Jóhann Sigfússon

The Far Traveller

When she died around 1050 AD, a littleknown Viking explorer had become the most traveled woman of the Middle Ages. She had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean eight times and her travels extended from Iceland to Greenland, North America, Scandinavia, the British Isles, through Europe, and all the way to the Vatican in Rome. She was rescued by Leif Erikson from the shipwreck that earned him the nickname Leif the Lucky. Her name was Gudrídur Thorbjarnardóttir, aka the Far Traveller.

The Journey Home

The Journey Home is a new Icelandic documentary about the people living in the most remote shire in Iceland. We follow the photographer María Gudmundsdóttir, who was born and raised in Árneshreppur, throughout the film and see the livelihood of the people living in this shire. María shot most of the film from 2009 till 2014 and the author Vigdís Grímsdóttir took the majority of the interviews.

Elephant Whisp­erer

This is a personal story of one small woman’s fight to save one of the planet’s largest animals. Lek has saved hundreds of Asian Elephants from abuse, street begging and hardship over the past 20 years. Working from a remote village in Northern Thailand, she continues her dangerous work despite obstacles and death threats. Running this sanctuary, Lek has devoted her life to saving this animal. As experts predict the Asian Elephant faces extinction within four decades, her work is needed now more than ever.

Fencing

The film follows a day in the life of a troubled elderly gentleman facing fear of death and visions of his late father who he gets mixed up with his favorite figure of fiction, Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. He has visions of rubber shoes in the sewer where he works leading him to think back on his childhood and the origins of his bizarre work of art for which he has sacrificed even his marriage. His masterpiece is a bizarre fence along a black beach which he tends to with tenderness but dreads to complete.