LoveStar – a novel by Andri Snær Magnason has been published by Lubbe in Germany. Here you can see the cover, “retro-sci-fi-flash gordon soft porn style”. It actually fits the book quite well. LoveStar is about a huge corporation based on a north atlantic island and becomes a global giant. You could say that LoveStar is about what would have happened to the world if the crisis had not stopped our global expansion. Here you can read some excerpts in German on the Lubbe website. LoveStar did very well when it was published here in Iceland, it was nominated to the Icelandic literary award and it won the DV literary prize. Now it has been staged by Herranott – the oldest theater group in Iceland. What is LoveStar? When I wrote the book I thought of the books I had loved the most, by Bulgakof, Calvino, Primo Levi, Vonnegut and others, not quite science fiction – but on the edge, twisted reality. 

Andri will participate in the Leipziger Buchmesse 2010 from the 18th – the 21st of march. Andri Snær Magnason just won the Kairos award of the Alfred Toepfer institute in Hamburg. Here is some information in German about Lovestar.

My childrens book – Die Geshichte auf dem blauen planeten – has also been published in German. It won the Icelandic literary prize in the year 2000 and has been published in 20 languages. Here you can read about in on Radio Bremen.

The Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S has announced that Andri Snær Magnason will be the winner of the Kairos Award of 2010. The Award Ceremony will take place at Deutches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, february 28th 2010. 

KAIROS — A European Cultural Prize awarded by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S.

Since its establishment the foundation has awarded various cultural prizes of different endowment throughout Europe. Reflecting the changing social, political and cultural conditions of contemporary Europe, most of the previous awards were discontinued in favour of one newly conceived and at the same time higher endowed prize. The KAIROS Prize which was first awarded in 2007 represents an innovation within a rather distinguished post-war history of price giving through the foundation. Previous winners of prices initiated by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. have been, among others, Harold Pinter, Pina Bausch, Samuel Mendes, Imre Kertesz, David Hockney, Cees Nooteboom or, more recently, Olafur Eliasson.

Our dear uncle, Dr. John Thorbjarnarson died from malaria in India on february the 14th. John was born 1957 and was one of the great roll models in our family. He was almost a mythological idol in the minds of the younger generation, living an extraordinary life traveling around the planet through swamps, rivers and jungles, saving endangered animals from extinction. John was a Conservation Officer for the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in Gainesville, Florida and had spent nineteen years leading in situ conservation efforts of reptiles for WCS. He was a noted expert on the conservation biology of crocodiles worldwide – having led efforts in the recovery of both Orinoco crocodiles in Venezuela and Chinese alligators in Anhui, China. He was also well known for his long term efforts focused on capacity building and conservation of crocodiles in Cuba and Black caiman in Brazil. He was part of the team doing the first large study on the life and habitat of the anaconda in Venezuela.

I am a part of the Icelandic branch of Johns family. John was born 1957, he was the son of Björn Thorbjarnarson and Margaret Thorbjarnarson. Björn was a chief surgeon in the New York Hospital and professor at Cornell, he was born in the west fjords of Iceland and left for America in the late 1940s. Björn and Margaret had four children, John, Kathy, Paul and Lisa, but my mother, or mothers – Bjorns identical twin girls, Kristin and Gudrun were born and raised in Iceland.

It was a great adventure for a young child to get to know this part of the family, afi, Peggy and the cool bunch of teenagers living in the big white house in the suburbs of New Jersey. They had all kinds of animals, a dog and cats but Johns bedroom was a whole universe. He had a small caiman and in a glass cage – a huge boa constrictor. We could handle it and it would even swim with us in the pool. John was a very charming young man, entertaining and funny – John’s path in life was a perfect example of following your childhood dreams. In an interview John was asked when he got interested in crocodiles he answered:

“I remember in the late 60s watching a television program, I think by National Geographic, on the alligators in the Everglades. I was very moved by the whole thing, droughts were affecting the wildlife and hunters were taking alligators and I remember thinking that I wanted to work on alligators when I grew up. ”

Here you can see when his childhood dream had come true – on National Geographic, where he probably inspired other children:

Maybe it should not be called a childhood dream – perhaps something more like a calling. We always knew that his job was not exactly the safest on the planet – but he always said that snakes and crocodiles were not the greatest dangers. Traffic, food or disease was a far bigger risk.

