Filmed, Edited and Directed By: Henry Behel
Voiceover: Júlía Hannam
Music: Sam Plotkin
Percussionists: Amin Malekpour, Sam Archer, Kris Wismer
I filmed this in four days while traveling around Iceland alone. The sun set at midnight and rose at 3am, but it never really got dark. I shot as much of the day as I could, stopping everywhere that caught my eye. I found places off the road and slept on a pad under the stars. I got rained on and blasted with wind, but I felt alive.
I have made a habit of traveling alone in wild places. I feel magic in the howling wind, the ice on my face, the sand in my shoes. My mind can drift back to the beginning of time or out to the stars where the earth is just a dot. I finally feel the connection and peace I so long for, and yet is so elusive in my daily life.
No place has inspired me like this more than Iceland. This film is how it feels to me. Beautiful and serene, but dark and violent as well. Time moves differently here. The land still exists in some ancient forgotten epoch, when earth was still lava rock soup.
Website: http://henrybehel.com/
While the drive from Calgary to Jasper can easily be done in a day, I recommend taking at least a week to travel there and back. That leaves plenty of time to find adventure off the main road, spend some nights in the backcountry, and explore each town along the route.
Including beautiful full-color reproductions of the artworks, A Month in Siena is about what occurred between Matar, those paintings, and the city. That month would be an extraordinary period in the writer’s life: an exploration of how art can console and disturb in equal measure, as well as an intimate encounter with a city and its inhabitants. This is a gorgeous meditation on how centuries-old art can illuminate our own inner landscape—current relationships, long-lasting love, grief, intimacy, and solitude—and shed further light on the present world around us.
