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After premiering on April 30, 2006, during Lisa Kirk's "On ne sais jamais" series at MonkeyTown in Brooklyn, NY, Package Deals' current touring package, Cold Hearts, is now screening at venues around North America and Europe in 2006 and 2007. Featuring macabre stop animation, the secret life of moss, mouse suits, exploding dictaphones, women who live on clouds, Outkast ballads, and some very creative uses for whipped cream, Cold Hearts represents the whimsical Icelandic imagination. 17 artist films and music videos cover expansive aesthetic ground. Working in locales as diverse as art school in Los Angeles to the craggy vistas of Skagafjördur in northern Iceland, these young artists explore their native and adopted worlds in inventive ways. Intrinsically dark and aloof, yet also refreshingly honest, Cold Hearts is a glimpse into the curious cultural landscape of Iceland now. From the fantastical, sometimes disturbing artist films of Unnar Andrea Einarsdottir to the otherworldly output created by bands such as Mum and Apparat Organ Quartet, the Icelandic aesthetic is as strange and beautiful as it is overlooked.
Cold Hearts Tour 2006-7:
Zeitgeist Cinema, New Orleans - Sunday, June 25 at 8pm
AS220, Providence, RI - Thursday, July 20 at 9:30pm (doors at 9)
Duchess Presents, Chicago - Saturday, July 22
Roxy Bar & Screen, London - August 3, 2006
Dallas Video Festival, Dallas, TX - August 12, 2006
Sound Unseen Music + Film Festival, Minneapolis, MN - Monday, August 21, 2006
Indie Memphis Micro Cinema Club, Memphis, TN - Wednesday, September 13
Detroit Film Center, Detroit, Michigan - September 30th
Antimatter Festival, Victoria, BC, Canada - September 2006
Croatian Film Association Cinema, Zagreb, Croatia - October 2006
The Ritz at the Bourse, Philadelphia, PA - October 26, 2006
The Varsity, Seattle, WA - November 2, 2006
Allmanna Galleriet 925, Stockholm, Sweden - December 2006
Alamo Drafthouse, Austin, TX - January 22, 2007
Short Cuts Film Club, Visby, Sweden - April 18, 2007
Ashdod Film and Music Festival, Ashdod, Israel - May 28, 2007
Celda Contemporanea, Mexico City - May 2007
and more to be announced...
For booking information, please contact Package Deals.
the Cold Hearts lineup...
Kristin Helga Karadóttir, Untitled. (2006, loop, video)
A speechless performance-video. The artist saw this picture while meditating. She is extremely happy, sitting on a cloud in the sky, waving to the people below.
Apparat Organ Quartet (dir: Magnus Helgason), Global Capital. (2005, 5:20, 16mm)
A stop-animation music video for the all-man band, featuring Icelandic flags, bread crumbs, and other ephemera.
Berglind Ágústsdóttir, Husid a Antmannstignum (House on Antmannstig). (2003, 4:12, video)
A stop-animation nature video.
Bjargey Ólafsdóttir, Jean. (1997, 2:00, 16mm)
An ironic story of a French banker and his troublesome marriage with the adorable Jean, featuring his thoughts of love, death, and, of course, marriage.
My Summer as a Salvation Solider (dir: Elvar Gunnarsson), Hey Ya! (2004, 3:02, video)
A cover of the Outkast song that became 20 year-old Thórir's first hit. Shot in a single take.
Múm (dir: Semiconductor), Green Grass of Tunnel. (2002, 4:12, video).
Inspired by the mysterious terrain where the music was made, the very lighthouse and valley the band lived whilst recording "Finally We Are No One" is remade into a fantastical dreamland.
Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson, Landslag. (2004, 4:00, video)
A visual nature poem consisting of images taken from the Skagafjördur region of Iceland.
Lars Skjelbreia, Mosimosi. (2004, 4:00, video)
The secret life of moss portrayed through stop-motion animation.
Berglind Ágústsdóttir, Untitled. (2005, 4:30, video)
A lo-fi, hybrid art film/music video shot in the lovely meadows of Seydisfjord and featuring a menagerie of dancing characters.
Gus Gus (dirs: Stefan Arni & Siggi Kjartansson), Believe. (2001, 4:17, video)
A man, a woman, and a swimming pool.
Unnur Andrea Einarsdóttir, Toilet. (2005, 4:50, video)
A short form art piece exploring the juxtaposition between primal physical pleasures and the feelings we associate with their aftermath.
Maus (dir: Elvar Gunnarsson), Over Me Under Me. (2004, 3:20, video)
An increasingly bizarre, cyclical journey that follows one man though several days.
Hlynur Magnússon, Digital Jesus. (2005, 5:23, video)
A strange sinister church gone wrong...
Malin Ståhl, Welcome to: Going West. (2004, 2:34, slides+16mm transferred to video)
Using slides found in a vacant building in Reykjavik, Stahl reconstructs an Icelandic woman's visit to friends in L.A and adds a soundtrack cut together from well-known American mainstream movies.
Sigur Rós (dirs: Stefan Arni and Siggi Kinski), Vidrar Vel Til Loftárása. (2001, 6:59, video)
Filmed in Iceland, with an entirely amateur cast and the group making cameo appearances as the referee, score-keeper etc. this video tells a simple, if emotionally charged, tale of two adolescent boys' burgeoning feelings for each other, culminating in a kiss during a youth soccer match.
Bang Gang (dir: Ragnar Bragason), Stop in the Name of Love. (2003, 3:34, super-8)
A cover of the Supremes' classic reimagined as a home movie shot in pastoral Iceland. Bang Gang's new album, "Something Wrong," hits stores September 2006.
Ragnar Bragason and Bardi Jóhannsson, Who's Bardi. (2003, 29:01, video)
A group of filmmakers follows the Icelandic musical prodigy Bardi Jóhannsson around. He gives the impression of being a health freak, into spiritual things and sports. The filmmakers look more closely and discover a world of contradictions.
Kira Kira, Romantic Undead. (2005, 1:00, b&w video)
Featuring a ghost that slithers inside a dictaphone, sings and explodes.
