to the Hakalax Productions produced documentary Raiders of The Lost Kungfu and will release it on DVD in Australia and New Zealand in 2007.

The Hakalax Productions produced documentaries Business in Zimbabwe, Robin Hull and His Billiard Hoods, Raiders of The Lost Kung Fu will all be aired by the new digital TV channel Skandinavia in year 2007.

RIOT-ON! won the Grand Festival Award at Berkeley Video & Film festival 2006, which is the biggest independent film festival in Northern California.

RIOT-ON! becomes the first Finnish made documentary ever to receive a prime time airing on BBC in the UK. Read the programme reviews of the Guardian and Times here.

Filmink Magazine, the leading film magazine in Australia, releases a colourful story about the makers of RIOT-ON! in its June 2006 issue. Read it here.

The DVD version of RIOT-ON released by the Australian distributor DV1 gets a wide amount of attention by Australian media. Never before has a Scandinavian documentary been so discussed in our country as RIOT-ON!, tells Gerry Travers, managing director of DV1.

www.dv1.com.au

Finnish Broadcasting Company signs a contract with Hakalax Productions for financing of a documentary about how Digital Signage is changing the marketing business in Europe. The documentary Third Degree Marketing (original title: Reklamkontakt av tredje graden) will be co-directed by John Hakalax and Kim Finn.

Canal Plus will broadcast RIOT-ON! in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland more than 40 times from May to September 2006.

www.canalplus.fi

RIOT-ON! Runner Up for Best Documentary in Boston!

RIOT-ON! will have its North American premiere at Boston Underground Film Festival (22-26 March 2006), where the film will compete for Best Documentary.

The Finnish Brodcasting Company (YLE/FST) has decided that it will air the latest documentary production of Hakalax Productions, THREE YEARS OF MELANCHOLIA (aka Tre år av melankoli), on the 17th and 19th of April 2006. In the documentary Three years of melancholia we meet on a very personal and intimate level the Carnegie Art awarded Petra Lindholm, who is the creator of an exceptionally sensitive and openly sentimental video art untraditional for today's contemporary video artists. The film is directed by John Hakalax.

Australian TV-channel SBS airs RIOT-ON! (running time 74 min)

www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=07:02:2006

RIOT-ON! is awarded with a Special Jury Commendation at Raindance Film Festival in London. Raindance is todays biggest independent film festival in UK. Leading British film and entertainment industry players constituted the jury, which gave the only Special Jury Commendation of the festival to RIOT- ON!

http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/festival/

BBC buys the TV rights of RIOT-ON! The distributor Future Film Ltd has closed a deal with BBC for broadcasting of RIOT-ON! in UK.

http://www.ses.fi/en/news_news.asp?id=1113

Riot-On! will screen in the competition for Best Documentary at Nordische Filmtage Lübeck, Germany, 3.–6.11.2005.

Swedish Tempo Documentary Festival in Stockholm (9-13.11.2005) will screen RIOT-ON! as part of its official festival program.

http://www.tempofestival.nu

British Raindance Film Festival in London (28.9.-9.10.2005) will screen RIOT-ON! as part of its official festival program. The film has also been nominated for Best Documentary.

http://www.raindance.co.uk/festival/

RIOT-ON! has been shortlisted for the GRIERSON AWARD, which is the most prestigious documentary prize in United Kingdom. Worldwide hits like Super Size Me and Metallica Somekind of Monster are together with Riot-on! among the 8 films short listed for Best International Cinema Documentary 2005:

http://www.griersontrust.org/sl_int_cinema.htm

Swedish Umeå International Film Festival (15-21.9.2005) will screen RIOT-ON! as part of its official festival program.

http://www.filmfest.se

RIOT-ON! will be part of the official program of the 3 Continental Film Festival in South Africa. Dates for the screenings of RIOT-ON! in Johannesurg and Cape Town can be found in the festival program here.

Its interesting to note that the film will be more frequently screened than any other film at the festival.

http://www.3continentsfestival.co.za

RIOT-ON! screens in cinemas at Era New Horizons Film Festival in Poland (20-31.7.2005). Read a Polish interview with director Kim Finn here.

RIOT-ON! screens in cinemas at Real Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea (14-23.7.2005). Read a Korean article about RIOT-ON! and its director Kim Finn who presented the film in Seoul. here.

Nordisk Panorama - 5 Cities Film Festival announces that RIOT-ON! has been selected for the main competition, which is the biggest documentary film competition in Scandinavia. Out of a total of 364 submitted films 20 documentaries were selected for competition. The festival will be held in Bergen, 23 - 28 September 2005.

Norwegian Haugesund International Film Festival (19-26.8.2005) will screen RIOT-ON! as part of its official festival program.

South Korean Real Fantastic Film Festival in Seoul (14-23.7.2005) will screen RIOT-ON! as part of its official festival program.

Era New Horizons Film Festival in the Czech-Polish border town Cieszyn (20-31.7.2005) will screen RIOT-ON! as part of its official festival program. Last year Era New Horizons Film Festival had an audience of more than 90 000 viewers and is now regarded as one of the leading film festivals in Eastern Europe.

Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration student delivers a thesis about the Finnish mobile entertainment companies Riot-E Ltd and Mr Goodliving Ltd as cases of failure and success in venture capital investment business. Please contact professor Tom Berglund for further information about Wilhelm Taht’s laudable thesis Venture Capital Investments - A Case of Failure and a Case of Success

www.hanken.fi/mba/eng/page1709.php

Future Film Ltd screens the film in the Palais at the International Film Festival in Cannes. (15-22.5.2005)

Future Film Ltd buys the worldwide rights to RIOT-ON! The deal covers home video, theatrical and TV rights.



www.futurefilm.fi

Australian TV broadcaster SBS buys the Australian broadcast rights to RIOT-ON! as a result of negotiatons that Hakalax Productions started with SBS at Adelaide Film Film Festival 2005.

Sandrew-Metronome releases the DVD of Riot-on! in Finland. This DVD contains an additional hour of new material and information about the Riot-E company and the Riot-on! film itself.

The Dutch TV-channel NPS broadcasts Riot-on! in the Netherlands. 860 000 viewers follows the first airing. Read a Dutch review of the film here.

Finnish Brodcasting Company (YLE/FST) signs a production deal with Hakalax Productions Oy for a documentary about the creation of a fantastic glass art sculptor installed in the medieval castle Borgholm in Sweden. The film is produced by Hakalax Productions and directed by John Hakalax. The channel will broadcast the documentary in December 2005.

RIOT-ON! screens in three different cinemas at Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden (28.1-7.2.2005). Read a Swedish review of the film here.

Nöjesguiden readers awards Riot On! as the best film of the year 2004!

RIOT ON! is nominated for a Jussi award (main film prize in Finland) for best documentary of the year 2004.

The Warzawa based distributor Gutek Film Ltd confirms that Riot On! will be released at Era New Horizons Film Festival in Cieszyn (Poland) 21-31.7.

Era New Horizons Film Festival became one of the largest East-European art film festivals in year 2004 with more than 93000 tickets sold for 130 movies from 36 countries.

Finnish Film Foundation confirms that RIOT ON! will be screened at Gothenburg Film Festival (Sweden) 28.1-7.2, Copenhagen DocMarathon (Denmark) 19.2 and AIDC of Adelaide Film Festival (Australia) 20-25.2.

Sobhraj - The Hippie Killer is broadcasted by Channel 5 in UK.

Sobhraj -or how to be friends with a serial killer (aka Sobhraj - The Hippie Killer) is broadcasted by M6 in France. This feature length documentary directed by Jan Wellmann was conducted as a production between GW Pictures, Faction Films and Hakalax Productions. Executive producer John Hakalax provided presales from Danish TV (DR), Swedish TV (SVT), Finnish TV (YLE TV2), as well as financing from the Norwegian based Nordic Film and TV Fund.

Unelmakämppä (13x45 min), The Finnish version of the TV-fomat The Block ends as one of the more popular TV-series of the year. Hakalax Productions provided editing services for this Fremantle Entertainment produced program series.

Sandrew-Metronome, the leading distributor in Scandinavia, releases on cinema the documentary Riot On! in the KinoPalatsi multiplex in Helsinki.

The docmentary Riot On! premieres at the Love & Anarchy festival in Helsinki, where a premiere audience of almost 500 people enjoy the film.

www.hiff.fi

The TV release of the documentary Raiders of The Lost Kung Fu (aka "Kadonneen Kung Fun Metsästäjät" and "Jakten på den försvunna kung fun") in Finland results in several news paper articles, reviews and web discussions about the truth, moral and ethics of Chinese martial arts.

Hakalax Productions buys the Where Are You Emmanuelle? TV format project from Lazy Lad Studios. Later this Spring Hakalax Productions starts the Scandinavian casting process for Alain Siritzky's next Emmanuelle movie to be shot in Los Angeles in year 2005.

Hakalax Productions relases a new documentary: LAMOURETTES - Towards Stardom (aka "Lamourettes - Tie Tähtiin"). Minna Sara is a 17 year old ultra talented sports gymnast, but instead of heading for the Olympics she dreams of becoming the show girl of the millennium. In this short personal portrait we learn what makes her dance in restaurants and night clubs, and what her manager, friends, teachers and parents think of it all.

The documentary Raiders of The Lost Kung Fu (aka "Kadonneen Kung Fun Metsästäjät") is having its first official release as the film will be aired by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE TV2 Documentaries) on the 21st of January. Hakalax Productions has also struck a pre-sale deal with the Finnish Brodcasting Company for the production of a new internationally co-produced documentary film. Major TV-channels in already 4 countries have already signed up for the release of the film which is aimed to be completed by Summer 2004. Another documentary of Hakalax Productions currently in production in Asia has also been presold to Finnish Broadcasting Company and picked up by a major French distributor.

Hakalax Productions Oy provides the editing services for the screwball comedy styled reality TV show “Submarine”, a 37 part series of young lense louses partying wildly on board a passenger ship in the Finnish Gulf.

Hakalax Productions proudly presents The Lion Queen Maj Minnie Susanna Hakalax, born in Helsinki 16.8.2003.

Hakalax Productions Oy provides the editing services for the TV-series "Skabadabuu", which is ten parts of fast-paced reality TV for youngsters hosted by the popular Finnish rap-star Kana. The action-loaded competitions of "Skabadabaduu" are set on a fascinating adventure island in the Finnish archipelago.