About the Director
American-born Paul J. Helin spent most of his yearly childhood watching TV, immersed in the fabricated worlds of movies, because his widowed father, struggling with alcoholism, couldn’t take care of his son’s needs. The seven-year-old Paul was eventually sent to live with relatives in Finland. Because of his social personality, Paul made new friends easily and assimilated into Finnish culture and society.
Helin’s passion has always been telling stories through pictures. His first short film, Tipping the Scales, won the first Finnish 48 Hour Film Project. Duke - Fate of Humanity, a homage to a 90’s video game character, was released on Youtube on Christmas 2010. The short film gathered over 500.000 views in a short period of time and spawned a great...read more
About the Director
American-born Paul J. Helin spent most of his yearly childhood watching TV, immersed in the fabricated worlds of movies, because his widowed father, struggling with alcoholism, couldn’t take care of his son’s needs. The seven-year-old Paul was eventually sent to live with relatives in Finland. Because of his social personality, Paul made new friends easily and assimilated into Finnish culture and society.
Helin’s passion has always been telling stories through pictures. His first short film, Tipping the Scales, won the first Finnish 48 Hour Film Project. Duke - Fate of Humanity, a homage to a 90’s video game character, was released on Youtube on Christmas 2010. The short film gathered over 500.000 views in a short period of time and spawned a great number of articles in most major gaming sites, such as Kotaku and IGN. Suspense short film Tattoo, starring veteran Finnish actor Jussi Lampi, has appeared in several noteworthy film festivals, all the way from Cannes to LA Shorts. The short film was nominated for audience favorite award in the latter festival. The international broadcasting rights were sold to Shorts International during Cannes Film Festival in 2012.
Helin directed Make Your Choice recruitment campaign video to Anders Inno, which won the Digital campaign category in Advertisement of the Year 2013 (name translated) competition.
In 2014, Paul J. Helin returned to his childhood experiences by writing, directing and producing a short horror film “On Dark Paths”. The twenty-minute short film was funded by Finnish Film Foundation, YLE, AVEK and West-Finland Film Commission
