Just fix it 2!

This makes me outrages!

The upcoming November will be the 2 year anniversary of Väven, the center for cultural arts located in the city center at the Umeå River waterfront. This is a building questioned by many during the long process before the decision making it a reality, as well as meanwhile it was built. One of the arguments against it was of course money, another that it wouldn’t be central enough. 

Now, Umeå is a place of about 120 000 people, so a good size small city. It’s pretty spread out, as land is not something we are lacking here on the 64th latitude. The city center though, is quite compact, 7 blocks x 6 blocks. And the core of it 3 blocks x 2 blocks. In fact, if your business isn’t located around Rådhustorget (the City Hall Square) right in the heart of those 3x2 blocks, you’r kind of out, that’s how narrow-minded we are.

Now, Väven is located one block south of Rådhustorget. Too far away according to many. We wouldn’t find our way there. This is ridiculous of course. And proven wrong too. The new city library in Väven is well frequented. Yet, to some, Väven really is far away.

If you have trouble walking, one or two blocks can be as insuperable as a Mount Rainier hike. Therefore, of course, you need a bus line passing and bus stops at the entrances. Or at least at one of the four entrances. But that is not happening!!!

To people who were skeptical about the accessibility of Väven I was - extremely confident - arguing that there naturally would be buses. Before Väven this wasn’t a bus route so if you are lacking ability of mind altering images, I can understand the worries. But when moving the city library and adding on new community space, of course you would need and want to make it available to everyone. That’s my take on it.

Well, it turned out I was wrong. The reason? The streets are too steep!

At this information… I don’t even know where to start…

First, this is not Seattle or San Fransisco. This is Umeå. A city flat like a football field. Yes, the streets west and east of Väven are a slope (actually the location of Väven is a lot like Beneroya Hall, the concert hall in downtown Seattle). But steep?!?!

Second, was this unknown facts at the development?!?!

Third, Umeå is widely known for being a great bus city, the public transport system is a pride. How on earth can it not be a given to make a route to this award winning new landmark?!?!

Fourth, how is it that the City is not interested in making a much questioned multi million investment containing the new city library and city subsidized movie theaters available and accessible to everyone?!?!

There is a political decision securing public transport to Väven. Since that hasn’t yet happened, the Left Party in Umeå has demanded the City to look in to the issue and investigate how to make it a reality. This week the City Council dismissed the proposition.

I don’t have words. Beside the fact that Storgatan and Strandgatan, the streets embracing the north and south of Väven are as flat as the rest of Umeå (or the north-south surface streets of downtown Seattle), a flat NO from the City in this matter is so damned stupid it makes me want to gather the crowds, paint signs and march downtown Umeå in loud protests. I am dumbfounded, but my heart is raising! Just fix it!

Fix it! Just fix it!!

I must say I am terribly disappointed. I thought more of them. And that it just hadn’t happened yet. And I feel a bit stupid I have to say, or at least naive.

During the process of creating Väven, the new building for cultural arts which opened november 2014, there was a lot of resistance for moving the city library to the facility. 

The core of Umeå city center is extremely small.  And we are very lazy. Anything which isn’t within the square of three blocks feels remote. Like if the area around Pacific Place and Westlake Mall in Seattle was the only place to be. Anyway, at the core of these three blocks there is the Metro bus terminal, Vasaplan. A bit like the Grey Hound station in Seattle although a lot nicer. The city library was located right at Vasaplan, which of course was perfect. 10 steps and you were there. The library was also a great place to wait for your bus. The newspaper and magazine corner a warm and friendly companion while waiting.

So one of the big cons against moving the city library was that it would be too far from Vasaplan and hard to get to. Now, Väven isn’t located more than three blocks from Vasaplan, so that’s like a joke. That is, of course, if you don’t have any physical problems and are able to walk those blocks.

I used to defend the con argument with the obvious one: the City would of course see to there were buses stopping frequently at the entrances of the new city cultural center and library, anything else would be unthinkable!

Now it turns out I was wrong. The City has no intention what so ever to secure bus communications to Väven. The argument for that: Vasaplan is close enough for people to walk from. Well hello, I have news for you: not everybody can walk! There is also only one (!!!) handicap parking space located at Väven, which is a building stretching two blocks in a square.

I have periods when I can walk one block or maybe two, but I can’t do it by myself, someone needs to be with me. And there are times when I can only do a few steps, and those times are more frequent. I am physically challenged. I still have problems using the word handicapped about myself. Physically challenged. Temporarily. No, probably not.

