Fall 2009
HAYDEN’S A quarterly publication of Elf Productions
Bodberi, a movie by Hjalmar Einarsson
!"#$!%&!'()*+,-!'((.(/
This Is Green: The new eco-friendly app
Mucha: An Exploration
Cuba: Up Close with Brent Harrewyn
Hayden’s explores the creative impulse through stories, articles, interviews, photography, and visual art. We hope to inspire you and encourage creative expression that uplifts and contributes to community.
A Day in the Park by Jan Manon. South Hero, Vermont. June 2009.
A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge. - Thomas Carlyle
Cover Art: “Bodberi” movie poster by Omar Hauksson and Thordur Karl Einarsson. From Left to Right: “This Is Green” iPhone App www.thisisgreen.com, Dance. Alphonse Mucha. From The Arts Series. 1898. Color lithograph. 60 x 38 cm. Cuba Photograph by Brent Harrewyn.
Editor! ! Contributors! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Artwork! ! ! ! !
Jan Manon Hjalmar Einarsson Brent Harrewyn Jeff Scher
Photography! ! ! ! " " "
Hjalmar Einarsson Brent Harrewyn Jeff Scher
Writing" " "
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Jeff Scher Jan Manon
Andrew Stowe Jan Manon
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NSIDE THIS ISSUE
Letter from the Editor!
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Artwork by Jeff Scher!
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An Interview with Hjalmar Einarsson! !
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Mucha: An Exploration! !
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This Is Green iPhone App!
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Cuba: Up Close with Brent Harrewyn!! ! ! ! Amos Hayden: On Being Homeless! !
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A Different Approach!
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Work We Believe In!
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Submissions!!
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Tesseract by Andrew Stowe!
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Letter
from the editor
" Welcome to the fall so interactive. You can add issue of our magazine. While live links to sites, video, and
Harrewyn and the first article by Amos Hayden on
this issue of Hayden’s is short, it packs a punch!
audio. That’s pretty terrific. We are still experimenting
being homeless. We also feature the This Is Green
" Our quarterly magazine takes time to put
with what we can make. We welcome your ideas and
iPhone app, the consumer’s quick guide to going green at
together since we do this in our spare time. Hayden’s
submissions. " Our November issue
home. We hope you enjoy our
remains advertising-free and a community-driven
features artwork by animator and filmmaker Jeff Scher
latest issue. Thank you.
endeavor. We value your feedback on how to improve
again, a poem from the Enjoy! green mountains of Vermont
the issues and will continue try to implement these
by Andrew Stowe, an interview with Icelandic
changes to make it the best it can be.
director Hjalmar Einarsson, an art exploration of
" One of the aspects that excites me about web
Alphonse Mucha, documentary photographs of
magazines is how they can be a day in Cuba by Brent
Jan Manon
Featured Artist: Jeff Scher
Jeff Scher
These photographs were taken recently with a Pentax Optio 750z using the built in 3-d feature. It can make "free-viewing" stereo photographs, cross you eyes style. In the side by side images, left and right eye views are reversed so that crossing your eyes will reverse them back. With crossed eyes, you see the image double, overlapping in the center. The center, merged image when focused on will appear in 3-d. The images are taken one at a time and converted into a single jpeg by the camera. It's called the "cha-cha" method, because of the little step you make to the side for the second picture. The advantage of this method is that you can control the distance between the two exposures as well as the angle. This allows you to increase the depth of the image by increasing the distance between the two exposures you have the stereo effect of seeing as if your eyes where anything from a few feet to miles apart. The disadvantage of this method is that anything that moves between the exposures will not merge when viewed. In each of the photographs I took below, there is a kind of subtle stereoscopic reward at the moment the 3d is achieved.
JEFF SCHER
JEFF SCHER
JEFF SCHER
Play
L’eau Life Shark Ending This is an older film of Jeff’s that has a new ending. Watch it on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfND-klxswg
While You Were Sleeping Jeff explores the seductive sight and sound of rain. Watch it on New York Times online at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/ 2008/09/22/while-you-were-sleeping/
play
JEFF SCHER
PLAY
Parade A film celebrating the art of walking through crowded city streets, seemingly looking at nothing while seeing everything. (1:13) See more of Jeff’s films on the New York Times online: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/jeff-scher/
Jeff Scher is a painter and experimental filmmaker. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Hirshhorn Museum, and has been screened at the Guggenheim Museum, the Pompidou Center in Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at many film festivals around the world, including opening night at the New York Film Festival. He has also created work for HBO, PBS, the Sundance Channel and more. Mr. Scher teaches at the School of Visual Arts and at N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts.
