UPDATED: March 29, 2017 at 4:22 p.m.

Searching for “Blueberry Soup” on Google will lead to endless recipes for a traditional Icelandic dish. But among the recipes lies something much different. Eileen Jerrett’s documentary, a film about a modern Icelandic issue — the reform of the nation’s constitution. It’s the only record of the constitutional struggle.

Jerrett comes to Syracuse University on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. to screen her film and lead a discussion in the Maxwell Auditorium.

“Blueberry Soup” documents the grassroots movement in Iceland to improve the constitution. The people involved were not those expected from the nation’s government, but rather farmers, teachers, lawyers, students and activists all looking to change the constitution after the economic collapse in 2008.

Since filming from 2008 to 2011, and producing the final film in 2013, Jerrett has screened the film and discussed its issues all over America and Europe at universities and conferences. The documentary inspired people from various communities all over the world to begin their own grassroots movements.

People from Scotland are working to reform and write their own constitution after Brexit. Some people of Catalonia, a part of Spain seeking independence, have gained new insight in writing their own constitution. Citizens of Greece have looked to improve their nation’s backbone after its economic struggles.

Although Jerrett believes the film demonstrates the power of citizens reforming the constitution, she notices many of its other benefits.

“For me it’s not necessarily meant for constitution reformation,” Jerrett said. “It’s just what good can come from opening up the discussion to people, putting more seats at the table so we can hear other voices to deal with our problems in a more collaborative consensus.”

Before the film gained international attention, Jerrett planned an extensive screening tour at colleges across North America, the first at Harvard University. She initially noticed the film’s impact at Duke University.

“In one day we were able to go on NPR and talk about it and show it to this great group of students,” Jerrett said. “For the first time, there was an Icelander in the crowd. I was terrified because I thought, ‘It’s the first time an Icelander has seen me, and what are they going to think? Did I represent them properly?’”

Jerrett says misrepresenting somebody is a documentarian’s biggest fear. After screening the film at each school, Jerrett leads a discussion. This time, she felt scared.

But the Icelander joined, agreed with and emphasized all the points discussed.

“That shows the beautiful things that can happen if we talk about it with more people,” Jerrett said. “Because in Iceland this became a dead matter — they weren’t talking about it in their country anymore.

“The international attention that this has gained actually reunited the movement in Iceland. That idea, that this is the cyclical process, is just feeding itself, and I never anticipated it.”

In 2012, Iceland held a national referendum for the public to vote on whether they agreed with the reformed constitution. Two-thirds of the public voted in favor of the newly-drafted constitution, and many Icelanders believed this would lead the parliament to put the constitution in motion.

The parliament did the opposite. It pushed the document aside, never voting on it. Currently those involved with the movement focus on keeping the public’s attention in their drafted constitution.

When she began filming, Jerrett wanted to look at how Iceland’s economic collapse in 2008 would affect the nation’s arts. What she thought would be a film about an art movement turned out to be a film about a people’s movement.

During the four years filming, Jerrett was one of the only journalists documenting the writing of the reformed constitution.

“‘Blueberry Soup’ ended up being the only document of this constitutional process,” Jerrett said. “The weird thing was that it was just me and my tiny camera.”

Jerrett credits Kickstarter campaigns and the generosity of strangers for the making of the film. She noticed that people are willing to help if someone just asks, but asking can be a tough thing to do.

During her trip, she exchanged her trade of film production with a hotel, a commercial for a room. An Icelandic vegan restaurant welcomed her as an American. Some nights she slept on couches and ate cans of beans.

The kindness of others made possible what Jerrett said could have been a $50,000 project, an amount she deemed too steep.

She also acknowledges the support of the broad community, many strangers, in her completion of the film.

“It also helps you to be accountable to your work,” Jerrett said. “Because it is really easy when you are trying to do everything yourself to have fake deadlines and never live up to them. Then obviously the project never gets done. By involving other people, they hold you accountable to actually finishing your project.”

Many of the people who helped in many ways through various donations have hosted screenings and discussions for their communities with Jerrett.

On June 3 at the University of California, Berkeley, Jarrett will host a public conference with various groups involved — writers of the reformed Icelandic constitution, American activists, current and past Icelandic politicians, viewers of the film and many others. She hopes this will continue to lead discussion about what is possible through the power of people working together.

“At one table you might have an ex-president from Iceland, a lawyer from Texas, an activist from Greece, an IT person from Silicon Valley,” Jerrett said. “I think that is just going to be so cool.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, coverage of the writing of Iceland’s reformed constitution was misstated. Eileen Jerrett was one of the only journalists documenting the writing of the reformed constitution. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

 

Published on March 28, 2017 at 9:46 pm

Contact Connor: cbfogel@syr.edu