Some people who are handicapped can still drive. And those people need a handicap space to park in. And I am sure there are more than one handicapped driving person who wants to visit Väven and the new city library.

Some people get around in a wheel chair, and most of the times they are assisted by someone. They might be able to take the bus to Vasaplan and get themselves to Väven. But as Umeå 6-7 months a year is covered in ice, slush or snow, I am sure that trip is not one they fondly go for.

I can’t take a bus, so for me the City ignorance is not a problem. I can’t drive, so that one single parking space doesn’t bother me (personally) either. I need someone who is kind enough driving me, letting me off right outside the entrance, then driving parking the car somewhere while I am sitting waiting for that someone to come back and be with me during the visit. So, I don’t fit in to any of those categories.

But I do feel deeply for everyone who is physically challenged and in pain trying to do this by themselves. It’s a most difficult, dangerous and vulnerable situation. And I can’t believe the complete ignorance and lack of empathy with the officials who are responsible for these decisions.

In fact, those decisions aren’t even legal. According to the Swedish discrimination law, the City is, already during planning, obligated to secure and provide availability for everyone. What the City of Umeå does (or more correct, doesn’t) is further more not according to the legally enforceable UN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Which Sweden has signed and agreed on.

I feel embarrassed for myself about all the times I argued for the location of the new library at the Umeå River not being a problem. Umeå wanted to turn it’s face to the water again, like it once did, and just like Seattle is planning to as well. Of course the City of Umeå would also provide communications for all of us to be a part of this face lift!

And I feel sorry and sad for everyone who is now excluded from Väven, this amazing already award winning building, the new Umeå front porch.

But most of all I feel ashamed and mad for the City of Umeå breaking Swedish law and ignoring the UN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. And the only thing I can say here is: fix it! Just fix it!!

A new port at the Umeå River!

To watch the developer and the architect on Friday, harbor and express their happiness after years of work was amazing. Ladies and gentlemen, I am giving you Väven!

Ten years ago I produced a film for Balticgruppen, a developing company based in Umeå. Six architects on a parallell assignment were coming up with six different visions for redesigning the Umeå waterfront facing the Umeå River. Bold, brave, beautiful and surprising. The Oslo firm Snöhetta vision was the one advocated before the City, but for reasons later discussed and debated in Umeå the vision never came true. As I documented the whole process on film, being present when it happened and later watching 16 hours of footage, I have a pretty clear opinion about the circumstances, but I will save that one for my memoirs.

Umeå has been divided on the waterfront design subject, as we should. Imagine a city agreeing on a big change! Some were relieved that first vision didn’t come true, some were disappointed. I was among the latter part. Disappointed and sad. So was Balticgruppen, Snöhetta I am sure, and parts of the City Hall.

The idea of redesigning the waterfront turned into a Sleeping Beauty for quite some time, but what the City could agree on was that something needed to be done. For the same reasons as the redesigning of the Seattle waterfront: turning the city towards the water and making something ugly and deserted into a welcoming and beautiful spot for people to relax, meet and have fun. Building a new front porch.

Somewhere along the line the City and Balticgruppen started looking at an option for a main attraction on the 9 block stretch between Gamla bron (the Old Bridge) and Kyrkbron (the Church Bridge), called Staden mellan broarna (the City Between the Bridges). To make a long story very short they agreed on a building for cultural arts and invited Snöhetta as the architect along with the local White office.

Through the ten years passing since the six visions being like a love story between the City, Balticgruppen and the leading architect firms within the Nordic countries, there has been a lot of grief and frustration, even feelings of hopelessness. Therefor, the opening of the building for cultural arts Väven this weekend is an amazing milestone some of us, at times, never thought we would reach.

Väven (The Weave), where various forms of cultural expression will be woven together, harbors a new city library, the Women’s history museum, a black box, two movie theaters and much more, coffee shops, restaurant, a conference floor and two hotels within the Väven block.

The black and white glass exterior of Väven is inspired by the graphics of the birch stem, an Umeå signature. So, if you like the new building you say it’s woven into Umeå. If you utterly dislike it, your opinion is that the building looks like a cruise ship, is totally out of proportion and ruins the familiar Umeå character.

Myself, I have loved every minute of watching an ugly parking lot, an eye sore, facing the Umeå river change into a bold and beautiful building. Then, of course, I am emotionally attached to the project since my documentary ten years ago. And the fact that I am now producing a different film, where Väven is one of the main characters, makes me very grateful.

