We are pleased to be co-presenters for the Tove being presented as part of Wicked Queer, the 37th Annual LBGTQ+ Film Festival being shown virtually between April 8th and April 18th.
Helsinki, 1945. The end of the war brings a new sense of artistic and social freedom for painter Tove Jansson. Modern art, dizzying parties and an open relationship with a married politician: Her unconventional life puts her at odds with her sculptor father’s strict ideals. Tove’s desire for liberty is put to the test when she meets theatre director Vivica Bandler. Her love for Vivica is electric and all-consuming but Tove begins to realise that the love she truly yearns has to be reciprocated. As she struggles with her personal life, her creative endeavours take her in an unexpected direction. While focusing her artistic dreams on her painting, the work that started as a side project, the melancholic, haunting tales she told scared children in bomb shelters, rapidly takes on a life of its own. The exploits of the Moomins, infused with inspiration from her own life, bring Tove international fame and financial freedom.
Directed by Zaida Bergroth | 2020 | 100 minutes | Finland | in Swedish, Finnish, French with English subtitles
Thursday, April 8th – Sunday, April 18th | streaming via zerb.tv | $10; purchase tickets here
Join Jereme Zimmerman, author of Make Mead Like a Viking and Brew Beer Like a Yeti for a discussion on the history, tradition, and technique of brewing Nordic ales and meads. He will discuss his understanding of modern and ancient Nordic brewing, including his wide-ranging knowledge on history, techniques, and ingredients for brewing like a Viking.
Saturday, April 24th | 1pm EST | $5; FREE for SCC members | register here
ABOUT JEREME: Zimmerman is an experimental homebrewer and fermentation enthusiast. He will share what he has learned from his deep digs into ethnographic, archaeological and biomolecular analysis documentation on mead and ale brewing in ancient Europe and modern Scandinavia. Zimmerman travels the globe, both for real and virtually, from his eastern Kentucky home to gather information for his recreations of historical and traditional brews. He is a popular speaker and writer of books, magazine articles and blogs in the fields of traditional brewing, modern homesteading and sustainability. His writings have appeared in Mother Earth News, New Pioneer, Plant Healer, Hobby Farms, Grit and American Frontiersman, among others. Learn more at his website: www.jereme-zimmerman.com.
Translated from Norwegian as “free life air,” friluftsliv highlights the basic need for humans to get outside and connect with the natural world. It’s not about conquering nature, as in climbing the highest mountain, or about camping and other activities: it’s about truly finding harmony and becoming one with the outdoors. Whether you live in the city or out in the countryside, this inspiring guide will show you how to enter a friluftsliv state of mind. It explains how spending time in nature and feeling its rhythms, even when it’s something as simple as a magical Sunday walk in a local park, can improve our well-being and encourage productive self-reflection.
Saturday, March 27th | 1pm EST | $5; free for SCC Members | register here
ABOUT OLIVER: Nicknamed “Monk” the day he was born, Oliver Luke Delorie grew up steeped in Eastern philosophy and martial arts. He is also the author of the playful 100 Small Ways to Quit Worrying and 100 Small Ways to Manage Time. Delorie lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
It’s like a virtual vacation to Iceland! This presentation blends together my love of Iceland and its mythology with the landscape and fascinating history. Using photos and video, the trip starts in Reykjavik from the archeological dig of a Viking settlement to the vibrant city of today. From there, we travel around the country, where culture and the fascinating history is brought to life through a tour of vibrant photographs, mythology and stories unique to the towns and regions. This program was developed with my Icelandic mother, Ieda Jónasdóttir Herman, to bring a fun and entertaining look at Iceland from someone who grew up there. This is an interactive experience where participation through Q&A is encouraged.
Saturday, March 20th | 1pm EST | $5; free for SCC Members | register here
HEIDI HERMAN was born and raised in Central Illinois, but her passion and a common theme in her writing is her Icelandic heritage. She was inspired by her mother’s childhood memoir, and began writing about the folklore. After three children’s books, she co-authored an Icelandic-American cookbook co-authored with her mother, Íeda Jónasdóttir Herman, and a novel that features Icelandic elements and some scenes based on her mother’s recounted memories. Her newest work is a non-fiction motivational book that is based on Icelandic lifestyle philosophies and positive outlook. Heidi lives in South Dakota but travels to Iceland as often as possible. She has visited nine times, getting to know relatives, an is working to learn the language. In addition to writing, she loves Scandinavian festivals, cooking, photography, travel, and exploring the outdoors, like any good Viking!
