Reykjavík Grapevine - 23.09.2016, Qupperneq 26

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ReykjavíkFrakkastígur 16
ORGANIC
BAKERY
26The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2016
adventure tale, com-
plete with parkouring
pregnant women and an
oppressive yoga
instructor running through the
streets of suburban Iceland. It’s
loosely based on one of the Icelandic
sagas. Word.
JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON doesn’t
need words for his latest release. As
we reported last issue, the con-
temporary composer has been busy
scoring the new BLADE RUNNER
movie, but apparently not too busy to
focus on creating a new solo album.
‘Orphée’ was released September 16
via DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON;
it is his first solo album in six years.
The track “By the Roes, and by the
Hinds of the Field” came accom-
panied by a video release as well.
The whole video is cast in glimmer-
ing nostalgia by an array of blinking
lamps. Its uncertain time period is
reminiscent of Jóhann’s own sound,
new yet nostalgic.
While we’re on the topic of “greats,”
EXOS is on a world tour. He’s spent
the summer playing in the bigtime
spots like BERGHAIN in Berlin
and OUTPUT in New York, as well
as some more exotic locations like
Cuenca, Quito, and Guayaquil. Do
you even know where Guayaquil is?
Well you can ask him yourself, when
he comes back to Reykjavík for two
shows in September (before taking
off to Tbilisi). Exos is one of Iceland’s
most experienced and respected
figures in techno. On September 24
he joins another mastermind of the
genre—MORITZ VON OSWALD—
for a guaranteed mind-bender of a
night at NASA. Welcome back, Exos,
you know what they say: there’s no
place like house.
Twelve years ago, Hrönn Marinósdót-
tir started RIFF as a school project. For
her master’s thesis at Reykjavík Uni-
versity she decided to research what it
would take for Reykjavík to host a ma-
jor international film festival. Three
weeks after her graduation, work be-
gan to bring the thesis to fruition. Sev-
enteen films were screened at the in-
augural Reykjavík International Film
Festival in 2004.
This year’s program boasts nearly
140 films, many of them travelling to
Reykjavík straight from other major
film festivals on the global circuit.
Hrönn has seen her thesis through
to an extent that she never imagined
when she began it; and she continues
to do so, year in and year out.
The new news
Before going back to school for her
MBA, Hrönn worked for many years
as a journalist at a major Reykjavík
publication. Her senses are fine-tuned
to what is topical: what people want
to hear about and what people should
hear about. The festival’s program-
mers work hard to make sure the line-
up reflects this.
“People are curious,” Hrönn says,
“but the news is getting shorter and
shorter. You turn on the news and you
get an overview of what is happening
in Syria in one and a half minutes.” To
give the public a chance to really digest
the world we are seeing, Hrönn slows
the clock down. Or, rather, she turns
it back. “We are giving people the op-
portunity to go to the cinema to get
the news, like in the past,” she says.
This year, films hinging on refugee
situations and human rights feature
heavily in the lineup. This undercur-
rent of important global issues pushes
RIFF into interesting territory. It is
informative and rooted in the human
experience, while remaining (as the
name suggests) a festival.
Link in the chain
It’s not only about the documentaries.
Another focus of RIFF is to bring films
to Iceland that would otherwise not
make it to screens here, and to put and
keep Iceland on the map for its film op-
portunities. “Iceland has rich grounds
for cinema,” Hrönn says. “We have a
lot of very skilled craftspeople. People
that are used to working with big Hol-
lywood productions, so it is very easy
for new filmmakers to come here and
create very high quality films. Hosting
RIFF is just another link in the chain
for establishing Iceland as a real film
destination.”
Hrönn believes in her work. She
speaks with as much passion as I pic-
ture her pitching the original idea
with to her friends twelve years ago.
“We have a really genuine group here,”
she says, gesturing to the humming,
clicking, buzzing RIFF office on the
other side of the wall, “the people that
work here are really motivated by film.
You have to be. It’s not about the salary,
we are a non-profit; there is no salary.
What motivates everyone is feeling
that what we are doing is important.
That bringing these films to Iceland is
important.”
SHARE AND LISTEN:
gpv.is/rff15
MUSIC
NEWS
Film
Words PARKER YAMASAKI
Photo ART BICNICK
FILM
What It Takes
A Talk with Hrönn Marinósdóttir,
founder and director of RIFF