At 1PM Friday, Väven was officially opened. The vision which the Balticgruppen developer and owner Krister Olsson and Kjetil Thorsen, founding partner of Snöhetta had been carrying for years was now for real. During the weekend the people of Umeå has taken possession of the two men’s dreams, drawings, renderings, models and fantasy about a weave of arts and people at the shore of the Umeå River. The way it was a weave of people and cultures when the river was deep and the very same place was a vibrant ship port.

For me to watch the two men meet and happily hug in the middle of the Friday crowd, only minutes after the doors opened in the building they created, was a big moment. Through my films I have been allowed being an eye on the inside of this ten year process. I can’t say how grateful I am being there the historic day of the opening.

The art of Doing it Yourself

It was my view for my first year in high school. The YMCA dorm where I was living was right across the street, and the desk where my room mate Catarina and I did our freshman home work was at the window facing lokstallarna. 

Googling that word, roundhouses come up, as well as depot and engine sheds. I don’t know what the right one is, but what was on the other side of the street and the railroad was that red brick building with a curved shape and separate garages where the locomotives had their rest while not in work. A direct translation would be locomotive stables, and I really like the idea of locomotives sleeping in stables, so let’s go for the word loco stables from here.

I have always felt that building was intriguing. The brick, the curved shape, the beautiful windows, the floor to roof doors sometimes open reviling the secret inside. The exterior was dark and heavy, but I remember the interior as yellow. A warm bright light welcoming the locomotives when it was time for bed. Children’s book material in my mind.

This weekend the loco stables have been vibrating from light, sound, color, music, poetry, dance, art, installations, performance, food and people of all ages. Come to think about it, a mini version of Seattle’s Bumbershoot which is happening the very same weekend!

Some weeks ago posters and Facebook sharing around Umeå delivered the message Kulturhusfestival, another word that doesn’t translate easily. Kulturhus = a building for cultural arts. So, a festival in a house for cultural arts.

Now, in the seventies, when Catarina and I were watching the loco stables from our home work desk a kulturhus was = a building for all sorts of cultural arts and all kinds of people, free of charge and free from over head power. Basically, what everyone wanted was for the City to provide some more or less deserted place and say, hey, here you are, have fun!

Which didn’t really happen, but over the years numerous more or less deserted houses were occupied by young activists living that dream until the police eventually won the battle.

In 1986 a big building was built right in the city center, under the name of kulturhus. Nobody trusted it to be that though and we were marching the streets protesting against it, the building was, we were sure, way too big and fancy for garage bands and community choirs. Which was proved to be right. 

But. A then (it’s just been remodeled and added on) 700 seat theatre, several smaller venues, restaurants, conference rooms and great lobbies turned out to serve Umeå well. Folkets hus (the Peoples House, it’s related to the Swedish labor movement) is where all the Umeå festivals take place and it’s been voted best convention place in Sweden several times. My friend Maria Gargiulo from Seattle was here with her film The Year of My Japanese Cousin at the Umeå Filmfestival 1995. She has been visiting festivals all over and had never experienced a facility serving the needs for a festival that well. So, it didn’t become a kulurhus to our preferences, it became something else and I don’t think anyone would like to see it gone today.

In a few months now a new kulturhus will be opening. Väven (originally Kulturväven = a weave for cultural arts) facing the Umeå River in shiny glass exterior inspired by the graphic stem of the birch, contains the new City Library, the Women’s History Museum, a black box, two digital movie theaters, work shops, restaurant, hotels, cafés, a new concept for education meeting and conferences, and much more.

The talk around town now is exactly like 1986. There is strong criticism against the City for spending an incredible amount of money on a super flashy building which only a few will have access to. The skepticism is huge and deep. As everything in Umeå that is initiated from above and not coming from the grass roots.

Watching the posters for the Kulturhusfestival these last few weeks brings me back to the seventies. Not only because it is taking place in the loco stables across the street from my high school dorm. But because of the process.

I asked my children who are close to the young grass roots, who started it, and they didn’t really now. Like…nobody. It just happened. Someone laid eyes on the old loco stables which have been empty and dead for a long time. And “as the City owns them, we all do”. I love that, so seventies, so my youth! And suddenly, the stables were filled with people and paint and tools which transformed the raw industrial interior to gallery, stage, juice bar, library, dance floor and of course free WiFi.

