Suvi West (born 14 January 1982) is a Finnish

Sámi Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

director, screenwriter, and television personality.

Early life and education

Suvi West was born in

Kittilä Kittilä (, , ) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland and a popular holiday resort. It is located in northern Finland north of the Arctic Circle within the Lapland (Finland), Lapland Regions of Finland, region. The municipality ...

and spent her youth in Utsjoki's Outakoski. She received her primary education at Tampere's high school for expressive arts. As a media assistant, she studied in Inari at the film department of the from 2003 to 2005.

Career

Suvi West's career progressed while still a student working in Inari for Yle Sami Radio and the Norwegian broadcasting company

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

as a television news and documentaries producer from 2000 to 2007. Still, the strict predetermined format of television work began to make her anxious, and she feared that it would stifle her own film narrative. Her final work in 2005 was the documentary film ''Vaikein niistä on rakkaus'' ''(The hardest thing is love)'', which humorously chronicled West's search for a boyfriend. The film was screened in Hollywood and

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

. In addition to making films, she has been the head of the Film Center for Indigenous Peoples from 2009 to 2011 and in the Master's program in documentary film at

Aalto University Aalto University (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economic ...

since 2015. After spending ten years in Helsinki, West moved with her family to Utsjoki, as she missed her homeland. West is especially known for the TV series ''Märät säpikkät/Njuoska bittut'' and the music videos shown in it, parodying Finnish hits, with lyrics in Northern Sami. West directed the 2016 documentary ''Minä ja pikkusiskoni'' (''Me and my little sister'') which was dedicated to her sister. West directed the documentary ''Eatnameamet – Hiljainen taistelumme'' (''Eatnameamet - our silent fight''), screened in 2021, which tells about the Sámi policy of the Finnish state and the Sámi people's struggle for their culture. The documentary won the Church Media Foundation award and the audience award at the

Tampere Film Festival The Tampere Film Festival () is a short film festival held every March, mostly at the Finnkino Plevna movie theatre, in Tampere, Finland. It is accredited by the film producers' society FIAPF, and together with the short film festivals in Oberhau ...

Awards

In 2024, Suvi West was awarded the

Skábmagovat Prize The Skábmagovat Prize (, , and ) is an indigenous film award to honor the significant, long-term contributions the recipient has made to the Sámi culture and communities. The award is announced in conjunction with the Skábmagovat indigenous ...

, an indigenous film award to honor the significant, long-term contributions she has made to the Sámi culture and communities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Suvi Living people 1982 births Sámi film directors Sámi screenwriters Sámi activists Sámi-language writers Finnish Sámi people Finnish women film directors Finnish women cinematographers Finnish cinematographers Finnish film directors