In August 2010, French filmmaker Vincent Moon, best known for his art of capturing performing artists on camera, went to the Baltic island of Als where he met up with the Danish eight piece band, Efterklang. The objective was to shoot a film. A film with the same length as an album, and a film full of performances, experiments and collaborations. Over an intense period of 4 days Efterklang collaborated with more than 200 local musicians, kids and their own parents, creating new performances and interpretations of songs from their album Magic Chairs
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Since it’s release in February 2011 it has premiered at venues large and small across the world as Private-Public Screenings well beyond the expectations of the band and film-maker. I saw Efterklang perform about a year ago now and one of the lasting memories of their performance was their engagement with the audience, they didn’t stop smiling, everyone in that audience felt a pert of that moment. It was all about community. This film captures the very essence of community and music. The way in which it has been distributed and screened was organic and self-perpetuating…it took on a life of its own.
Yesterday sadly marked the final screening day and this is what Efterklang had to say about it on their site:
Now here we are on March 31st, the final day of the Private-Public Screenings project, with more than sixty screenings just on this very day. Everywhere from Beijing, China, over Mårslev, Denmark to Bogotá, Columbia, and a total of 1178 Private-Public Screenings during these past 2 months. It has been incredible to witness how the Private-Public Screening idea & the AN ISLAND film itself have been taking off and taken in by so many lovely people. We’ve received so much positive feedback and love during the past month, and even gained a gigantic collection of group photos from screenings all over the world
Update as of 2nd April: The following full length film will be available to view for one week only from 2nd April:
An Island – Trailer
If you’re are new to Efterklang listen to them, I can’t recommend them enough.
Efterklang will soon decide about the future plans for the film. You can sign up for their newsletter here if you wish to hear about these plans. And if you haven’t seen the film yet and are dying to do so, then check Twitter or Facebook today.
Downloads
MP3: Modern Drift – from Magic Chairs (Feb 22nd, 2010).
MP3: Towards the Bare Hill – from mini-album Under Giant Trees (2007).
MP3: Mirror Mirror (live – Feb. 2008 in St. Gallen)
MP3: Cutting Ice To Snow – from Parades (Oct, 2007).
Links:
http://efterklang.net
An Island (Official Site)