The descendants of U.S. immigrants from Scandinavia aim their arts and craft toward everyday elegance. Their goal is the practical beauty so prized in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
This is the fourth film in the light-hearted yet authoritative “Pretty Much 100% Scandinavian” series by award-winning Swedish filmmaker Stefan Quinth and Dr. William Beyer, former administrator at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Saga 4” introduces the places and people in the U.S. Upper Midwest that draw on Scandinavian traditions to create arts and craft of practical beauty.
Institutions such as Vesterheim (the Norwegian American museum and cultural center in Decorah, Iowa), events such as Nisswa-stämman (the annual Nordic American folk music gathering in Nisswa, Minnesota), painters, writers, weavers, potters, wood carvers, instrument makers, a story-teller, a Saami lithographer, a “langeleik” (Norwegian dulcimer) player, a “kjolväska” (Swedish skirt purse) seamstress, and that grand Icelandic American man of letters, Bill Holm—all absolutely stunning stuff, however practical and everyday!