A Nordic Skater

A short film by Paulius Neverbickas about our ambassador Per Sollerman, Nordic ice and the freedom of Nordic skating.

Paulius Neverbickas, filmmaker from Vilnius meets Per Sollerman, Swedish/Norwegian Nordic skater. Together they made a beautiful short film about Nordic skating which we have the honor of presenting together with a short interview with Paulius. A story about finding freedom in nature.

How did you and Per meet?

- Last year in November, I discovered an article about the sport of Nordic Skating. Back then I didn’t know anything about this but I thought it could be an interesting alternative winter sport to skiing or snowboarding. As I was reading more about it, I found an interview with this photographer from Oslo who is actively involved in the nordic skating community. Being an outdoor documentary filmmaker, I started thinking about making short film about nordic skating, since I realized it’s still unknown in the world and no one has ever done any film on it. So I wrote an email to Per and couple of days later we were on skype call already brainstorming on the film we are about to do together. I bought tickets right away after the call, and three weeks later I went to meet Per and his wife Sanna, stayed in their house in the woods and filmed for three full days the very first short documentary about nordic skating.

How was the shooting?

- It was three quite tough days of shooting. Before the trip I was practicing ice skating a bit, since I didn’t really have much skills. I knew I would not only have to keep up with these guys, but also film while doing it. Surprisingly on the first day of our shoot I got quite confident on skates and it wasn’t a problem anymore. However, it still was really challenging due to the cold weather. Not only my hands but also batteries were freezing, I had to keep them next to my body all the time to keep them warm. Per and his mates were really helpful and together we managed to film everything we wanted in only three full days of shooting.

Do you have some special memories from the filming?

- For me it was really special because we really bonded with Per and Sanna and became good friends during this project. We spent three full days out in the nature together, Per was sharing all his knowledge about this and his personal experiences and I just felt really privileged to hear all those stories. And that's the exact reason why I love filmmaking so much - it let's you not only connect with people you wouldn't meet in regular situations but also to hear their stories and learn from them. I am going to visit Per and Sanna this year for short nordic skating vacation and at the same time we are already brainstorming with Per again about doing another film together.