From Hetty to Nancy

1997

44min

Images of the austere Icelandic landscape form the backdrop for readings from a series of letters written at the turn of the 20th century. Majestic waterfalls, open plains, a ship loaded with protesting sheep, a boat in icy waters, snow capped peaks, and icy roadways are punctuated with Hetty’s ironic stories of quotidian events with her female companions. Her accounts are juxtaposed against historic texts about the Icelandic people overcoming the cataclysmic forces of nature. - MoMA