We were proud to see John in a National Geographic show or in a New York Times interview and it was great to hear that his work was actually effective. He was a scientist, specialized in cold blooded animals but himself full of warmth with a strong human touch – he could act as a peacekeeper between people and the creatures they feared the most, he could eliminate prejudice and create understanding for the graceful but unpopular creatures in the crocodile family. He could get people to understand that a crocodile is a healthy sign in an ecosystem – not some kind of a pest to be exterminated. By destroying the habitat of the crocodile, the wetlands, swamps and rivers, people would eventually harm their own existence. He was realistic and understood that people needed a source of living – and by promoting sustainable hunting the long term benefit of a species could be secured.

John came to Iceland a few times for a visit – Iceland is one of few places in the world without any reptiles, no snakes, frogs or lizards. He came with his father to visit his birthplace – Bildudalur in the west fjords. John was a distant roll model for us – it is hard to catch up with somebody that spends his time in Asia, South – America and Africa – but his traveling around the world became a part of our identity. Our own life was not always an interesting subject at a dinner party, but we could always impress people by saying that some day – in the future, (when the kids become a bit older) – we would go as volunteers and catch anacondas or caimans with uncle John for a few weeks. Those plans have changed – but his memory will still inspire us and we will tell our children about his work. Thanks to John and people like him – the animals will be there to be researched.

John was in India to give a course at the Wildlife Institute when he succumbed to a severe case of falciparum malaria. He will be sadly missed by his colleagues and friends. The loss is even greater for the family as his brother, Paul died in 1996. John has two sisters in the United states and two in Iceland and a big family on both sides that misses him. It is because of men like John that many endangered species still exist on this planet. It is because of men like him that we know that childhood dreams are something you can follow. Our thoughts and prayers are with afi and Peggy.

READING IN HELSINKI THURSDAY

On thursday Andri is having a reading in Helsinki in Nifin. 

DOCPOINT HELSINKI

Dreamland is the opening film of DocPoint Helsinki and is proud to be the opening film of the first DocPoint festival in Tallinn.On Friday Andri Snær Magnason, one of the directors will attend a screening of Dreamland in Helsinki and answer questions from the audience.

GÖTEBORG FILM FESTIVAL

Dreamland has been invited to the Göteborg film festival. Here is some information about the screenings, saturday the 30th of january – (sold out), sunday and monday.

PANEL DISCUSSION GÖTEBORG

On sunday, january 31 at 17:00 there will be a panel discussion based on Dreamland and the film festivals concept, Sharing. Among participants in the panel is mr. K-G Hammar – former Arch Bishop. Here is some information:

Sunday. 31. January. 17.00 Atalante. Sharing: The Resources of nature

The environment is what we all share. The question is how we share it. In his documentary Dreamland, Andri Snær Magnason focuses on the crossroads at which the Icelandic nation stands: should they put their money in the aluminum industry or concentrate on preserving the Icelandic nature? What is the value of a mountain? Snær Magnason´s film serves as a starting point for a panel discussion about the good and bad consequences of globalization, and about the role film and art at large can play in relation to environmental issues. 

Moderator: Anders Johansson, PhD in Literature Panel: Andri Snær Magnason, director, K-G Hammar, Visiting Professor in Theology, Caroline Peterson from the magazine Camino, and Tyrone Martinsson, photographer and researcher. The seminar will be held in English. A co-operation between Göteborg International Filmfestival, Glänta, Göteborgs Fria Tidning and Svenska Kyrkan

In Oslo there is a Human wrongs film festival 3rd – 7th of february 2010 where you can see Dreamland. In Copenhagen there will be a screening the 4th of February 2010 in Nordatlantens brygge. Andri Magnason will attend the screening. 

CINEMA POLITICA

Last but not least – if you are in Canada – screenings by Cinema Politica in University Campuses are going on. Toronto tomorrow. More info here.

One of the best environmental films ever made, Dreamland shakes the soul

by EZRA WINTON on JANUARY 24, 2010

Here is the review on www.artthreat.net

There is one reason, above all the others, that the Academy Awards are not worth paying any attention to this year: the documentary Dreamland is not up for best picture, best documentary, or best anything.