What’s really interesting here is how the City has acted. Or not acted. Legally this is an occupation. But nobody has lifted a finger to stop it. I would say this is because of Umeå being the European Capital of Culture 2014. That title is won to a large extent on the Umeå culture coming from under neath, from the grass roots rather than from above. Umeå being a Do it Yourself City. So, who can stop anyone Doing it Themselves 2014? 

Well, the police did a vague try to do their job. As the festival doesn’t have a permit from the City to be in the stables, the police can’t give a permit for the festival. So the thousands of people spending the weekend in the stables are formally violators. The police patrolling during the festival though, are reporting a calm and clean event and nobody has been arrested.

What do I think about Väven as a kulturhus? Well, after som initial grunting and frowning I think it will be a success, and letting Folkets bio (the Peoples Movie Theatre) which has resided in a venue so shabby, moldy and cold it can compete with the Seattle fringe scene, is a City master stroke, it will change the mind set about the building.  Väven will eventually find it’s purpose and we will agree. Yes, it’s shiny, well, let it be! Because 40 years after Catarina and I sitting at our highschool dorm desk watching the loco stables, finally that more or less deserted place exists and all the City has to say is, hey, here you are, have fun!

http://www.vk.se/1264013/kulturhusfestivalen-ar-igang

https://www.facebook.com/umeakulturhus
väven umeå

My two thriving home towns, summer report

Umeå in Sweden, Seattle in the U.S. My two cities.

Both my home towns are blossoming during the summer. The greenery, the water, Seattleites and Umebor coming out of the drizzle and the snow, tourists visiting. Restaurants and parks crowded with people having a meal and a drink, soaking the sun. Umeå has even been in the neighborhood of Seattle temperatures this week, it’s absolutely wonderful!

And Umeå is hot in more ways this summer! New York Times has appointed Umeå one out of 52 destinations to visit this year! And Expressen, one of the leading evening magazines in Sweden is asking if Umeå is the hottest city in the country right now. The numbers of foreign visitors are increasing by the week, look at these numbers for 2014: Finland 56%, Norway 62%, (although they are hardly foreign to us) Germany 146% and Great Brittan 221%! It’s all because of Umeå being the European Capital of Culture of course. 

Seattle is hot all year round though. Last year, Seattle grew faster than any other major American city, according to population estimates released by Census Bureau. From July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2013, Seattle grew by 2.8 percent — the highest rate among the 50 most-populous U.S. cities.  2,8% is a lot. But Umeå is actually one of the fastest growing cities within the European Union (!), more than 1% a year since 1994.

Seattle is now the 21st biggest city in the U.S and Umeå the 12th biggest in Sweden. My two home towns are thriving, building cranes are everywhere. It’s a long time since “Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights”-era in the 1970s and Umeå feeling like the northern Sweden (Norrland) underdog compared to Sundsvall and even Luleå. The Umeå population growth was 36% in 1985-2010.

My two cities have more similarities. One is the desire to turn the city face towards the water, Elliot Bay and the Umeå River. Downtown has been cut off from the water, in Seattle by the Alaskan Viaduct Highway 99 and Umeå by Strandvägen. The areas facing the water has to a large degree been ugly and unfriendly.

So, there are these two projects. In Umeå The City Between the Bridges  (Staden mellan broarna) and A Waterfront for All in Seattle. Both are reconnecting downtown to the water and both are transforming to the City and the designers’ goal: shaping up a big forgotten grey zone to become the cities' front porches where people can hang out, play, relax and feel safe. 26 blocks in Seattle and 9 in Umeå. It’s only the scales that are different.

In Umeå several parks are in the waterfront design, and this week the most central one was inaugurated. Rådhusparken (the City Hall Park) now stretches from the old City Hall (well, there is still Storgatan cutting off right at the Hall, that’s in the pipe line for next year) all the way down to the river. The new park is modern, strict and open,  and speaks well with the next door neighbor Väven, the new building for cultural arts designed by Norwegian Snöhetta, and just about to be inhabited by the cultural life of Umeå.

The exterior of Väven is glass, inspired by the black and white graphic stem of the birch, the Umeå land mark tree. The materials in Rådhusparken is light grey granite, black wood and grass in flat terraces walking down the slope. What used to be a big parking lot has been transformed by Ulf Nordfjell, the Umeå born and bread world famous landscape architect, to the welcoming front porch it was waiting to be. And already this first warm weekend you could tell the citizens of Umeå found it and just loved it!

