Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.09.2014, Síða 30

30 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2014RIFF
Meet The Directors!
Heike Fink
'Home in the Ice'
This documentary tells the stories of Ger-
man women who, during the lean years
after WWII, responded to newspaper ads
soliciting women to come work on Icelan-
dic farms.
Is there any specific aspect of the film
you're especially looking forward to
sharing with an Icelandic audience?
It was very interesting seeing the influ-
ences both sides had on each other. For a
long time Icelanders and Germans worked
side by side. How these women were in-
cluded and assimilated into the Icelandic
society to me is a masterpiece of integra-
tion. None of the Germans even spoke a
single word of Icelandic. I think the very
personal way they learned the language in
families is the best way to integrate. Learn-
ing the language of a country is the key to
its people and its culture.
Katrin Ottarsdóttir
'Ludo'
This psychodrama concerning a father,
mother and their eleven-year-old daughter,
is the newest work from Katrin, a pioneer of
Faroese cinema.
Why does this film exist?
This particular film exists because it is a
totally independent and low-low-budget
film, made against all odds with the help
of my producing husband. And because I
have at last given myself a Green Light to
deal with my own personal stuff. And be-
cause I can't help it. To make films is what
I'm best at.
How did the process of making this
film change you, as a filmmaker or
otherwise?
Apart from making me ill with stress and
high blood pressure from never knowing,
right down to the last minute before the
premiere in Tórshavn, if we were going to
pull it through, it has made me more impa-
tient with people who don't appreciate me
and my work. During the hellish and frus-
trating process of finishing the film, I used
to say, “If we just can manage to finish this
film I can die in peace.” Now I say, “If I can
only make one film with a proper budget,
not a large budget, just suitable, then I can
die in peace.”
Kyle O’Donoghue
'The Mystery of the Arctic Cairn'
For this documentary, O'Donoghue accom-
panied an expedition to retrace a Norwe-
gian explorer's Arctic journey of 1898.
What's the best question you've thus
far been asked about the film (and
what did you answer)?
The most-asked question has been, “How
did you do the trip and also film?” followed
closely by, “How cold was it?” I got frost-
bite on my face merely from touching the
camera body to bare skin while filming.
With regards to filming, my only rule was
that I had to have a camera on me at all
times. I skied almost 1000km with a Pana-
sonic GH3 DSLR around my neck and I
think that was the key to coming back with
enough material to edit a film. If I had had
to stop and unpack a camera every time
there was a good shot it would have never
worked.
As an "expedition filmmaker," do you
have much freedom in terms of shap-
ing a story or “getting” certain shots?
It is very much about documenting and
then finding the threads to follow as you
become more comfortable with shooting
in that environment. Narratively I made
some story decisions early on as under the
difficult circumstances it was not possible
to spread the net wide and find the story
in the edit.
Directing on the move was sometimes
tricky as you have to look after yourself as
well as the people you are filming. Stop-
ping for any amount of time in -40 con-
ditionsmeans that you rapidly cool down,
which can be dangerous. In order to film
wide shots of the whole team I would have
to ski out wide with my dog (who only
wanted to be with his buddies and didn't
like being taken away), set up a tripod
while keeping an eye out for bears, and
then signal the team to do a walk by. So it
was a process.
Malik Kleist
'Shadows in the Mountain'
A trip to a cabin turns scary for six Green-
landic teens, in this selection from RIFF's fo-
cus on the developing Faroese and Green-
landic film industries.
Is there any specific aspect of the film
you're especially looking forward to
sharing with an Icelandic audience?
Maybe the “Qivittoq” legend which we
still hear about here in Greenland. We still
hear stories that there are Qivittoqs out in
the fjords. Of course we have made it a bit
more violent so the story would be more
interesting.
This movie's been described as "the
most popular Greenlandic film of all
time." Did you think about the film as
making any kind of "statement" about
the place it comes from?
It wasn't about getting a statement out,
it was about making the film into a state-
ment by making it. If we can make excit-
ing films that can beat Hollywood films [at
the box office], then we have achieved our
goal and can say that we Greenlanders
can also make cool films.
Mike Ott
'Lake Los Angeles'
The latest from American indie filmmaker
Ott is the poetically rendered story of two
lonely migrants—a Mexican girl and a Cu-
ban man—drifting through the Southern
California desert.
Why does this film exist?
The film comes from my obsession with
the desert and more specifically the lo-
cation of Lake Los Angeles itself. There’s
something so haunting and beautiful
about the landscape there. It’s also a per-
fect metaphor for the failure of the Ameri-
can dream since the town was initially
created and sold as a resort town in the
60s, but the man-made lake quickly dried
up and businesses moved out leaving ba-
sically a ghost town full of lost souls and
dilapidated structures.
Nina-Maria Paschalidou
'Kismet'
This documentary explores the popular-
ity and influence of Turkish soap operas
throughout the Middle East and Mediter-
ranean.
How did the process of making this
film change you, as a filmmaker or
otherwise?
I have learned to never ignore something
that can be considered “cheap” in some
people’s dictionary. Even soap operas can
be useful in society, and I don’t believe in
those who look down on them, because I
think that these are the very same people
who secretly watch them when no one is
around.
How did you go about finding women
to interview?
We actually found many women whose
lives have been affected by watching the
shows. Especially in Egypt, we met women
who don’t have Egyptian role models any
more, especially after the failure of the
Arab Spring. This is why Turkish women,
presenting a modern type of Muslim wom-
en, who are fighting for what they want
and are getting it, appear inspiring.
What these women have in common is
the need for love, respect and happiness.
I know it sounds cliché, but these are very
common for women around the world.
The fight never ends, even in parts of the
world we consider to be modern. Being a
woman also helped very much with gain-
ing access. There are some things that a
woman only tells a woman.
The Reykajavík International Film Festival (en.riff.is) runs through October 5, at Bíó
Paradís, Háskólabíó, and elsewhere. The program encompasses features, documenta-
ries, and short films by more than 100 directors—a handful of whom generously an-
swered our questionnaire prior to bringing their films to Iceland.
Photos
Provided by RIFF
Words
Mark Asch
www.riff.isSep 25 - Oct 5
Reykjavík International
Film Festival