Thursday, October 16, 2008

my HANDS DOWN favorite documentary

Heima is a documentary about the band Sigur Ros shot entirely on location in Iceland. Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland that sold out pretty much every one of their shows on their world tour. When they returned to their country, they decided to go on a tour of free, unannounced shows in random countryside settings and watch how it turned out. Those were a surprising success ad this film documents Iceland's reaction to their free shows as well as the band's reaction to it's turnout.
Sigur Ros has a sound that I haven't heard from any other band. I was first exposed to them a long time ago when my dear friend Brett asked if I like "trippy shit" music and I was like "sure". I watched this documentary with him and I was sold.
Their live performances are supposed to be very haunting. I wouldn't know from personal experience because I've never seen them live but it looks very amazing and I hope to do so one day. They play with a screen in front of them and I think they're trying to get their audiences to feel like they're on drugs. I'm sure it works. Here is the film's trailer.

3 comments:

Sarah Garrahan said...

I saw this documentary at the Music Film Festival in Barcelona last year. It actually partially inspired me to go to Iceland this past summer. The film does an amazing job at portraying the Band's relationship with the Island as a force that has shaped their music. After seeing Heima, it seems a film about Sigor Ros can be told in no other way than through the environment in which the music was created. The film was shot by an Icelander, so the sense of "home" definitely comes across in this documentary. Heima is unique in that is is mix between a nature and music documentary, in which Sigor Ros' music in a sense, provides the soundtrack for the Icelandic landscape.

E. Spiro said...

Well, I have to confess, I have just spent the last 10 minutes traveling in cyberspace searching for the meaning of "trippy shit" which led me to a better understanding of what it means. but is Sigar Rios "trippy shit"? it's sort of ethereal, sacred, ancient electronica-y.

Prof Spiro

Yvonne said...

crazy gorgeous color. I like sarah's description of the mix between nature and music documentary. I'm interested in seeing it.