Introducing »Backyard«, your new favourite rock-u-mentary!
»Backyard« is a realisation and celebration of Reykjavík’s creative spirit. It is the embodiment of what happens when a group of friends work hard at implementing and executing an idea, and it is simply because they’re having fun! It is pure joy on celluloid, and you should join this party, which features performances by múm FM Belfast, Sin Fang, Hjaltalín, Retro Stefson, Borko & Reykjavík! Most of them are internationally known due to their releases on Morr Music and Kimi Records.
This is what happened: After he had successfully organized a concert (featuring eight bands in twelve hours), Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson (of FM Belfast fame) found himself pretty amazed by the energy and velocity of his local scene. He thought: »I should throw a party like this in my own backyard.« So he invited all his friends and favourite local bands to play a show in his small backyard over the course of a couple of days. And he also invited filmmaker Árni Sveinsson.
The bands don’t sound anything alike – they are all doing their own thing. What they share is a friendship, a mentality and approach that surpasses any superficial differences. This is not so much what you would call a ‘scene’. It’s a group of friends: Take Borko kicking off the movie with his lo-fi majesty against Hjaltalín’s intricate baroque; múm’s delicate patchwork against Reykjavík!’s drunken artwork or FM Belfast’s ungovernable will to party (which marks the finale grande here). It’s all there, and it works together because the shared idea is not a sound, but a feeling. This feeling is perfectly captured in »Backyard«.
Director Árni Sveinsson made two documentaries, one of them on Iceland’s only pop legend Raggi Bjarna plus several music videos – lots of them for the bands that appear in »Backyard«.
Director: Árni Sveinsson Producers: Sindri Páll Kjartansson, Baldvin Esra Einarsson Writers: Árni Sveinsson & Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson Camera: Árni Sveinsson, Guðlaugur Arnar Sigurðsson, Jón Tómas Einarsson, Ryan Parteka, Þórgnýr Thoroddsen, Friðrik Elís Ásmundsson und Árni Vilhjálmsson Cutter: Árni Sveinsson Music: Múm, Hjaltalín, FM Belfast, Retro Stefson, Sin Fang, Borko & Reykjavík!
