Eija-Liisa Ahtila has been described as “the hottest Finnish filmmaker since Aki Kaurismäki” (J. Hoberman). She calls her works “human dramas”-indicating her concern with troubled human relations, which she situates in a milieu of alienation where the real and the imagined are blurred. Love Is a Treasure, composed of five episodes, each depicting a different psychotic woman's anxiety, is drawn from research and interviews. The resulting fictions are cool and distant, yet powerful in their social analyses and striking in their visuals. A doctor shrinks to inches tall, a woman crawls across a bridge, and wind tears through a home; if love is a treasure, the world is a terror. (55 mins). Using split-screen, If 6 Was 9 (1995–96, 10 mins) explores teenage girls' sexuality. Also based on research that is fictionalized, it is direct, complex, and startling. In Consolation Service (1999, 23 mins), Ahtila is concerned with endings, focusing on a young couple who decide to divorce.

This program complements Ahtila's MATRIX exhibition Intention to Fail, which will be on view in the BAM galleries from July 11 through September 5.