“Is There an Orchestra Playing in the Depths of the Glacier?”: Margreth Olin on Her TIFF-Debuting Documentary, Songs of Earth

My DOX:AWARD top pick for the Ekko jury grid I participated in at this year’s CPH:DOX, Margreth Olin’s Songs of Earth, was also number one in my critic’s notebook for the doc most needing to be experienced on the big screen. In this palpably loving portrait of the veteran filmmaker’s elderly parents and the country that shaped them (and her), “Olin juxtaposes jaw-dropping, drone-captured images of the awe-inspiring Norwegian landscape with closeups of her dad’s bald pate, his tender hand on her mother’s back, as the environment and humankind become one” (per that notebook, and my coverage). Thus, it comes as little surprise that Wim Wenders (Olin directed “The Oslo Opera House” segment for Cathedrals of Culture) and Norway’s cinema treasure Liv Ullmann are both credited as EPs. Or that the Toronto International Film Festival will be debuting the stunner on these shores. So to discuss all this and more — including the doc’s big screen soundtrack performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra — Filmmaker reached out to the human rights-focused director (26 honorary awards and counting) just prior to Songs of Earth’s September 13th premiere.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.