Tyr and Jasa grew up in an artistic household where art was a way of life. Quirky and insightful sisters, Tyr is a musician and singer while Jasa is an interdisciplinary artist. Inspired by their great-grandmother’s recordings of Icelandic folk songs, they have developed artistic practices that draw on their colourful imaginations and Icelandic roots. Their exploration leads them to journey to Iceland for the first time and collaborate on a project that brings together their artistic disciplines and cultural heritage. In her debut feature film Sisters: Dream & Variations, Catherine Legault immerses us in an oneiric world made up of animation, performances and cinema vérité. More than a portrait, the film is an inspiring look at the artistic approach, its various forms and how it can simultaneously express and explore who we are.
Sisters: Dream & Variations
85 min, VO English/Icelandic with English subtitles
Documentary – Quebec, Canada – 2019 – HD/DCP
POSTER (click to enlarge)
Written & Directed by:
Producer:
Executive producer:
Cinematography:
Sound:
Editing:
Animation:
Online and Color Grading:
Sound Editing:
Original Music:
Additional Music:
Mixing:
Post-Production:
Catherine Legault
Isabelle Phaneuf-Cyr
Catherine Legault
Catherine Legault
Catherine Legault and Eric Shaw
Catherine Legault
Jasa Baka, Frances Adair Mckenzie,
Kara Blake and Calvin Brett
Tony Manolikakis
Kyle Stanfield
Tyr Jami, Justin Guzzwell and Eric Shaw
Syngja and The Winks
Olivier Germain
REV13 Films, PRIM and Pixel Audio
Written & Directed by:
Catherine Legault
Producer:
Isabelle Phaneuf-Cyr
Executive Producer:
Catherine Legault
Cinematography:
Catherine Legault
Sound:
Catherine Legault and Eric Shaw
Editing:
Catherine Legault
Animaton:
Jasa Baka, Frances Adair Mckenzie,
Kara Blake and Calvin Brett
Online and Color Grading:
Tony Manolikakis
Sound Editing:
Kyle Stanfield
Original Music:
Tyr Jami, Justin Guzzwell and Eric Shaw
Additional Music:
Syngja and The Winks
Mixing:
Olivier Germain
Post-Production:
REV13 Films, PRIM and Pixel Audio
The IndieFEST Film Awards 2020, Award of Excellence: Editing and Original Score
The IndieFEST Film Awards 2020, Award of Merit: Documentary Feature, Women Filmmakers and Arts/Cultural/Performance/Plays
“I know that there is energy around us that we can’t see but you can feel it if you pay attention. You have to let it be alive first and then you kind of capture it and form it.”
Ever since she was little, Jasa has been a keen designer and loved creating fantastical dresses. Also known as Zuzu Knew, Jasa is an interdisciplinary artist who brings together costumes, drawings, overhead projections, prism imageries, and set designs in her installations and live performances. When Jasa is creating visuals for the musical project Syngja, she plays an overhead projector like a light organ, using analogue techniques to create atmospheric compositions. Her work is a particular breed of magic realism that explores where the subconscious and conscious meet. She now lives in Reykjavik, where she is doing her MA in Fine Arts at the Iceland University of the Arts (Lístaháskolí Íslands). She was a key collaborator on the original animations for the film Sisters: Dream & Variations.
“Art is something that’s outside of yourself. (...) So it’s not about you when you’re performing but it’s about the music and you’re just a medium or a conduit of that.”
Music has been Tyr’s passion ever since she started playing the cello at age seven. While classically trained, she has experimented over the years with different styles (The Winks, Gutstrings), and has a loyal fan base. Today, her band Syngja (“to sing” in Icelandic), makes psychedelic electro-acoustic pop inspired by her great-grandmother’s recordings of Icelandic folk songs. Her sound is melancholic, dreamlike and at times playful. A cello teacher for the last 15 years, she recently opened a music school, La Tour Prisme, with her partner Justin Guzzwell. She co-composed, with Justin Guzzwell and Eric Shaw, the original music for the film Sisters: Dream & Variations.
“A lot of my work, not so much my stone sculptures but my installations are about place and memory. So that, in itself, is passing down the experience.”
Debora is Tyr and Jasa’s mother. She is an accomplished and prolific conceptual visual artist and intermedia artist. Her sculptures, installations, drawings and writing have a poetic sensibility that explores disparate thoughts. She explores the multidimensionality of space and time and challenges conventional material use. She collaborated with her daughters on the project New Spring, performing as the Mountain Queen. She is currently studying at Concordia University, developing VR and 3D prints projects.
“Sorrow and joy go together
Sweet and bitter is mixed into my cup of life
A mixture of both is given to me”
Ingibjorg Johnson Guðmundsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1891. When she was 33, she immigrated to Selkirk, Manitoba, with her husband. Singing was a huge part of her life, something she did casually but daily as a way to evoke memories of her homeland. She believed that singing had healing properties. In her 90s, while at the nursing home, she would often perform for the other residents. When Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the former president of Iceland, visited Selkirk in 1989, Ingibjorg was chosen as the care home representative to sing for her. Her favorite pastime was recording audio letters for her family. In the past decade, she has been featured on many Syngja recordings, as well as in the performance New Spring.
" Home is a metaphysical place that’s always calling, that always has a pulse, like a heartbeat. So we can understand existence and art only in relation to that place, that pulse. "
James K-M is Tyr and Jasa’s father. A Vancouver visual artist, his work is abstract, geometric and metaphysical. He also creates digital paintings and exhibits innovative interactive works worldwide. James is an inspiring educator and taught creative process, media literacy and digital media production for many years. He has taken on the role of artistic mentor to his daughters and encourages them to thrive in their own practice. He was working on his most recent solo exhibition, Pyramids, during the filming of Sisters: Dream & Variations.
A long time collaborator of both Jasa Baka and Tyr Jami (Party Like 1699, New Spring), Frances Adair Mckenzie is a Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist. In her video installations, sculptures and animations, she combines genres and technologies to invoke the construction of fantastical internal and external worlds. Frances worked on the original animations and motion-design for the film Sisters: Dream & Variations.
Justin Guzzwell is Tyr Jami’s closest collaborator, infusing Syngja’s music with his drum beats, analog synths and vocal harmonies. He also teaches piano at their music school, La Tour Prisme. In his self-produced albums, he blends classical technique with experimental harmonic language and incandescent vocal styles. He was a musical collaborator on the project New Spring. He co-composed, with Tyr Jami and Eric Shaw, the original music for the film Sisters: Dream & Variations.
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