Email: jscher@fezfilms.net Website: www.fezfilms.net
Poetry: Andrew Stowe
TESSERACT (Mount Worcester in October) The first snow came early this year, a blizzard, In the middle of October – I ran through a cold, sleepy field at dawn, Kicking up white mounds, The snow still falling and my boots untied. Blue Jay's discordant cries Suddenly frame the stillness of this forest trail – A quizzical hush; The jay is the only bird we hear all day, hiking Five miles on the mountain. The unchallenged hush of windless trees whispers A question for the sky: “Is it fall? Is it winter? Will you snow again?” Low-gray, pregnant sky-lid Scatters a few white flakes; then lies still as the trees. The birches thinks it's winter – Flustered, some leaves still green, they hurry to catch-up; The confusion of small beeches Is a rushing spectrum: greens and yellows, rusty browns – Some crinkly leaf tears Are a swirling mixture of all three shades, stem to tip. Surprised mushroom caps Cradle gnome bowls of the year's first snow over
A dappled, leafy floor. Down here the uneven snow, like rich damp moss, is Nature's finger pointing north. Higher up, bright green feathered fern tips poking Through a half-foot of powder – She has the same idea as me, slyly scooping snow, And suddenly spinning!, Just as my own snow-ball sails through her laughter. A mitten-full of powder – I pat and rub it in my thick, misty, fall beard, and, Turning: “Look, snow beard!”, Like a sage's wizened chin wisps – “I'm the Han Shan Madman of Worcester Mountain!, And this, my Northeast Kingdom”; soul's 'Cold Mountain', I think softly. Steep, deep-snow Scramble up a jumble of whitened, smooth-snow boulders – “Better keep mom's mittens on”; and Squat pines hold the season's weight in bent, powdery limbfuls. Climbing the last half mile in silence, Then: “I've never seen such clear diamond pools!”, and, “Look, the green mountains are blue!”; The cracks in the summit's wrinkly rock face are filled With round ice rivers – supine icicles. Heaven's peak, soul's fire, a frigid paradise for apples and Almond butter; lone raven wheels. Red, yellow, orange M&Ms, left to remind the sky Its too soon for winter. Sun escapes clouds for a heartbeat, shines on the snow-line. Descending through drifts, Hoods up – “Ho, ho!”, leap through the laden branches – Snow sifts down on boot-prints. Farther down, I feel the poem unravel, snow giving way To thickening leafy carpet; Snug unperturbed conifers to anxious maples, beeches; Winter back to Fall. Last two months, clearing trail in New Hampshire with The nine-fingered carpenter, I lamented I would miss the winter, not ski our trails For another year at least (Mexico in November, then east, Hawaii and India). Near the bottom, Meg says: “Usually the snow waits until your birthday, one more month” – I guess my gift came early this year.
An Interview with Hjalmar Einarsson On the set of “FATHER”, a film by Michael Fisher. Pantazopoulos is second from left.
Hjalmar Einarsson has recently completed his first feature film Bo!beri or “Messenger” in Iceland to be released in 2010. What is your film about? The film follows the life of Palli, a plummer who leads a Icelandic filmmaker Hjalmar Einarsson talks about his latest film Bo!beri. by Jan Manon
normal life until he begins to have visions of life after death. They are kind of like religious epiphanies. He soon realizes with his talent that some disturbing things are about to unfold within society. He is like a modern Nostradamus. Meanwhile, a shooter is on the loose after several assaults targeted at high society figures. Authorities are in the dark on who the shooter is. The elite start to flee the country. Palli uses his abilities to visualize and see with his eyes closed. He
discovers that some powerful people have been plotting a scheme to hurt the country and shatter the economy. Is Palli susceptible as well? Obviously he was depressed and fixing houses for the elite, he feels like a secondary citizen. And he's got his own prejudices. His dream is to be a painter and he applies to art school and is denied. He is sensitive to evil and notices people who are infected with greed like the heads of the monetary fund and others. He gets caught up in the ensuing conflict but he also connects with a woman who relates to him.
