Reflector of Living Will
Short film, 2018
Length: 8 mins. Language and subtitles: English
Key cast: Milla-Emilia Mutka & Marja Pelkonen
Robot: Meccanoid 2.0 XL tuned by Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen
Script: Marja Pelkonen & Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen
Film, edit, screenplay and costumes: Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen
Screenings
Netherlands, The Hague, 1646 Experimental Art Space 2025
MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Towards New Worlds 2024
Love and Anarchy, Helsinki Film Festival, (26th Sept. Kinopalatsi 7), curator Sepideh Rahaa 2020
Finalist at Raw Science Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA (25.1.2019)
Best Screenplay at Pisa Robot Film Festival, Italy (27.10.2018)
Festival Nuovo Cinema Europa (Robotics session 10.11.2018)
Finalist at Social Machinery Film Festival, Italy (28.7.2018)
Semi-Finalist at OtherMovie Film Festival, Lugano, Italy (15.4.2018)
Finalist at Joy House Film Festival, Sydney, Australia (9.9.2018)
Official selection, Fastminds Neurodiversity Arts Festival, London (14.9.2018)
Award of Recognition (Disability Issues), Accolade Global Film Competition (May 2018).
Reflector of Living Will tells about Maria, living with arthritis. She doesn´t like the rehabilitative attitude of her new care robot. Maria feels controlled and humiliated. One night she re-programs the robot to fulfill her true needs. The robot becomes her living will and protector against violent behaviour of personal assistants. The re-programmed robot doesn´t lighten the work of assistants but makes sure that Maria gets heard.
What if the resistance of care robots is not about peoples relationship to a machine but about the fact that many of them work with old-fashioned, rehabilitating and patronizing attitude? Between people the aim has specifically been to get rid of these approaches since 1970´s.
Epilogue discussion after making the film with Marja Pelkonen and Milla-Emilia Mutka. Language: Finnish. Subtitles: English
Video clips about training the robot.
Brushing hair.
Washing dishes.
Washing hands.
2025 in The Hague at 1646 Experimental Art Space, the Robot was welcoming the audience and telling them non-ableist disability jokes. Programming: Milos de Wit
Passengers were waiting on a plane, which stood on the runway leading straight into the sea. Finally the captain arrived with his guide dog, followed by the pilot using a white cane. The plane started moving and the sea approached. In the final moments, the passangers began screaming, and the plane took off. The captain turned to the pilot and said: “One day these woke folks are going to scream too late.”