In October it is three years since I first started telling stories about Umeå and Seattle, my two home towns. By that time the water front plans were dreams not quite put on paper yet. Seattle is still in the process, but there is the fabulous Great Wheel at Pier 57 and parts of the Viaduct is gone. The transformation in Umeå is remarkable and it won’t be long until the City Between the Bridges is fulfilled and the 9 blocks a land mark and a postcard instead of a shameful eye sore. I am so proud and happy!

Waterfront report

- I have a thing for ferries. 

Says Dr McDreamy to Meredith in Grey’s Anatomy when they first start dating. Well, I have a thing for ferries too. I loved the years when my friends Matt and Elizabeth lived over at Bainbridge Island and I had to be on the ferry most every day while staying with them. An who doesn’t have a thing for ferries? Certainly not the cameras spotting them in every movie or TV series taking place in Seattle, floating land marks.

We don’t have ferries in Umeå any more. There used to be, when I was a kid, ferries taking passengers between Umeå and Wasa in Finland. But the Umeå River isn’t deep enough for modern ferries, the bridges crossing the river too low, and the port moved out to the coast. And left the Umeå waterfront empty and abandoned. 

The Seattle waterfront is nothing but abandoned though, Elliot bay makes it very busy. But it isn’t friendly in a welcoming way. The Alaskan Viaduct Highway 99 and the parking underneath has been cutting it off from Downtown making it an emotional grey zone when it comes to places to visit. Well, that is all going to change now. Exactly like the waterfront in Umeå is changing.

My two cities share the same vision: to turn the cities’ face to the water. To reconnect the city to the water. To build a city front porch where people want to hang out feeling happy and safe.

Seattle has chosen landscape architect James Corner (maybe best known for the Highline in New York http://www.thehighline.org/james-corner-field-operations-and-diller-scofidio-renfro),  as the designer of the 26-block transformation which will take place the coming years up to 2020 http://waterfrontseattle.org. Umeå is ahead of Seattle, already finished Broparken, one of three parks in the 9-block area called The City Between the Bridges  http://www.umea.se/umeakommun/kommunochpolitik/planerochstyrdokument/utvecklingochplanering/stadsplaneringochbyggande/projekt/stadenmellanbroarna.4.5c07cebb11a983a683e8000779099.html, and the main attraction Väven http://kulturvaven.se,  the new building for cultural arts well on it’s way, changing the Umeå skyline in a big way.

Wednesday this week James Corner was in Seattle presenting his work, this far. And even though Greater Seattle inhabits 3,5 million people and Umeå 117 000, the intentions for the new front porches are very similar. Even though the Seattle waterfront is 26 blocks and the one in Umeå only 9, the visions are to transform them into a green and friendly space, attracting people to walk, bike, listen to concerts, play, eat, roller skate, parkouring (Umeå) swim (Seattle, there will be a big pool on a barge at the water in Elliot Bay) and just hang out with an ice cream people spotting.  

Seattleites are asked to dream big and to be involved in the design. The Parkour park and the skate park in Umeå happened in collaboration with skaters and the Umeå association for Parkour, UPKF http://www.stolterman.com/upkf_english_/start.html. Interactivity is the new black. Big changes usually causes big worries, so letting ordinary people into the process is not only strategically smart, it is also beneficial for the project.

The original idea was to open Väven, the building for cultural arts, at the inauguration of Umeå the European Capital of Culture 2014 some month ago. Well, the building is there, the spectacular glass exterior inspired by the graphic birch stem is up, but the interior is yet to be finished and the opening scheduled to November.

That’s a minor thing though compared to the stalled situation in Seattle. Bertha (yes, she has a name), the huge drill boring the tunnel through Seattle which will replace the Alaskan Viaduct 2016 making it possible to connect Downtown to the waterfront, is for some unknown reason stuck since weeks, even months back, making the time plan for the waterfront project uncertain.

I love the ideas for both my two waterfronts. I love that the city centers will expand all the way down to the water. I love the wood, different kinds of stone and grass, the materials chosen for feet and paws to walk on. I love the parks and the greenery, and the vision that the waterfronts will change to a social and vibrant welcoming spot all year round. I love how my cities want it’s citizens to be comfortable and thrive at the heart of the town, at the artery that Umeå River and Elliot Bay are.

