Páll Steingrímsson

This film is about the traditional puffin catch in the Westman Islands and shows the fowlers in action, often performing breathtaking feats in the soaring cliffs to accomplish their goal. Ancient hunting techniques are shown, and the extreme dangers that men faced to secure their livelihood. These techniques have passed on basically unchanged from generation to generation.

An important and stunning documentary on whales and modern whaling with historical and scientific background. Most of the footage was shot specifically for this film in the North Atlantic and there are some shots of whale behavior that have never been captured on film before. The film is a significant contribution to the debate on the whaling controversy.

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In July we fallow puffin catchers going on small boats to uninhabited rocky islands where they catch the flying birds into nets. This hunt is very dangerous as the men have to operate from narrow ledges in cliffs high above the surfing ocean. In August we see another side of the puffin/man relationship, as the children lovingly collect helpless puffin chicks from streets and alleys and keep them in cardboard boxes at their homes for the night until the can help them to the sea in the morning.

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There is an astonishing relationship between man and the cormorant. In China the bird is used for fishing, in Peru its droppings are used as fertilizer and in Iceland it can be found on the supper table. In the Galapagos it lives in harmony with nature and has abandoned flying.

A corporate documentary on the construction of the Krafla power station, which describes thoroughly all the stages of the project until the inauguration. The documentary contains animated maps and charts for further explanation on the function of the power plant.

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Among the species illustrated are Fulmar, Gannet, Cormorant, Shag, Kittiwake, Common Guillemot (or Murre), Brunnich's Guillemot, Razorbill and Puffin. Several other bird species, as well as marine mammals, are also featured.

The eider do not migrate to warmer areas but survive the harsh winters in the North Atlantic. Perhaps that is why nature has provided the eider with down that has more insulatingqualities than any other bird down. The dilm shows eider "farming", a unique form of harvesting the down without harming the birds. The eider the most numerous of all ducks and geese in Iceland, counting more than half a million individuals. They return year after to a well kept colony, the biggest counting more than 6000 pairs. The female eders are seen lining ther nests with down which they pluck from their bodies. The down is collected after the clutch has left the nest.

This corporate documentary was filmed on the sands of the south coast of Iceland and describes the construction of the road and the bridge over the great glacial river Skeidará, the last obstacle impeding the completion of the road around Iceland. Riders demonstrate how the river used to be crossed, and take us on the old route over the glacier, which was used when the river was in spate.

The five thousand inhabitants of the Westman Islands were evacuated during the 1973 volcanic eruption and relocated in various towns on the mainland. This film deals with the social implications of this natural catastrophy.

A film about a new type of trawler which processes its catch on board. There is a great demand for fish which is processed with this method and many believe these vessels to be the future of deep sea fishing. This film is shot on board one of these trawlers, Hólmadrangur, and deals mainly with the processing of the fish below deck.

A documentary about the singer Kristinn Sigmundsson.

The film begins in the early hours of the morning of January 23rd 1973. A mile long fissure had ripped itself open on the outskirt of the fishing village on Heimaey, a small island of the Vestmannaeyjar group, off the South Coast of Iceland. Glowing ash and molten lava was spewed over the sleeping town. We see the evacuation of the 500 inhabitants, both by air and by sea. We witnes unbelievable scenes of bellowing craters, flowing lava, burning and collapsing buildings. We learn of the agony and uncertainty of people made homeless, and of the measures taken by the Civil Defence to deal with a disaster of an enormity rarely faced by so small a nation.

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