All thirteen books by Heidi Herman and her mother, Íeda Jónasdóttir Herman, are available from Hekla Publishing, www.heklapublishing.com. Learn more about Heidi from her website at www.heidihermanauthor.com
Join the Scandinavian Cultural Center on June 11th for the launch-thing of Rowdy Geirsson’s new book, The Scandinavian Aggressors. The event will feature a reading by Geirsson from the book, book signings by him along with Matt Smith and Corwin Ericson, hand-made natural Norse products for sale by Eir’s Garden, and a beer tasting (21+) by local craft brewery, Navigation Brewing Company.
Rowdy Geirsson is the editor of Norse Mythology for Bostonians and a regular contributor to Metal Sucks and McSweeney’s. His writing has also appeared in the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Scandinavian Review and the Sons of Norway’s Viking Magazine. His new book, The Scandinavian Aggressors, is an offbeat odyssey into the freezing heart of the modern Northlands that features delightful and illuminating episodes about enslaved leprechauns, beheaded mermaids, elite warrior sisterhoods, deranged Swedish fishermen, craft-beer-brewing zombies, and perverted trolls.
The Kaffestugan is closed for the summer; see you in September!
Join us for our weekly pop-up Kaffestugan (café) each Saturday from 10am–2pm. Enjoy a variety of Scandinavian pastries, along with waffles, open-faced sandwiches and coffee.
In case of inclement weather, please call the reception desk at the Scandinavian Living Center to inquire about possible cancellation or shortened hours: 617-527-6566.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PROCEEDS FROM KAFFESTUGAN GO TO SUPPORT THE SCC&L.
Join us for a 30th anniversary remastered version screening of Pelle the Conqueror. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival The film also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1988; it was submitted to the Academy by the Danish government, giving Denmark its second consecutive win after Babette’s Feast.
Lasse, an elderly and widowed farmer, and his young son Pelle, join a boat-load of immigrants to escape from impoverished rural Sweden to Denmark’s Baltic island of Bornholm. They are employed at a large farm in Denmark, where they are treated as the lowest of the low. It is ultimately their loving relationship which sustains them through a difficult year.
Director: Billie August
150 Minutes | Danish and Swedish (with English subtitles) | Drama, Coming of age story | $4.99
Friday, November 13th – Friday, December 11th at the virtual cinema at Film Movement (please select Scandinavian Cultural Center Virtual Screening Room 1 to credit the SCC for the viewing) TICKETS HERE
Hrafn Gunnlaugsson‘s first Viking film, where he presents a new concept of the Viking era, destroying the stereotype Hollywood image. Set in the middle Ages, the film tells the story of the revenge of Gestur, an Irishman who as a child witnessed the murder of his parents by two Norwegian Vikings, the foster-brothers Thór and Erik, and the taking of his sister as a slave. Gest follows their trail to Iceland and incites their mutual distrust and hatred. His sister stands between two men: the one who once ravished her, the father of her beloved son, and her brother, whom she has also learned to love, and who now wants to rescue her and to avenge their parents’ death.
109 Minutes | Icelandic (with English subtitles) | Action, Drama
Sunday, November 15th – Tuesday, December 15th | online at xerb.tv | $15 ; $7 for SCC Members
OUR INTERVIEWERS:
When not attempting to promote Leif Eriksson awareness, Rowdy Geirsson barely maintains scandinavianaggression.com and sometimes contributes medieval history lessons at McSweeney’s and low quality metal fiction at Metal Sucks. He is the author of Norse Mythology for Bostonians (2020), a humorous retelling of the trials and tribulations of Odin, Thor, and the other Norse gods in the charmingly quaint dialect of a foul-mouthed Bostonian.
Matt Smith drew his first Conan the Barbarian adventure when was eight years old. A children’s book illustrator fascinated by traditional lore and comic-book heroes, Matt lives with his wife and their dog in Lexington, Massachusetts. Find Barbarian Lord here.
Asa was a young woman who avenged a personal assault, was forced to become a warrior and leader during her family’s travels, and ultimately became responsible for defending Birka, one of the great Viking trade centers. This actual Norse woman made her mark during a violent time.
A Viking burial found on the Swedish island of Birka, identified as Bj.581, contained what was recently identified as the remains of a woman warrior and leader. What was found there confirmed that she was female and presented herself as such. Testing also suggested that she traveled extensively when she was young. What we cannot know for sure is how she grew into the role which typically was filled by men in the Norse culture.
Join author David K. Mullaly for talk about his latest novel.
And so the myth was born . . . And so the Nibelungenlied was written . . .
And so the imagination around the Nibelungen Treasure survives up to our present day . . .
The SCC presents: Sources of Richard Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” found in the German Nibelungenlied, the Icelandic Edda and Norse Völsunga Saga.A Presentation by Erika Reitshamer
With audiovisual segments from Fritz Lang’s silent movie Siegfried.
Saturday, January 16th | 1pm via zoom | $15; $7 for members | register here
Join author Oliver Luke Delorie to discuss his book, 
