One of the films sure to be an audience favorite at SXSW is Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigríður Níelsdóttir a sweet documentary about the elderly Icelandic musical icon who didn’t even start making music until she was seventy. The film has already been screened to great acclaim—and charmed audiences—at the Museum of Modern Art New York.
Working in her living room, “outsider musician” Níelsdóttir uses a simple electronic keyboard and then creatively layers her cheerfully eccentric compositions with sound effects that she makes using common household and kitchen items. Before you laugh, that’s exactly what Pink Floyd tried to do with their aborted 1974 follow-up to “Dark Side of the Moon”—where they failed, Sigríður Níelsdóttir succeeded!
In the past seven years, “Grandma Lo-Fi” has recorded over 687 songs and released 59 albums. Sigríður Níelsdóttir’‘s unlikely cult following includes Bjork and Sigur Rós and her boundless creativity provides inspiration to younger Icelandic musicians.
Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigríður Níelsdóttir was shot in old-fashion “low fi” film, both Super8 and 16mm.
Directed by Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir. 62 min.
Below, the trailer for “Grandma Lo-Fi”
More SXSW 2012 coverage at Tap Into Austin 2012
