Rupture
Rupture comprises two projects:
a) Rupture
b) Rupture: LAB
Rupture is a project that is very personal to me. I have long held my family ties to Norway closely, identifying strongly with their story of emigration, survival, and entrepreneurship. Along the way, I have been involved with art shows and films highlighting various aspects of Nordic culture and history, so the preparation is ongoing, but this story is, for me, the culmination of creative pursuit. As my last surviving grandmother recently passed, my resolve to tell a story inspired by family remembrances is strong and meaningful. I am passionate about fully realizing both a novelized account and adapting that as a screenplay to be produced as a standalone film. My long experience as a writer and filmmaker have allowed me to gain the valuable experience and tools necessary to execute this concept.
Rupture tells the story of a family in the 1890s who leaves their hometown of Bergen, Norway to emigrate to America (first through Minnesota, then San Francisco) where they face many challenges, eventually establishing a successful water company called Mountain Springs Water Co. before surviving the Great Earthquake of 1906. The story is narrated by Jack Rønning, a second-year graduate student under Professor Andrew C. Lawson in the Department of Geology of the University of California, Berkeley. His recollection of family history, emigration, and the fallout of the San Francisco earthquake form the backbone of the story, escalating into a full-fledged meditation of our planet itself.
Rupture: LAB is an interdisciplinary pilot project bridging the gap between academic research and creative practice, Nordic Diaspora and Seismic Memory. I have been invited by Hans Jørgen Kjøll at the University of Oslo to present a lecture this summer and partake in scientific analysis of contemporary academic work in plate tectonics. From Norway, I will visit Iceland and enter into a cross-border artistic mentorship with renowned author Friðrik Erlings. As an American, the purpose of this project is to forge geopoetic commonalities between the USA and Scandinavia, engaging in a literary dialogue that will be documented in the novel, Rupture. I am passionate about creating a cultural link between the Nordic region and the San Francisco diaspora of which I am a descendent on my mother’s side. I am looking to forge links of transnational memory and visualize history through science and literature. I am also passionate about geoscience, ecology, and the effects of environmental despoilment. In the wider cultural context, Rupture is a cultural artifact that is meant to encourage literary and scientific exchange between Nordic countries and the West. – Jeffrey Leiser