The only experimental film and video festival in Iceland, 700IS Reindeerland, opens in Egilstadir March 29, the capital of Fljótsdalshérad region. Seventy films and videos from around the world will be screened during the festival, which ends April 5.
Special guests include five students from the Arizona State University (ASU), who will participate in international art workshops at Eidar, and Russian curator Alexei Dmitriv from St. Petersburg, who participated in screening films from the 2007 Reindeerland festival in St. Petersburg and Rostov last fall.
“Nebraska Suite” by Lydia Moyer. Of the most memorable contributions to the Reindeerland festival in 2007, courtesy of Kristín Scheving.
The festival, which was first held in 2006, is the brainchild of Icelandic artist Kristín Scheving. She moved to Iceland in 2005 after 11 years abroad and felt drawn to east Iceland—taking on a job in the local culture scene—despite not having any roots there.
“After only few months in my job I decided to ask the head of Culture and the Mayor of Fljótsdalshérad what they thought of this idea, to put up an international event here in east Iceland. To my surprise they loved it,” Scheving told icelandreview.com.
“I put advertisements in international magazines and the first year we received over 300 films from 34 countries and lots of guests have come to the area only because of this festival,” Scheving said.
This year’s program includes events in Skriduklaustur Culture Center and the towns Eidar and Höfn. The main events will take place in the old Slaughterhouse in Egilsstadir, which is about to be converted into Fljótsdalshérad Culture Center.
After the festival ends, the 700IS Reindeerland team will tour the world with a special selection DVD, as in 2007, visiting Manchester, England, Arizona, St. Petersburg and the Nordic countries, Greenland included. The festival’s motto is to cooperate with smaller cities, not capitals.
Scheving is already thinking ahead for the next festival, setting the deadline for submitting films in November 2008. “Everybody can send in a film. We first watch the films and then read about the artist, filmmaker. […] We don’t have any themes, we don’t care when the film was made or how long it is; we look at everything.”
For further information visit the festival’s website, www.700.is.