I love the ferries. I have a thing for ferries. Me and Dr McDreamy. Those are not in the plan for Umeå though. For those I need Seattle.

And beyond 2014?

I sometimes wonder if there will be a 2015. For close to a decade now the focus here in Umeå has been set on 2014. First it was a fantasy, then a vision, then an application, then The Win, and after that years of planning for taking on the incredible and challenging assignment being The European Capital of Culture 2014.

It is incredible indeed. Every year, within the European Union, cities are carefully chosen to be the Capital of Culture. To start with it was one city (1985, Athens) 1999-2000, at the Millennium there were multiple cities, and after that mostly two a year. Sweden has carried the title once before, Stockholm 1998. 2014 Sweden was on the schedule for the second time, in pair with Latvia. And in competition with three bigger cities in Sweden, teeny-weeny Umeå way up north in our skinny country grabbed the title!

I once heard Fredrik Lindegren, artistic director of the year, bending his head, covering his face in his hands, saying: I wish it was 2016.

I can easily understand that. Putting together a cultural year by rank, all Europe watching, would make anyone sweat. Then organizing it.

The title has affected Umeå in major ways even though it hasn’t yet started. I think we are experiencing something along the lines of what happens in a place which is getting ready for The Olympics: gosh, this is going to be a big party, we have invited a ton of guests and we need to make room for them (nice rooms!) clean everything up and make our city a show case!

A bit like when you are having a party at your house; you suddenly have a deadline to change the towels in the bathroom and maybe you get to finally hanging that painting that’s been sitting on the floor leaning against the wall for months. And yeah, a new bulb over the front porch so they can find their way in!

The front porch in Umeå is what used to be the downtown port at the Umeå River many decades ago. Since then, it’s basically been a big parking lot. Not anymore though. The new building for cultural arts, Väven, has been under construction for a couple of years now. The Norwegian firm Snöhetta (the Alexandria Library, the Oslo opera house) is the architect and the exterior (the lower part of the building will be for the arts, the tall part a hotel) glass plates inspired by the black and white graphics of the birch stem. http://kulturvaven.se/#/start/trailer

Big changes always cause concerns among people, and this building creates a lot of change. First, it’s the building itself. Some perceive it as big and loud and out of proportion compared to the city center. It changes the skyline (we still have a very modest skyline though). Then it’s the content. The city library is going to move in to the building and this is making people very emotional. Its’ current location is optimal to many, and why change a winning team?

Cultural arts are also theater, dance, photo, music, film and crossovers from most anything you can think of, now spread all over town. Will they afford the rent in this new flashy city front porch?

During this fall it turned out that the City’s budget for the building only will cover the costs for running the place, there will be no money over for the different art scenes in the facility. This might sound like an incomprehensible problem to an American. But you see, in Sweden cultural arts are to some degree sponsored by the government, and we are relying on that subsidy for our operation. For example, my choir Kammarkören Sångkraft (Sångkraft Chamber Choir) is sponsored with 100 000 Skr (today about 15 000 dollars) a year by the City of Umeå. No strings attached. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing.

So, there is no wonder people are concerned about the future of the culture in the European Capital of Culture 2014. Also, the City has failed spectacularly when it comes to digging up private sponsors for the year, which leaves the question: what will happen 2015? Without a doubt 2014 has to deliver, so will there be any money at all left for the different art scenes in the future? And that’s how we are entering this big year of events. This New Year.

Hey, will there be a 2015 whatsoever? I feel a lot like I did before the Millennium. It was such an event. Nobody talked about an after in other terms than all the computers would be crashing and it might even be the end of the world for all that we knew. I was in Seattle (people over here were concerned; if something bad would happen, wouldn’t it be safer for me entering the Millennium here in the woods than in a big American city?) since I imagined that would be really cool.

Well, what happened? Some guy with explosives in his car was caught at the Canadian border heading south, and the big celebration at Seattle Center was cancelled for security reasons. Roomer had it that there was no money left after The Battle in Seattle. At 00.00 I was standing at a roof in Wallingford with family and friends watching a pretty lame fire works at the Space Needle, ousted by Bill Gates’ at the Gates residence on the other side of lake Washington. I would say it was an anti climax, and then the world continued with no fuzz.

2014. In only two days. Umeå European Capital of Culture. Will it be an anti climax? And will time go on beyond that like nothing happened? Will there be a 2015?

Persistence X 2 = film

In Seattle there is Paul Allen. In Umeå, Krister Olsson.

