Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.05.2013, Qupperneq 24

Film 24The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 5 — 2013
THE FRESHEST FISH ....AND IDEAS!
SKÓLAVÖRÐUSTÍGUR 14 - 101 REYKJAVÍK - 571 1100
After years of study,
strings of awards and
having led kitchens of
some of Reykjavík’s most
esteemed restaurants,
Gústav still sees him
self as just a kid from
up north, with a life-
time passion for fish.
List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
Agencies on:
visiticeland.com
Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
website.
Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the
Icelandic Tourist Board.
Tom Cruise is slowly strangling himself in some post-apocalyptic desert
landscape. Yes, we are watching ‘Oblivion,’ a dystopian future film shot
in Iceland, and surely this is how he must have felt when he was here.
It was not a happy time for the world’s highest paid actor, living in a
mansion on the hill overlooking Eyjafjörður, so far from Hollywood and
so close to Akureyri. For one thing, after over a quarter century as one of
cinema’s top guns, he turned fifty. This would be a cause of concern for
anyone, but for someone trading on his boy-ish good looks, the prospect
of old age must seem daunting. To make matters worse, his wife Katie
Holmes refused to join him on his birthday, electing for divorce instead.
The suit was filed the day before Iceland re-elected its president, who
has been in office since Cruise was still married to Nicole Kidman and
making his first Mission: Impossible film.
It was not a happy time for anyone. A report that a local supermarket
had been closed to the public so that the actor could do his shopping
undisturbed turned out to be untrue, but roads were indeed closed off
during his stay up north, much to the irritation of local sheep farmers
who could no longer go their usual routes. Cruise is in fact one of the few
actors with the pull to have the roads near his home in Hollywood per-
manently closed to the public, but in a country that has long prided itself
on social equality and where stories abound of sheep farmers addressing
the King of Denmark as an equal, this impressed no one.
While Ben Stiller charmed inhabitants of the East Fjords during the
making of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ and Russel Crowe became
a Reykjavík local by pumping iron at the gym and singing with Patti
Smith downtown on his days off from ‘Noah,’ the local verdict on Cruise
remains mixed. So, was all the suffering worth it?
Well, kind of. ‘Oblivion’ is a superior, if not ground-breaking, science
fiction film with a rather obvious plot twist and excellent visuals. A bar-
ren, future hell (Iceland, of course) is populated by clones of the world’s
most perfect man (Tom Cruise, of course). In between repairing predator
drones made to kill sand people in Darth Vader masks, he has fashioned
himself a tiny oasis safe for basketball, baseball caps and Led Zeppelin
records (these scenes are shot somewhere else).
Northern Iceland here stands in for New York
in 2077, and it is by no means the first
time Iceland is used as a dystopia.
The first time was ‘Enemy Mine,’
made in 1985 in Vestmannaeyjar
but sadly then reshot in a studio,
and the latest one bar this is
Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel ‘Pro-
metheus.’ Iceland will also soon
make an appearance in ‘Thor
II,’ where it will probably be the
home of the Dark Elves, as in the
aforementioned ‘Noah,’ but whether
it will be portrayed in this as a new
paradise or as a world ripe for drowning
remains to be seen.
Iceland, then, is most often used to represent Hollywood screenwrit-
ers’ idea of a dark and forbidding place. This, in itself, is kind of funny to
locals. “Hey, I can almost see my house from here,” one sometimes feels
like shouting at the screen. In more optimistic times, many thought New
York was what the world would look like in the future. These days, with
global warming, it is more likely that the wastes of Iceland are what New
York will wind up looking like. Or, to (mis)quote a phrase from Rambo,
what most people call hell, we call home. - Valur Gunnarsson
It’s a cold world out there. No one
knows that better than the documen-
tary filmmaker, whose job it is to por-
tray that world, in all of its gruesome
glory, to the public. Lucky for them,
Reykjavík provides a warm home to
celebrate the fruits of their labour.