Once every five to ten years a film comes along that shakes your soul, rattles the cage of your conscience, and awakes you from a media-immersed cryogenic dream state. The technical perfection and power of the message rearrange the synopsis in your circuitry and leaves you feeling like a wave of clarity and inspiration has washed over you. This sermon on the mount, the audiovisual awakening that has knocked me from safe and comfortable passage into a world I had temporarily forgotten was there, is the magnificent breathtaking political documentary Dreamland.

Dreamland asks us how much is a mountain worth? Two billion? Twenty billion? Then challenges the capitalism calculi that conjures these figures, re-orienting the audience toward another framework, one of eco-logic, and argues for 89 minutes that the value of the natural world is of course not measured in dollars, or barrels, or extractions. The value of the natural world we inhabit is immeasurable: it is beauty, harmony, health, co-existence and much, much more.

If I’m sounding like a hippy that’s likely because three viewings of this documentary from Iceland have changed my purview. It’s not that I didn’t give a damn about ecology before Dreamland, it’s just that this film was the much-needed kick in the ass that I required. Dreamland is like a drug: a truth serum that wrestles memories out of their webs, that beautifully captures the “reality” of the natural world, and that connects our fears with our needs with our wants. The fear of the antithesis of progress – of simply preserving and protecting the environment because its value is immeasurable; the need to push for a kind of progress defined and managed by elites who have disdain for the natural world and who answer to constituencies, not rivers, rocks, tundras, the hooved and the winged; and the want, as it is articulated by CEOs attracting politicians attracting large amounts of small pieces of paper with abstract symbols on them.

Dreamland is a documentary like no other. This 2009 film by Þorfinnur Guðnason & Andri Snær Magnason is a visual treatise that exposes the greed and corruption that has befallen Iceland like a plague of myopic and avaricious infection of the mind and heart. It is a poem to the natural world and speaks for ecology through stunning cinematography and the pacing of a practiced orchestra.

Dreamland shows us how mining multinationals and hydro-electric companies have steered Iceland toward a precipice of pillage. The country already produces more than enough energy for its 300,000 inhabitants, but Alcoa (based out of Montreal) and politicians in Iceland see resources that exist without intervention as willful waste and neglect. There is money to be made, and through massive mining operations as well as monstrous hydro-electric projects, the corporate and political elite argue, Iceland can have more, much much more. But what is needed when the country’s needs are met and the people live in one of the most beautiful and pristine environments in the world?

The documentary powerfully examines the psychology of fear that leads to progress and consumerism that leads to apathy and support for the eco-criminals currently destroying Iceland’s natural world. And the film, through gorgeous photography and a perfectly complimentary soundtrack, inspires, provokes and dare I say initiates change.

It is telling of this film’s potency that I left the cinema in Amsterdam back in November full of rage, but also full of plans. Rage at the injustice and immoral acts that I had bared witness to. But plans, inspired by the moving argument played out so politically and emotionally on the screen, to be a better environmentalist. And that the story I had seen was about a country so far removed from my immediate reality, yet I was so compelled to change and effect change, further illustrates the powerful masterpiece that is Dreamland.

Dreamland is an experience, and one that you do not sleep through. Once this film grabs hold of you, it is a tight and cathartic embrace that does not end when the lights go up. It is one of the most important and powerful documentaries I have ever seen, and deserves not just an Oscar, but a place in every person’s conscience – a reminder of who we have been, but also who we can be, what we have and why it is worth fighting for.

Cinema Politica.

Dreamland is being screened in various universities in Canada by Cinema Politica. The film has been very well received by the people of Cinema Politica and call Dreamland, “One of the best environmental films ever made.” - Here is a film review from The Concordian.

Dreamland has been published in Danish by Tiderne Skifter. Here you can see an interview (in English) in the news program Deadline. Dreamland has has also been published in Japan by NHK and the DVD is now available here. Here is more information in Danish about the book – from Tiderne Skifter website:

Hvad sker der på Island? Først et sandt økonomisk mirakel, så det totale krak. Der er vist noget råddent i det islandske samfund!

