Youth Work in Parish Herttoniemi, Helsinki
Caption:
Jouko Olkkola at the statue of Sean Connery in Tallinn. “During my student days at the turn of the 70s and 80s, it was my dream to buy all the James Bond films, but they weren’t available anywhere. Nowadays, it’s much easier to get movies,” says Olkkola. Photo by Raija Olkkola.
Movies as part of Youth Work
Youth pastor Jouko Olkkola, who works in the Herttoniemi parish in Helsinki, has decades of experience in youth work. The parish has a long tradition of organized youth work for the benefit of preschool youth and those who have attended the seminary and movie nights have gained great popularity.
Movies Are Very Popular Entertainment in Parish Herttoniemi
“Today, young people participate very actively in the activities of our congregation, which can be seen, for example, in the large number of people who have signed up for our big courses. The youth work organized by the Herttoniemi parish includes, in addition to religious school activities, much more, such as fireworks, trips, and movie nights,” says Olkkola.
The Herttoniemi church premises, completed in 1958, have housed a cinema hall with projectors since the beginning. Watching movies has been popular both among seminary students and in other youth activities organized by the congregation. As a youth pastor, Jouko has organized numerous movie nights for young parishioners. These events, which are mostly scheduled for Friday nights, have been meaningful for Jouko because movies have been a favorite hobby for him.
“The movie nights we organize are an important social event for our youth, where they get to see their peers doing something they enjoy. At its best, the film is an experience that positively affects a person’s life. I would say that life would be missing a lot if we didn’t have movies,” says Olkkola.
“My film knowledge has helped organize film screenings. The age limit set for films is of course an important selection criterion for us. I try to choose films that have something important to say. Movies should leave a growing person with something to think about, and above all, they should leave a good feeling,” Olkkola describes.
Vuosilupa Helps Managing Film Screening Permits
Taking copyright into account also plays an important role in Herttoniemi parish when showing films. For almost 30 years, Olkkola has cooperated with Elokuvalisense, which offers film screening permits.
“Especially in the VHS and DVD era, now and then I had to visit the film warehouse of the Film License to examine their selection of films. Nowadays, we have an annual license offered by them, which has greatly facilitated the administration of performance permits. Instead of acquiring film-specific permits for the congregation, we get to use a large selection of high-quality films with the same annual permit. The annual license of film license covers numerous great films from many major film companies, and this selection of films has also developed and diversified over the years. The film license has made it possible for us to obtain performance permits at a reasonable price,” says Olkkola.
Read more from our article on how to utilize movies in Youth Work.