Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.11.2018, Blaðsíða 7

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1. nóvember 2018 • 7
Stefan Jonasson
Kvennafrídagurinn, the
Women’s Day Off,
which is more commonly
remembered as the day the
women of Iceland went on
strike, has become legendary
around the world. On October
24, 1975, it is estimated that 90
percent of the country’s women
did not report for work in order
to demonstrate their importance
to both the economy and the
well-being of society as a
whole, while protesting the fact
that they were paid far less than
men for work of equal value, did
not enjoy the same opportunities
for advancement as men, and
were not equitably represented
in either boardrooms or councils
of state. Women participated in
this one-day strike whether they
worked in business or inside
the home, and the sight of men
trying to cope without them
ranged from the comic to the
pathetic. They made their point,
not only in Iceland but also to
the whole world.
Some people referred to
the day as “the long Friday,”
especially those men whose
consciousness was raised
about the indispensability
of the women in their lives.
This is a play on words,
since Föstudagurinn langi or
langafrjádagur are the names
that Icelanders give to Good
Friday. While men’s sense of
their suffering on this day in
1975 may have been rather
melodramatic, the event did
lead to tangible changes in
Icelandic politics and society.
And the legendary nature of the
day has continued to grow with
each passing year. This year
was no exception. Next to posts
about bankers and volcanoes,
no event in Icelandic history
garners as much attention on
social media as the Women’s
Day Off, or the Long Friday,
whatever you choose to call it –
Iceland’s singular contribution
to International Women’s Year.
Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir
is an Icelandic filmmaker
who is currently working on a
documentary about the “Long
Friday.” Noting that those
who participated in the strike
are aging, it quickly became
apparent why there is a sense
of urgency about creating a
feature-length documentary to
record this momentous day in
history for posterity. Hrafnhildur
was one of the presenters at
the Icelandic National League
of North America convention
in Edmonton, Alberta, last
April, and those in attendance
were able to get a glimpse of
some of the raw footage for
her documentary, The Long
Friday. Looking out at her
eager audience, Hrafnhildur
exclaimed, “It’s like being in
a room full of relatives and
friends,” which generated
robust laughter and applause. It
was her first encounter with the
Icelandic community in Canada.
A producer and director with
Krumma Films, Hrafnhildur has
worked extensively in Icelandic
television but from 1989, when
she graduated with a bachelor
of fine arts degree from the
San Francisco Art Institute,
until she returned to Iceland
in 2003, she was involved
in filmmaking in America,
basing herself at Video Free
America. Her filmmaking focus
has been on labour and social
issues. She was president of
Félag kvikmyndagerðarmanna,
the Icelandic Filmmakers’
Association, overseeing its
transformation into a labour
union; board chair of Nordisk
Panorama, a festival of short
films and documentaries based
in Copenhagen and Malmö; and
president of Samtökin ’78, the
gay alliance of Iceland.
Reflecting on the causes
and events that command her
attention, she said, “I have
always been pulled into chairing
some impossible causes … that
were heading a battle. That
made me who I am. Of course,
Iceland made me who I am.”
“Being a documentary
filmmaker is not a job,” she
insists; “it is a lifestyle. I have
been fortunate enough to go
around making films that have
been very interesting and have
changed my life. Each one of
my films has changed my life.”
During the course of her
presentation, Hrafnhildur
showed clips from several of
the film projects she has worked
on over the course of the years.
Each of the clips was powerful
and moving, irrespective of the
subject that each film addressed.
Emotions flowed from tears
to laughter. Hrafnhildur told
the audience about a series
of 52 short television pieces
she created to mark the 100th
anniversary of the achievement
of women’s suffrage in Iceland,
showing one of the segments to
give everyone a taste of them
while demonstrating the power
that even a short video can
have. Reflecting on her whole
body of work, she joked, “there
seems to be a theme of beauty
contests in my work,” before
showing a clip from a feature-
length documentary about “an
unusual beauty contest” in the
Westfjords “where wrinkles and
cellulite are a plus.”
“How do you select a
subject?” she asked rhetorically.
“It’s a mystery to me. But often
it’s a subject that selects you.”
“I’m always interested in
preserving history,” she said,
“the history of people who are
not necessarily featured all the
time. It’s the people who are
silenced in our society that I’m
interested in. They speak the
loudest to me.” She has been
working on a history of gay
people in Iceland, which she
hopes to complete this year.
“It is a constant struggle to
find financing” for documentary
filmmakers, but Hrafnhildur
observed that, “in Iceland, we
are very fortunate to have a very
strong film fund,” although in the
aftermath of the financial crisis a
decade ago, funding was cut by
35 percent. She explained that
state support for film production
is actually a good investment,
since it is generally more than
matched by private investment,
expanding to anywhere from
four to eight times the initial
contribution from the state.
Iceland reimburses 25 percent of
production costs incurred within
the country. Moreover, films
help to drive the burgeoning
tourist economy, since 23
percent of visitors to Iceland
say they were motivated to visit
because they had seen Iceland
featured in a film.
Following Hrafnhildur’s
presentation, the Icelandic
National League of North
America and the Leif Eiriksson
Icelandic Club of Calgary took
her words about investing in
film to heart and presented her
with modest contributions of
$1,000 each in support of the
documentary, The Long Friday.
“Fairness is what I’d love to
strive towards in my filmmaking
and in my life,” Hrafnhildur
said, adding that, “filmmaking
is about building bridges” –
and both of these qualities are
evident in her work. Concluding
that “films have the power to
transform,” those of us who
watched her films and heard her
words were truly transformed
by the experience. Now we are
waiting for The Long Friday
with great anticipation.
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PHOTO: STEFAN JONASSON
LEIC president Lorie Dobson, filmmaker Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, INLNA past president
Sunna Olafson Furstenau, and INLNA president Bev Arason-Gaudet.
The Long Friday