Speed Skating (1950’s)
Land | 3:44 | 2007 | Canada
Director: Freya Olafson
Land is part of the New Icelander series, drawing parallels between cross-cultural experience of 19th century ancestors with Olafson’s present-day identity; manipulating visual imagery and stories within this “saga”. Land explores her ancestor’s settlement, Nes, along the Icelandic River in Manitoba. Nes became an unmarked graveyard for over 80 Icelanders who died of smallpox within the first years of settlement (1875-76). Upon a personal visit in 2006, Olafson was surprised to have direct encounters with unearthed graves and bones - gradually being dragged to the basin of the river. The imagery in Land is as a result of this serendipitous connection with history resurfacing both symbolically and literally.
