Category: The Sound We See: Gothenburg

I can’t believe our time in Sweden has come to an end… Until we meet again, hang on to your mittens!

Joff’s short but sweet Göteborg visit has come to an end and the only thing to cure the blues is an encore SWS screening as part of an eclectic musical evening (Lebanese psychedelia with clarinet! French one-man-band! Russian lady rockers!) organized by our old pal Christian Pallin, who hosted a Polyester Prince Road Show on our first visit here ten years ago. Time flies!

Göteborg is rife with amazing thrift stores. Big ones, little ones, fancy ones, funky ones, community ones and church-y ones. Every neighborhood’s got one and everybody and their brother is there during those certain days of the week (you need a special calendar to keep it all straight) when they fling open their doors for bargains galore. Today Maria takes us on a tour of the good the bad and the ugly, from Ringön to Gamlestaden. Highlights: heaps of weird holiday stuff (these folks are Christmas cr-azy and you can really feel it starting to amp up this weekend), a pile of lipstick-red rotary telephones, awesome arrays of bakelite-handled cutlery, rubber raincoats, and in-store cafes with home-baked treats so you can get your fika on and replenish your energy for even MORE shopping.

Why do Swedes love thrifting so much? An urge to keep stuff out of landfills? Appreciation of a great deal? Hoarder mentality?  A commitment to supporting social causes? A peppy middle-aged blonde volunteer at Smyrna Second Hand spelled it out for us: “It feels good to give.”

Shooting and processing the credits for The Sound We See: A Göteborg City Symphony… Next week: editing!

Today’s fun art task: making hand-drawn credits for the film!

The only hour left to shoot is the midnight hour and to celebrate we have a film + music hootenanny at Bageriet followed by a group walk to Holy Moly for beers + cheers. Woohoo! We did it!