Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2004, Page 29

FILMING BJÖRK
BEHIND THE SCENES
Ragnheiður Gestsdóttir is the woman behind the film The Inner or Deep Part of
an Animal or Plant Structure that documents the year-long process of creating Björk
Guðmundsdóttir’s latest release Medúlla. But she´s not done yet.
“I’m now editing footage from the making of a
video by the director Spike Jonze [Adaptation,
Being John Malkovich]. It’s for one of the songs
from the Medúlla record, “Triumph of a Heart.”
One of the scenes in the video is a party at Sirkús
where Björk shows up quite drunk and really
depressed and all of a sudden everybody in the
bar there starts singing, doing sounds with their
voices, different sounds, and she sings with them.
It’s like a chapter in the song. So we had to find
people who could perform spontaneously in front
of the camera.”
This is pretty high level, working with Spike
Jonze and Björk.
I don’t really see it like I’m working with Spike
Jonze. It´s not like Spike calling me and asking
me…I usually don’t think of it, but when I do I
get paralyzed. “Fuck, I can’t do this. I’m not the
person for this!”
Any ideas in the works?
Right now I’m also working on a film on
contemporary art with my friend Markús Þór
Andrésson. When you do a documentary you are
trained to try to tell a truth. You’re not supposed
to add anything fictional to it. I graduated four
years ago with a degree in anthropology and it’s
taken me these four years to realize I’m not doing
anthropological films, I can add whatever I like to
it. So already Markús and I have started adding a
lot of fictional things; why not add scenes that are
just made up? I don’t know where that’s going to
lead but it’s opened up a new world for me.
How many people did you have with you during
the filming of the making of Medulla?
It was just me. You get a totally different thing
having a crew or being on your own. I actually do
think that you should not edit your own films,
(smiles) but I seem to be stuck there.
Is it going to be shown here any time soon?
Yeah, it will be shown on RÚV before Christmas.
It was released on DVD on the same day as the
record, and has been bought by TV stations all
around the world.
What’s very interesting and attractive about
The Inner Life... is that you avoid the typical
interview storyline.
I thought at first that I was going to end
up with just footage of Björk and Valgeir
Sigurðsson sitting in front of computers around
the world. That’s when I contacted illustrator
Darri Lorenzen to create the graphics, because
I thought I was going to be struggling with
visual material. You never actually knew who
was coming where and when...Björk didn’t even
always know herself. It was all spontaneous.
Now, you did not have to find funding for these
recent projects with Björk. Is it all about being in
the right place at the right time?
Yes, definitely. I did another film about Björk in
2000 when she toured with Vespertine. I didn’t
really realize it, but now that I’ve been trying to
get funding for this art film I realize it’s such a big
gap that I stepped over.
Though you get a leg up initially, you still have to
prove yourself.
Exactly. Absolutely.
And so she most probably will.
by Maria Alva Roff
29