Carleton and St. Olaf are co-sponsoring a week-long series of events with the award-winning Icelandic director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, who is visiting the colleges as part of the World Cinema Director Series. All the events are free and open to the public!
Either Way, Sunday, February 25th at 7 PM, Weitz Cinema
Sigurdsson’s debut film Either Way (2011) tells the story of two young men working alone in the countryside over one tumultuous summer. It was remade by David Gordon Green in the US as Prince Avalanche (2013).
Orange Couch Conversation with Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, Tuesday, February 27th at noon, Weitz 132
This is your chance to have a casual conversation with the director over lunch.
Under the Tree, Tuesday, February 27th at 7 PM, Viking Theater, St. Olaf College
Under the Tree (2017), Sigurdsson’s most recent feature, opened at the Venice Film Festival and has already garnered numerous festival awards. A modern tale based on an Icelandic legend, Under the Tree is equally comic and dark as it shows suburban neighbors getting at each other’s throats. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Public Workshop: Screenwriting, Wednesday, February 28th at 5 PM, Viking Theater, St. Olaf College
In an hour long session, Sigurdsson introduces the classic three-act structure, and discusses how his own films deviate from it.
Public Workshop: From Script to Screen, Thursday, March 1st at 5 PM, Weitz 132
In an hour long session, Sigurdsson focuses on how to prepare for filming and discusses his experience of working with actors.
Screening of short films, Sunday, March 4th at 6 PM, Weitz Cinema
During his visit to Northfield, Sigurdsson will hold extensive workshops with a group of students from St. Olaf and Carleton. At this final event the students will introduce and show the films they made under Sigurdsson’s guidance.
Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1978. He is a graduate of the Film program (MFA 2008) at Columbia University. Following the success of his first feature film Either Way, Sigurdsson was selected as one of “Variety’s Ten European Directors to Watch” in 2012. His third feature, Under the Tree, was a major critical and commercial hit in Iceland last year and chosen to represent the country at the Academy Awards. Internationally, the film has been picking up awards on the festival circuit (including Best Film at the Hamptons International Film Festival and Best Director of Comedy at the Austin Fantastic Festival) and it will be released in the US this summer.
This week-long series of events has been made possible by a Mellon-funded Broadening the Bridge grant in addition to support from the Faculty of Humanities, English Department, Film Studies Program, and Norwegian Department at St. Olaf College and the Weitz Center for Creativity and Cinema and Media Studies Department at Carleton College.