Can you tell us what inspired you to do this movie?
Darri Ing贸lfsson as Palli.
It was the situation in Iceland that first inspired me. I wanted to make a movie about what was happening. We had a lot going on here in Iceland with the economic crisis. Iceland for a long time was the least corrupt of many of Western industrialized societies, a place where friends helped friends. We also became one of the most prosperous nations quickly. Loans were given out easily and while the banks profited, we had a class of new rich with fancy homes, big cars, and bigger wallets. Not all of these methods were legal. Many people profited illegally and just like friends helped friends, corruption spread the same way.
Hjalmar conversing with actor Gunnar Eyj贸lfsson We suddenly had a growing white"collar society who was getting billions in profit often illegally through pyramid schemes. The corruption was like a giant octopus stretching outwards from rich families that owned everything to the new rich that was eager to join in on these schemes to make a quick buck. The money was dirty. Everyone knew everyone and so everyone got involved in some way or the other. They were all too busy playing the game. This movie is political; it shows how people can snap on their society and it also shows we Icelanders are resilient. After all, we grew up with volcanoes, weather that changes on you in a second, and geothermal springs. We are used to change and adapting. Does this mirror what is going on in Iceland now? Yes, in many ways. Bo!beri is the first film to deal with this big, big thing. There are artistic and philosophical aspects of the movie that are di#erent of course. In
Iceland, when the economic powerhouses crashed, the bubble was broken. Our white"collar society was attacked by the public. Many of their houses were covered in red paint and Range Rovers symbolizing the new wealth, were burned. In fact, many of these people demanded and needed 24"hour surveillance. Some of them moved away to the U.K. and to Denmark. People were fed up with that. They were confused and afraid. There was just a lot of anger and the people were taking justice into their own hands. In many ways, I think it is a good thing. An artificial mask has fallen.
Did you have any interesting discoveries along the way? Well, while we were filming, there were demonstrations outside the parliament building. We were able to add that footage right into the movie. We also added some shots of the conflict over the devalued kroner including a crash.
What movies would you say influenced you? Well, I think Bo!beri has some similarity to Taxi Driver and Donni Darko. You have a lot of people in this film. How did that come about? Yes, we have about 160 people in total and 120 on camera. The way the script was written, we needed the lead actor on the set every day. He'd get a break for 1"3 days in between and our production crew kept growing. More and more people got excited about it and wanted to help out. It went from 30 to 60 quite quickly. We had a lot of lucky breaks as well. When I talked to the production studio, the owners just let me use it as I needed it free of charge. Can you tell us a little more about the actors and the people involved behind the scenes? The main actor came from the National Theater. I was able to get some of the best actors we have. A year before I had won a best music video award at the FAMU festival in Prague, Czech Republic. After that, it seemed the ball started rolling and a German DOP $Director of Photography% got interested in working with me. He was the kind of guy that got paid a lot for his work and I had nothing to o#er him in terms of money. But he was excited about my project when I told him about it. Before I knew it, he was out here shooting with me! $Laughs.% We had some actors like this guy who played a minister that is now a politician in parliament. We have people in the movie from every sector in society. My mom did the catering for us. We cut costs where we could. We had 6 guys sleeping in the studio where we worked. Other times, we were camping and we were also eating cheap food.
How did you fund the film? It was privately funded. We did it ourselves with the money we had. My dad took a second mortgage on the house. It's a big secret of our film. We had no grants like most movies in Iceland and hence we were free of the committees. When I started this project, all the movies in Iceland were pretty much produced and controlled by right"wing committees. You could not criticize their choices. But overnight, all of these things changed as the political climate in Iceland change. It was good for us. All of a sudden, everyone was in support of our film. Our film was like a mirror image of what was happening in society around us. Everyone suddenly cared and everyone wanted to help. We got sponsors for some things like the cars for production. Another big thing is that by going digital, our costs were significantly less than film. Digital today looks very good. It's great for independent films. They can flourish.