 Sæt 300.000 individer sammen på en ø og lad os se, hvad der sker. Island er blevet beskrevet som en slags ”kanariefugl i en kulmine” eller ”hele verden i en nøddeskal”. Kort sagt: hvis man forstår strømninger i Island, forstår man også bedre sin egen virkelighed og verden.

 Skal Europas største uberørte naturområde forvandles til en industriel park af aluminiumsværker og vandkraftanlæg? Den islandske regerings planer om at sælge den statsejede jord og landets billige og uudnyttede vandkraft til de multinationale selskaber er et stærkt eksempel på den globale virkelighed i dag: Hvem ejer i sidste ende rettighederne til verdens naturresurser og jord? Befolkningen? Regeringen? Den der byder højest? 

Andri Snær Magnasons bog Drømmeland skabte kolossalt røre i hjemlandet, da den udkom. Den kickstartede debatten om forvaltningen af Islands dyrebare råstoffer – og forudså Islands økonomiske krise. Men dybest set handler bogen om en lille nations selvopfattelse og identitetskrise. 

Hvad sker der i Island? En nation der var koloniseret af Danmark i 600 år? De læser ikke bare deres gamle vikingesagaer, men også Milton Friedmans økonomiske teorier – og beslutter sig for igen at blive et vikingeimperium. De køber Magasin du Nord, Sterling – og mere til.

Hvad sker der, når man har et af verdens smukkeste naturområder? Ingeniører laver beregninger af, hvor store mængder energi man kan skaffe sig, hvis man udnytter landskabets naturlige vandkraft. Og hvis nationen er for lille til selv at klare den nødvendige udplyndring, så sender man tilbud ud til globale selskaber – uanset hvem de er og hvor dårligt ry de har. Det skete i Island – og der sker nu i Grønland.

Og hvad sker der, når internationale banker beslutter at kanalisere milliarder af dollar gennem netop privatiserede banker og fortsætter med at gøre det, velvidende at pengene har skabt en lille elite af milliardærer. Man får private jetfly, overdådige parties og en masse sjov – det største boom og den største nedtur i den finansielle verdenshistorie.

 Pressen skrev:

 ”Den utrolige velstand i Island var grundlagt på udenlandske investeringer i landets aluminiumsindustri, og først og fremmest er Magnasons bog en advarsel om de konsekvenser for miljøet og for kulturarven, som den medfører. [...] hans bog har en udmærket pointe omkring forholdet mellem visioner og realitetssans, for jovist handler et samfund ikke kun om, hvad vi skal leve af her og nu, men også, hvad vi skal leve for. Som han skriver: ‘Efter at have skrællet alt unødvendigt af samfundet, stod der følgende tilbage: 1stk. 20 fods container/telt, rindende vand, 100 kg fiskemel,100 kg hvedemel, to får, 1 stk. sovepose, 1 stk. 66N termodragt, stilhed. Større er virkeligheden såmænd ikke.’ Og spørgsmålet er om vi – også herhjemme – får nogen til at arbejde længere blot for det.” - Børsen

Udgivelsesår: 2009 – ISBN: 9788779733602 – 272 sider. Omslag – Mikkel Henssel

Here you can listen to an interview and a poem, by Andri Snær Magnason on Melting Point. As BBC tells us: A feature by Nina Perry exploring the environmental, cultural and musical significance of the icy landscapes of Greenland, Iceland and the Highlands of Scotland. Featuring the words of an Icelandic writer, a Greenlandic fisherman, a drama therapist and an ice-climbing fiddle-playing mountain rescuer interwoven with spectacular recordings of the ice sheet as it calves and a specially composed musical soundscape.

Broadcast on: BBC Radio 3, 9:30pm Saturday 21st November 2009. Duration: 30 minutes. Available online until: 10:02pm Saturday 28th November 2009.

Dreamland by Andri Snær Magnason and Thorfinnur Gudnason will be premiered in IDFA Amsterdam the 24th of November. Dreamland will compete in the main competition of IDFA in the category of feature length documentaries. IDFA is one of the largest documentary festivals in the world. Andri Snær and Thorfinnur will answer questions after the show. Screenings information and film trailer can be seen here.