For one week, from May 9–16, The
Shorts&Docs Film Festival will screen
88 carefully selected documentaries
and short films in downtown Reykja-
vík. We met with the Festival Director
Heather Millard to discuss the impor-
tance of the festival, the international
guest-list and the exciting films and
festivities in store.
SEEKING SHELTER
Iceland has no shortage of national
film festivals. The annual Reykjavík
International Film Festival (RIFF)
leads the pack as the most widely
known (for now!), with a smatter-
ing of smaller festivals popping
up all over Iceland. What sets the
Shorts&Docs festival apart from the
rest is the, perhaps obvious, fact that
it shows exclusively short films and
documentaries.
But aside from satisfying the gen-
eral public’s demand for entertain-
ment, the festival is a necessary part
of Iceland’s emerging documentary
film industry. Documentaries, Heath-
er notes, are easily the most difficult
films to market. Having worked for
many years in the industry herself as
a movie producer, she says this with
a qualified voice. When people go out
for a cinema experience, they want
popcorn and entertainment, some-
thing to displace them from their daily
lives for a couple of hours.
It’s less common that people seek
out the thought-provoking reality that
documentaries offer. That being said,
emerging from a quality documentary
film can be one of the most satisfying
and inspiring cinema experiences.
Thus, the festival is for the sake of the
filmmakers, the subjects of the films,
and the audience’s own good.
THE FILMS
Due to limited funding and resources
for the festival, Heather tells us that
she tried to decrease the list of films
from last year’s record 75. But instead,
it grew and Heather is enthusiastic
about this year’s 88 films, each one
chosen carefully from over 350 total
submissions.
With that many films, Heather is
sure that there will be something for
everyone. “If documentaries are not
your cup of tea,” Heather asserts, “I’ll
bet we have one that can convince you
otherwise. Same goes for the short
films.” Her confidence stems from two
main components of the selection pro-
cess: variety and quality. “Some of the
films are surprising, others intriguing,
but they are all selected because they
are quality films. With so many films
to choose from, they have to be high
quality films.”
Along with the broader category
break-ups, the festival will also feature
blocks of ‘spotlight sections.’ This
year’s include a German section, a Pol-
ish section, and an Icelandic Female
Filmmakers section.
AN INTIMATE
EXPERIENCE
Once festival season hits, it’s “all
hands on deck,” Heather says, refer-
ring to the all-star crew of volunteers
and collaborators that make the
festival possible each year. Her own
personal involvement with films ties
her to a global network of industry
professionals, allowing her to compile
an extensive multi-cultural guest list.
Last year, Heather recalls inviting the
entire line-up of filmmakers over to her
own house for a home-cooked dinner.
Of course, the public is well
provided for throughout the festival
as well. Local venues all over town
welcome festivalgoers each night
with special offers, live music, and the
occasional free drink. Along with the
excitement of the films themselves,
the Shorts&Docs Festival endows
Reykjavík with a rich atmosphere of
perks and parties.
The international guest list of
talented and hard-working filmmak-
ers combined with Iceland’s famously
tight-knit capital makes for a large-
scale yet uniquely intimate experience.
As the festival grows, she hopes that
the international filmmaking crowd
will recognise Reykjavík Shorts&Docs
and take their own initiative to get an
invitation to Reykjavík. In the mean-
time, Heather’s mission: “to introduce
Iceland’s public to films they may
otherwise miss, and to get these films
the exposure they need to jump onto
the global film circuit.” - Parker
Yamasaki
What Most People Call
Hell, We Call Home
Shorts And Docs
Not Just a Southern California Fashion Phenomenon
“A
barren, fu-
ture hell (Iceland,
of course) is popu-
lated by clones of the
world’s most perfect
man (Tom Cruise,
of course).”
“If
documenta-
ries are not your
cup of tea, I’ll bet
we have one that can
convince you other-
wise. Same goes
for the short
films.”
9
MAY
Bíó Paradís,
KEX Hostel,
Slipp Bíó
– 16
MAY
Visit www.shortsdocsfest.com to
see the full programme of events.