Lögberg-Heimskringla - 10.09.2004, Blaðsíða 2

2 ♦ Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 10 September 2004
PHOTO: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Guðrún Bjerring Parker in her home in Montreal. Her parents were born in Iceland and everything Icelandic means a lot to her.
Guðrún Bjerring Parker
is probably the first
woman of lcelandic
descent to produce films
for the public. Steinþór
Guðbjartsson visited
her in Montreal, where
she and her husband
founded a film company
after having worked in
Ottawa and Winnipeg.
Having been born in
1920, Guðrún Parker
has lived through great
changes during her lifetime.
Although she is a Canadian and
has lived in Canada all her life,
her parents were bom in Ice-
land and everything Icelandic
means a lot to her. Especialy
the doings of Icelandic women
and women of Icelandic
descent.
“Generally speaking, I
think that even though they
were not politically active Ice-
landic women were always
very independnent,” she says.
“They were wonderful when I
think of the pioneer women I
grew up wíth. When I was
about eight years old I remem-
ber being at a cousin’s place
during harvest time and she
was baking about 50 pies. The
work they did was unbelievable
and my mother was like that.
She was just as independent as
the modem women today and
she accomplished a lot. These
women had no choices but they
never stopped working.”
“A real reporter”
Her parents were Sigtryg-
gur Olason Bjerring, bom in
Húsavík, Iceland in 1885, and
Sigríður Jónsdóttir, born in
Mývatnssveit in 1886, a daugh-
ter of Jón Sigurðsson from
Gautlönd and Guðrún Einars-
dóttir. Sigtryggur, or Tryggvi as
he was called, and Sigríður, or
Sigga, lived for the longest time
in Winnipeg, at 550 Banning
Street. He was three years old
when he was sent to Sigtryggur
Ólafsson and his wife in Win-
nipeg, who adopted him.
At the age of 13 Tryggvi
started working for the Manito-
ba Stamp and Stencil Works
and in 1911, in partnership with
Alexander Gillon, he estab-
lished his own firm, The Cana-
dian Stamp Company.
Sigga emigrated with her
mother to Canada in 1893 and
soon they moved to Winnipeg.
At the age of 11 Sigga began
working as a housemaid but
later she went into dressmaking
and tailoring. Tryggvi and
Sigga got married in 1911. She
died in 1957 but he lived to be
90 years old.
After graduating from the
University of Manitoba,
Guðrún became a journalist
with the Winnipeg Free Press.
In 1942 she was offered a job
with the National Film Board
in Ottawa. Later she and her
husband Morten Parker estab-
lished the Parker Film Associ-
ated Ltd. in Montreal and made
several documentary films
until they closed the company
in 1981.
“I worked nights for a year
at the Free Press and my fields
were hotels and trains,” Guðrún
recalls. “In those days every-
body travelled on the trains and
I had to go and meet the trains
and fínd important persons.
Once I got on the train and the
govemor general was there. I
went to interview him and the
train started. I had to pull the
cord and stop the train to get off
a few miles out of Winnipeg. I
had to walk back and I thought
this was the end. “They will fire
me,” I said to myself. When I
got back I said to the editor that
I had to stop the train. ‘Well,
Bjerring,’ he said. ‘That means
you are a real repo.rter now.’”
John Grierson offered
Guðrún a job at the Film Board
and she speaks highly of him.
She became the Director of
Educational Visuals and her
husband was also a NFB direc-
tor. “Women had opportunities
at the Film Board, thanks to
Grierson,” she says. “When the
war started there were more
opportunities for women in fac-
tories and so on but the minute
the war ended that was the end
of those jobs and they were sent
home. Later the women’s
movement started to take hold
and things changed.”
Morten and Guðrún have
two daughters, Julia Sigrid in
Edmonton and Martha Rebecca
in New York. Their grandchil-
dren are Luke Audin and
Sigrid. “I stopped working
when I had my daughters and
later we started our company.
But I really liked being home
with the children and they got
some Icelandic message. Once
our daughter Martha was in the
Museum of Art in New York.
She was an art student at the
time and asked the guard a
question. When he had
answered her he said; “Do you
mind if I ask yóu a question?”
She said no and he asked: “Are
you Icelandic?” Martha was
absolutely amazed because she
had really never spoken a word
of Icelandic and never been to
Iceland. He, on the other hand,
was studying speech pattems
and accents.”
Guy Maddin is unique
Since Guðrún and Morten
closed their company she says
she has been doing what she
wanted to do. “We have trav-
elled a lot and once I went to
Iceland with Julia. I read books
and I have friends and I watch
films. I love Guy Madden’s
films. My favorite film of his is
[Tales From the] Gimli Hospi-
tal. And I recognized every-
body in it. It was screened at
the Quebec Cinematheque and
I sat in a complete French audi-
ence. All these serious film-
makers were there but I went
by myself and I was the only
one who laughed because I got
the jokes. ‘And now I will tell
you another story,’ the grand-
mother says in the end and I
loved that. I loved the women
in the film and it was very
funny. Many years ago I met
his mother because my mother
went to see her every week but
I have never met Guy. I admire
his work and I think it is won-
derful that he is receiving
recognition now. He is unique.
Nobody makes the kind of
films he makes.”
Films have played an
importan role in Guðrún’s life
and she likes Icelandic films.
“The thing I like about the Ice-
landic ftlms I have seen is that
they always include children. In
Hollywood you never see chil-
dren treated in any kind of nor-
mal way but the Icelandic films
show the way they are. Life
includes children.”
Iceland for Icelanders
Iceland is important to
Guðrún and she cares about the
country where her parents were
bom. “I don’t want the world in
general to get interested in Ice-
land. I have heard a rumour that
certain foreign actors and oth-
ers got very interested in Ice-
land and wanted to have sum-
mer houses there. I think that
that is the worst thing that
could happen. It should not
become that kind of a country.”
Morten Parker still teaches
some fílm courses at the Uni-
versity of New York but
Guðrún remains in Montreal
while he is teaching. “He does
not like being retired and they
don’t have age discrimination
there,” Guðrún says. “He lives
in New York during the winter
and I live here. I am an Ice-
landic independent woman.”
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