Singing Sigurd’s song

Filming a portage from under the canoe (Photo by Peter Olsen)

What would legendary Boundary Waters author and advocate Sigurd Olson think of today’s world of cell phones and social media? Filmmaker Peter Olsen (no relation) is working on a documentary that seeks to answer the question.

Titled “The Singing Wilderness,” in homage to Sig’s first book of published essays, the work-in-progress is not so much a biography of the writer and conservationist, but an exploration of his ideas about nature and technology, the modern world and our deep-rooted needs for wildness, and how it all speaks to life in the 21st century. In a recent e-mail, filmmaker Olsen told me:

I don’t envision this as a straight ahead biography of Olson, but rather an exploration of his core belief that we are connected to nature through our evolutionary origins, seeds of which we still carry inside, and that therefore wilderness is essential to our spiritual wellbeing.  The idea that technology and civilization were cutting us off from our connection to nature, our origins and in a way ourselves was something he felt more than fifty years ago, and with the advent of the internet and the information revolution, I think his ideas are even more important to look at today.

An excerpt Olsen posted a year ago gives a taste for the project:

Olsen recently said about that clip, “This is kind of old now and I will be working on a new sequence imminently – actually hiring an editor. The footage in this one was 16mm – I just shot several hours of footage on the Canon 5D, which is, much as I hate to say it, better!”

We are fortunate enough to get a look at some of that “better” footage in a clip he posted this week:

Olsen recently wrote on his website, “I really need some help financially for a big shoot in May, when I will be following a group of writing students from Sigurd’s Alma Mater, Northland College, as they head into the BWCAW for a two-week paddle.” You can donate to his project here.

The Friends staff is meeting with Olsen in the near future and we hope to be able to support this worthy project in some way. Keep up the good work, Peter.

One Comment

• The Singing Wilderness » Blog Archive » Funding for the Next Big Thing says:

  April 17, 2011 at 7:50 pm

  [...] After watching that clip online, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Communications Director Greg Seitz called me and asked if there was any way they could lend their support to the project.  After a meeting with Greg and Executive Director Paul Danicic in March, FBWW has featured the project on their website, in newsletters, and in several Tweets (!), and even pledged a financial contribution.  As THE premier advocacy organization for the BWCAW, their support means A LOT.  Read their lovely, complimentary blog post about the film here. [...]

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