As a storyteller and documentarian I have some dream projects. One is telling the story of John W Nordstrom, a Swedish shoemaker who emigrated from Nederluleå starting a shoe store in Seattle 1901. When I first came to Seattle 20 years ago there were 54 Nordstrom stores (which in modern days is an upscale fashion retailer) in the U.S. Today the number is 252 stores. Nordstrom is still widely known for their shoe department and their customer service, the head quarter is still in Seattle and oh how I would love to tell that story!

In Umeå, the dream story is the one about Krister Olsson.

Krister Olsson is the Paul Allen of Umeå. The main developer. The person who pictures the opportunities in a piece of land. Who has the visions, the economical resources and the persistence to follow them through.

They are also the persons who sometimes make politicians and public uncomfortable. The Swedish and American cultures are quite different when it comes to being successful, wealthy and powerful. Those three words are the American Dream in a short story. Sweden, as a basically homogeneous country where we are all descending from farmers with a couple of cows, some acres of land and at best a horse, is in general skeptical towards people who are making noticeable peaks on the national culture codex scale.

Therefore, it is interesting and a bit surprising noticing how the discussions and reactions to Paul Allen,Vulcan and Krister Olsson, Balticgruppen are very similar. Although Seattle is a fairly big American city and Umeå a smaller Swedish one. It seems like there is something about the size of the place and the dimensions of the developers’ acting. When the developer’s footprint gets big it turns intimidating. He (there isn’t a lot of female developers) simply takes up too much space, land wise, economically, and strategically. And this makes people worried.

Krister Olsson and his company Balticgruppen is involved in most every developing project happening in Umeå right now. I am crossing the Umeå River entering Umeå from the south side where my village is located. This fall has been the most beautiful I can remember in my grown up life. The birches and maples have been on fire reflecting in the river. And the flat red brick downtown silhouette has been added on with new buildings rising above creating fresh reflections in the wide and streaming river.

Downstream there is the Art Campus (Konstnärligt campus) and the Art Museum (Bildmuséet), boxes in various sizes out of Russian Lark designed by Danish Henning Larsen. In the city center the Winn Hotel blue and white cross-striped floors emerging from out of the Forsete block, and at the waterfront the Norwegian Snöhetta designed building for cultural arts Väven, busy with getting dressed in the black and white glass exterior inspired by the graphic stem of the Umeå birch, the tree synonymous to the red cedar for Seattle. Balticgruppen is the common denominator for the new Umeå skyline.

In 2004-2007 I made a film-documentation for Balticgruppen, covering a different project. Back then we were talking about documenting Krister Olsson’s life as an entrepreneur on film, and even started on it. Since then he has been busy realizing his visions about Umeå, and so the tale about him hasn’t been neither a priority nor focus. I have never given up the hope of telling his story though, and about every other year I have been making the calls, poking around to make sure the idea wouldn’t die, keeping it alive. Waiting for the timing to be right.

It’s been one of those really nasty November days in Umeå today. Foggy, rainy, windy. About freezing point but feeling like 14°F (-10C). I’ve been sitting on the third floor of Väven wrapped in a big long down coat. The building is still very much in progress and there is no heat inside. Camera man Tomas, sound guy Johannes and me all thought we were dressed and covered for the occasion (after all, we have some routine), but being still and focused on a long interview in a cold humongous building is just…very cold.

I think though, the interviewee was even colder, although the atmosphere was warm. Krister Olsson is known for his persistence. Well, I am too. After nine years of keeping the idea alive, this fall I finally got a yes for telling Krister Olsson’s life on film. I’ve been close a couple of times before but something has always come up. The fact that it is now finally happening has kind of been hard to grasp. Today it became real. And I am so thrilled about it.

And quite proud. And humbled. I have been given a great trust. And I will try my very best to do a good job.

So what about the Nordstrom story? Well, it is yet to be told, at least from the Swedish perspective. And Paul Allen? I wouldn’t say no if I got the question. That’ for sure.

   

A happy story featuring my number 100 posting!

The day was close to miraculous! This is what happened this week:

October 24 has been in my calendar for a while. It’s been noted with an exclamation mark although in my mind with quite some unease. What I was to do was in every sense fantastic but required me on my feet for a whole day. Something that's been feeling absolutely impossible for the last month.