You capture a lot of breathtaking scenery. Where did you shoot? We had more than 130 scenes and we shot anywhere from 40 to 50 locations all over Iceland. Summer here is long and we pushed it on some days going from 15 to 20 hour days. We tried to get the magic hour as much as we could. The camera man was amazing. He would create something out of little and always improvise. We only had 2 HMI lights and 2 Keyno Balls that we bought from Ikea $Laughs.% He worked so hard. He did so much filming handheld. He said he could not feel his arm after a point! What kinds of challenges did shooting outdoors present? The weather. The camera guy would get so frustrated when the weather would change. You know we have psychotic weather. One minute there's the sun, and then it's raining and then it's hail. I would say to him, "Don't despair. Just wait 15 min." But it was worth it. I would sleep a maximum of 4 hours and then be back out there $laughs.% Wow, that's long. Yes. 60 days of straight shooting. I grew a beard, which I kept and lost 12 kilos. Did anything unusual happen on the set or during production? We shot inside the monetary fund building and did what we needed to do, whether it was pulling in 600 kilos of fertilizer or stunt car chases. This was before the security was as high as it is today so we had some leeway. We did get permission from a church to shoot with a real gun in front of the building. Whenever we needed to some car chases, we would shoot at odd hours. Our schedule was pretty crazy.
One funny story is how we got money to do the sound. We started filming in April and got finished shooting in October. While post"production was busy with CGI shots that take a lot of time, we were focusing on getting good sound. But we were out of money. So the whole crew went to my father's studio. With my father's help, we got a loan from the bank to make improvements to the house. So we had to put up a roof and then we could get back to working on the movie!
What would you like to see in Iceland? A change in industry and change in focus. It's already happening. We Icelanders are like children. We had to go out and make all these mistakes and fall. Now we are learning from our mistakes and coming together again. Iceland has abundant natural resources from waterfalls to volcanoes. I would like to see us use those resources whether it is through geothermal projects or other ideas. Iceland is like a child's market; it's easy to try and test out new ideas.
Can you tell us more about yourself ? I did a lot of videos and marketing stu# here in Iceland before I went to Prague to attend film school at FAMU. I loved the work of Milos Forman. He is someone who creates stories with heart in it. He was the reason I went to Prague. In fact, I hear he is coming to Iceland. I want to meet him! This movie is a daring film for what it talks about and the basic ideology of something going wrong. But it's also a movie about a man and his inner angels and demons. You know I don't believe in good luck alone. We had lucky breaks but good luck comes with hard work. For more information visit www.bodberi.com
Mucha An Exploration
Alphonse Mucha (July 24, 1860 - July 14, 1939) Father of Art Nouveau Movement
Job. 1898. Color lithograph. 149.2 x 101 cm.
Woman in the Wilderness, 1923. Oil on Canvas, 201.5 x 299.5.
On Preceding Page: The Apotheosis of the Slavs. 1928. Oil on Canvas.
Jaroslava, 1928. Oil on Canvas. 28.5 x 23.5
Photo of Mucha’s studio
Self-portrait. Pen & ink drawing.
! Born in Ivan!ice, Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, Alphonse Mucha was versatile in many art forms from an early age. His first love however was drawing and Mucha pursued his passion through apprentices and painting theatrical scenery in Vienna. When his employer’s business burned down, Mucha was hired by Count Karl Khuen who sponsored his further studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. ! His studies in Munich would become the launching pad for his further explorations and studies, as he went to study and exhibit in Paris, France and all over Austria. His style of painting mainly young women in long, flowing robes in glowing scenes came to be called Mucha Style, giving birth to the immensely popular Art Nouveau style. " Summer 1896, part of Decorative Panel Series. Color Lithograph.
Heraldic Chivalry Oil on Canvas. 35 x 53.5 in
Madonna of the Lilies. Tempura on Canvas. 247 x 182
This Is Green .
