Tailwinds for audiovisual culture

In October, support was granted to the animated documentary Making Babies. In the documentary, two Finnish professionals, a doctor working in a fertility clinic and an inseminator working on dairy farms, reflect on their roles in assisted reproduction.

With this piece of work, mixed-media artist Vappu Tuomisto and screenwriter Matti Koskinen want to challenge the idea that the experiences of humans and other animals are not comparable. There are many similarities between human and bovine reproduction, for example. So why is it so important to distinguish between the experiences of different species?

“The name of the documentary is Making Babies. Even though babies cannot be ‘made,’ thousands of people and countless (farmed) animals reproduce artificially through the hands of professionals. We hope that the viewers will feel emotions – maybe confusion – or an urge to reflect on realities that are more distant to them,” Tuomisto and Koskinen say.