I used to be a TV reporter and producer. And later I started my business in storytelling, which included telling stories as film. And I loved it. I loved every part of it: research, shooting and editing. Research is a lonely job; you do it yourself. Shooting is teamwork with cameraman and sound engineer. And editing is tem work with an editor. This is when you have a budget for a crew of course. A lot of times I have been doing the photo and sound myself.

So, I love the whole process. But most of all I love being on the field shooting with a crew. I love the feeling of three persons doing their job together. Trusting each other. To work with a cameraman who I know will provide me the footage I have in mind and even surprise me with some  that I didn’t picture myself. And a sound guy (man and guy are expressions here, from time to time they are women but I must admit it’s not that common) that will add to those shots an enhanced experience, which a mono camera microphone can never give. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. To be on a shoot confident that all links are equally strong is nothing but pure happiness.

Now, as I have been physically challenged for the last five years I haven’t been able to hunt for or take on film productions and documentary work. Except for a little thing last summer I haven’t been out on the field with a crew since 2007. 2007!

October 24 2013. In my calendar: Shoot the opening day for the new downtown mall Utopia, the new Winn Choice hotel, and research the cultural arts building Väven, still very much work in progress.

I will get back to the reason for all this in a posting ahead; for now let’s just leave it at the fact of a crew shoot in my calendar.

Trouble 2 and Audrey have stayed here for the last three weeks, that’s how bad my back has been. Which was such bad timing (is there ever a good timing for a back being out?) as I had just landed a big documentary storytelling project. The thing was, I had been doing so much better during the summer, and throughout the process of writing the synopsis and working on the budget I really felt like it would be possible for me to do this! That I could pull off a documentary story even including traveling! Ha!

Ha yeah… I turned acute same week as I landed the project. I prepared cameraman Martin and sound guy Johannes for doing the Thursday October 24 shoot on their own. They have been working together before, and I felt safe they would do a good job.

Wednesday my body felt different. Not twisted. No cramps. More even and leveled. Some pain of course, but tolerable. And I went to bed feeling the shoot wouldn’t only be possible but fun! I fell asleep not only looking forward to waking up in the morning but, I couldn’t wait for tomorrow to start!

I am stopping myself right there. This is such an unfamiliar feeling I need to look into myself in search of when I last couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

I am searching. I am looking. I can’t find it. There must be? No. I cannot remember falling asleep desiring the day to come. My days are putting up with. Bearing. Coping. Holding up. Endure. Abide. Breathing in and out. Surviving.

And hear I am, lying in my bed, my chest happy and high like the night before summer camp when I was a girl!

My body didn’t fail me. I was on my feet all day. The opening of the mall. The walkthrough the vast and tall Väven including ten stories (!) downstairs. And then, as a finale, getting access to the corner room on the top floor of Hotel Winn. Thursday had been foggy end heavily overcast like a Seattle fall day, but as the remote controlled blinds came up with a buzzing sound, the sun peeped out under the low clouds and transformed the east to west city view over the Umeå River to something we haven’t really experienced before.

Umeå isn’t a pretty city. It’s not bad or ugly, but it’s not pretty by regular standards. It’s flat and it doesn’t have an interesting architecture. It looks like any other northern Swedish coast town; they are actually hard to separate from each other.

From the 12^th floor we experienced something different though. Martin, Johannes and I, all three of us, had the same reaction: Look at that! Umeå looks good! Umeå is quite pretty! Umeå is surprising us!

And we are realizing that we can’t really see Umeå because there isn’t a viewpoint to watch it from! We need a constructed height like a tall building to give us some perspective! The old City Hall (1889) to Väven (2013) and everything in between (most of Umeå was lost in the big fire 1888) actually makes the city architectural diverse and colorful!

2007. I hadn’t been on the field with a crew since 2007. But it was as natural as rain. Like it was yesterday. And every day before that. I knew I missed it, but I didn’t know how much. I knew not being able to do it is a big loss, but I didn’t realize how repressed my grief and my needs were.

I felt let out of the closet. I felt real. I felt true. My blurred eyes took a shower and started framing pictures. My plugged ears popped and became aware of the city sounds. My shut down mind came to life and I remembered how to do this. My methods, my signature. And my love for being a part of a film crew, trusting the creative process we are composing together.

And that was that day. Thursday October 24. Friday I was still high from being out in the world, doing what I feel I am meant to do. Saturday I woke up with my pelvic screaming “danger ahead!” That Thursday was miraculous. And I am so incredibly happy and grateful that it happened. A blessed bliss.