In Her Father’s Footsteps
Documentary filmmaker Margreth Olin wanted to get to know her father better and suggested she make a film project about him. He replied, “I think we should go for a hike,” adding that they’d have to walk together for a year for her to truly understand him.
The pandemic gave Olin the perfect opportunity to spend both quantity and quality time with her spry 84–year-old father, Jørgen Mykløen. In wanting to become closer to her father, she learned even more about life, death and nature.
Sons of Norway’s Jana Velo talks with Margreth Olin about her film Songs of Earth, delving into the filmmaker’s background and the cultural themes within her work.
Watch the trailer and find out what spurred Olin to make such a personal film, which she calls “a declaration of love to both nature and [her] father.”
Watch the trailer:
Songs of Earth – Interview with Margreth Olin:
Jana Velo Interviews Director Margreth Olin
Songs of Earth opened in September 2023 in Norway and will be coming to theaters in the US and Canada in May.
About the film
The strongest nature experience of the year.
From Margreth Olin, the director of Doing Good, The Angel, and Childhood, comes the documentary Songs of Earth, a close and spectacular embrace of our first love: Nature.
With Olin’s 85-year-old father as guide, we experience Norway’s most scenic valley, Oldedalen in Nordfjord. This is where he grew up, and where generations before him have lived in balance with nature. Majestic images of wild mountains, calving glaciers and bustling wildlife go side by side with the parents’ stories about the generations who trod the trails, the relationship we have with nature and what is valuable in life. The music is composed of unique sound recordings – nature’s own melodies, translated and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra.
With Songs of Earth, Margreth Olin has made her most magnificent film, and at the same time her most personal, with Liv Ullmann and Wim Wenders on board as executive producers.
Watch the trailer:
https://youtu.be/HTzJws8GbUQ
Link to Margreth Olin’s website:
https://www.margretholin.com/
See Songs of Earth in theaters:
| Minneapolis | MSP at the Main | Minneapolis | MN | 4/22/2024 |
| New York | IFC Center | New York | NY | 5/24/2024 |
| New York | STARR Cinema | Rhinebeck | NY | 5/31/2024 |
| Los Angeles | LAEM Royal Theatre | Los Angeles | CA | 5/31/2024 |
| Minneapolis | MSP at the Main | Minneapolis | MN | 5/31/2024 |
| Portland, OR | Living Room Theatre 6 | Portland | OR | 5/31/2024 |
| Fargo | West Acres 14 | Fargo | ND | 5/31/2024 |
| Duluth | Lakes 10 | Hermantown | MN | 5/31/2024 |
| Minot | Oak Park Theater | Minot | ND | 5/31/2024 |
| Missoula | Roxy Theater | Missoula | SD | 5/31/2024 |
| Canada | Vancity Theatre | Vancouver | BC | 5/31/2024 |
| Cleveland | Cleveland Cinematheque | Cleveland | OH | 6/6/2024 |
| Portland-Auburn | Maine Film Center | Waterville | ME | 6/7/2024 |