Mia Tamme (estonia, germany )

// BIO

Mia Tamme is a Tallinn-born—often hoovering elsewhere—designer, artistic researcher and film-maker. She plays in the liminal space between fiction, memories, and truth; between the personal and the political.

Mia uses graphic design and documentary filmmaking as a way to multiply narratives and tell stories about the periphery, often from her native context, Estonia. Currently, she is editing a film about a knitting club in western Estonia where she deals with the complexity of heritage preservation vs progressive change. Mia is also making Home Videos on Youtube that twist family memories with social observations.

Mia Tamme studied visual communication in Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. She has been working as a visual editor at Strelka magazine in Moscow; a design researcher for Simone Niquille in Amsterdam; artistic apprentice for Laure Prouvost in Antwerp and a commercial graphic designer in Berlin. 

// PROJECT

The Shining Red Star is a reminiscent film about Narva’s first movie theatre, the Red Star. It ponders over the cultural and political power that cinemas once held. Mia reconstructs the story of The Red Star based on public records and collected memories. She investigates how the demolition of this once glorious Soviet culture palace has changed Narva’s urban and social landscape. 

Meanwhile, the project speculates on the potential of cinema as a third space. Mia Tamme will be playing and organising events in NART’s cinema hall “Amalie”, to spatially and experientially expand the happening on the screen, and to construct a space beyond the cinematic. She asks what could movie theatres offer in the time where streaming services dominate and personal content prevails. Should we, perhaps, return to silent film tradition, or offer a dining experience that fits the film? And what is the potential of sharing real and cinematic space to help us to become a more coherent community?