Work girl play

Home videos from my childhood and teens, archive and found footage sampled with with new material make up this personal documentary that reflects on how women experience themselves as objectified beings affected by media and social constraints.
The work is a response to old material, some of which I did not have control over, yet it has still defined me.
A poetic narrative, full of contradictions, about a girl who has an awakening to these effects that lead her to contemplate control over her own identity, ideology and political awareness.

  • Elísabet Birta Birta Sveinsdóttir
    Director
  • Elísabet Birta Sveinsdóttir
    Key Cast
  • Guðrún Tara Sveinsdóttir
    Key Cast
  • Elsa Borg Sveinsdóttir
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    personal documentary, sampled
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 15, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    Iceland
  • Country of Filming:
    Iceland
  • Language:
    English, Icelandic
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, DVcam, found material,
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Iceland Academy of the Arts
  • Film Diary NYC
    New York City
    United States
    November 15, 2022
    North American Premier
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Elísabet Birta Birta Sveinsdóttir

Elisabet Birta (born 1991 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic artist and filmmaker.

She studied Contemporary Dance and Fine Art at Iceland Academy of the Arts and Malmö Art Academy, Sweden. Apart from Iceland they have exhibited work in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus and Latvia. Their performances have been featured at Reykjavík Dance Festival, and Friends of S.M.A.K., Ghent. Sveinsdottirs films have been screened at a few festivals in Europe, the US and Canada. Including her short film The Sacred Wood, 1882 (2014) was a finalist in a competition for experimental shorts at the Arctic Heat Film Festival, Finland.

Her alluring and intimate work often reflects on femininities and animality, film, art history and visual culture.

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Director Statement

My work reflects on the nature of femininity and humanity within the contextual framework of humankind’s relationships with other species and notions of our common qualities. I take a performative approach, incorporating my body and drawing on my personal experiences for material. I work in a variety of mediums, with a main focus on performance and film. I consider the symbolic nature of filmmaking within a historical narrative, and the mixing of genres and familiar tropes. My practice also explores specific cultural influences and family heritage. Archetypes and influences from visual culture—from fairy tales to film—have shaped my identity and appear as remnants in my work. Critical and guilty at the same time, I participate in the world I help to create, using a seductive aesthetic to lure and delay the sting of critique.