"
This Is Green is the ultimate green guide to be healthy, save you money, and live
an eco-friendly sustainable lifestyle. Every day you make choices about the kinds of products you use in your home, whether you are buying a light bulb, putting new flooring in your home, or purchasing toys for your kids. This Is Green can help you make informed choices. "
This Is Green is a handy easy-to-use application that will help you navigate
through the vast array of products you find at the grocery story, pharmacy, or department store. For more information, visit This Is Green online at www.thisisgreen.com or download directly from the iTunes App store at: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=337495394
Cuba: Up Close with Brent Harrewyn
"I spent the day with a Cuban friend of mine, walking through the streets of Havana - talking and observing. He is a painter. These are just a few images captured by my camera that day..." - Brent Harrewyn
BRENT HARREWYN
BRENT HARREWYN
Brent Harrewyn is a photographer based in Burlington, VT. CONTACT: Brent Harrewyn Photography Tel: (802) 233-1002 email: brent@brentharrewyn.com web: www.brentharrewyn.com
amos hayden
On Being Homeless “A tramp is a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow; always hopeful of romance and adventure. He would have you believe he is a scientist, a musician, a duke, a polo player. However, he is not above picking up cigarette butts or robbing a baby of its candy. “ - Charlie Chaplin
Tramp artwork at the Main Street Museum’s Special Exhibit on “Hobos and Tramps” in White River Junction. Summer 2009.
“Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you.” - Tourist Union!s 889 National Hobo Convention in St. Louis Missouri.
Wandering over the back roads of America has a certain appeal. Some of the nation’s finest writers and artists ranging from Jack London, Walt Whitman, and John Steinbeck have spent countless hours exploring the rich and wide terrain of this vast and diverse country. Right alongside this more well-known wanderer is the hobo, the tramp, the non-glorified explorer; the person who simply cannot rest and must wander from place to place. Uprooted, alone, and generally lacking any social pedigree, the homeless person has changed faces over the years. In the early twentieth century, each word had its own significance. The penniless “hobo” hopped freight trains looking for work while “bum” was considered lazy, unemployed, and a beggar who often stole from you when you were not looking. The name “tramp” also had a poor reputation, although in England at times, tramps were accepted as part of the social landscape - permanent homeless wanderers who walked and hiked the country at whim. On a given night in America, there are anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million homeless people. Today’s homeless may not be romanticized like their precedents were by late English and American authors. Yet the close lens of photography like Tom Stones’ can show you the human side again of what it is to be homeless.
HAYDEN’S NOV 2009
A DIFFERENT APPROACH “We find out where conditions are the worst the places where others are not going - and that’s where we want to be.” - Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders more than 30 years of independent humanitarian medical assistance Founded in 1971 as the first NGO or nongovernmental organization to provide emergency medical assistance, Doctors Without Borders assists people in need in over 60 countries. Doctors Without Borders helps people who are in the midst of armed conflict,
epidemics, and disasters. Ethiopia; providing Many of the people medical assistance to suffer from malnutrition refugee camps in and poor sanitation. Somalia; HIV/AIDS care in Cambodia; and Current projects include emergency storm relief emergency obstetric in Bangladesh. care in Haiti; assistance to displaced populations For more information: in Congo; battling the www.doctorswithoutborders.org cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe; emergency food shortage in
HAYDEN’S SPRING 2009
Work We Support: The Carter Center
“A culture of respect for human rights is crucial to permanent peace.”
Advancing Human Rights & Alleviating Suffering so that every man, woman, and child can enjoy good health and live in peace. While there are many organizations out there assisting people in need across the globe, the Carter Center is one of a few that consciously and actively promotes peace. Part of this process involves monitoring elections to ensure that results reflect the will of the people. The Carter Center supports human rights activists at the grassroots level. In addition, the organization also works to promote national and international human rights laws. When diplomacy fails or democracy loses support, the Carter Center provides mediation services. Through these efforts, the Carter Center has assisted peace efforts in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Support UNHCR by making a donation online
For more information on The Carter Center, you can contact them directly at: The Carter Center One Copenhi 453 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, GA 30307 Tel: (404) 420-5100 Toll Free: (800) 550-3560 carterweb@emory.edu www.cartercenter.org
www.cartercenter.org
Submissions Interested in submitting to Hayden’s online? We welcome your ideas. We are just on our second issue and already the content is pouring in. Most of our content comes from eager and passionate people. Sound familiar? Sound like yourself ? Then do send in your stuff. We will read every submission. GUIDELINES: We do have a few guidelines. If you submit by email or regular mail, please include a description of what your content is: poetry/fiction/short story/article/ photographs/paintings etc. with a brief cover letter or introduction. We are more interested in WHO you are rather than your credentials. Please do say a little about yourself in a bio that we include and send us your contact information so we can get in touch with you. By email: submissions@elfproductions.com