Finnish co-op documentary wins at 2018 Eclipse Awards

HANCOCK — “Co-operatively Yours,” a 2017 film by Kristin Ojaniemi and the Finnish American Heritage Center, took home the “Best Documentary” honor at the 2018 Eclipse Awards.

The annual event in Grand Rapids was created to honor Michigan’s creators in film and television. The Finnish American Heritage Center is on the campus of Finlandia University in Hancock.

Eclipse Awards are chosen by past winners in the entry’s particular category, as well as independent judges from Michigan, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

The documentary, which chronicles the history of the Finnish-American co-operative movement, centers on Settlers Co-op, the Finn-founded co-operative store in Bruce Crossing which celebrated its centennial in 2017.

Both Ojaniemi and Finnish American Heritage Center Director Jim Kurtti are Bruce Crossing natives, and hatched the idea for the film at a high school graduation party in their hometown. While the number of Finnish-American co-ops has dwindled substantially since heydays in the mid-20th century, there are still a few active stores in the United States; four are in the Upper Peninsula — in Chatham, Trenary and Rudyard, as well as Bruce Crossing.

“I didn’t expect a handshake at a graduation party to lead to a gold statue,” Ojaniemi said. “I also didn’t imagine that I’d become so immersed in Finnish-American culture. Doing this film presented an excellent opportunity to learn more about Finnish history and culture.”

Even though Ojaniemi grew up in Bruce Crossing and knew of the co-op since she was a child, she didn’t know a great deal about the store’s history and its prominence in Finnish-American history.

“I didn’t think about it that way, but it is like icing on the cake to be presented with an award for a film that’s about your hometown,” she said. “It’s gratifying to be able to tell a good story about a place I knew, but not as well as I thought I did.”

When Ojaniemi and Kurtti put their heads together, they came up with a way to overcome that hurdle, with the result being that “Co-operatively Yours” is truly an international production. Ojaniemi and Kurtti traveled to Finland in spring 2017 to conduct interviews with Finnish experts on the co-operative movement.

Later that year, the Finnish national broadcasting company YLE purchased exclusive rights to broadcast the film in Finland, and it’s scheduled to air at least twice on national television there. The dates of these broadcasts haven’t yet been announced.

“It’s a story about one store, but really is the story of the co-operative movement through the lens of one store,” Kurtti said. “To see this young Finnish-American woman start to appreciate what was right under her nose her whole life and unravel its history is very gratifying.

“That’s what the Finnish American Heritage Center is here to do, to help people understand their roots.”

For more information on the film, contact the center at 906-487-7549.