Surfing
Snowboarding
Join an all-female road trip through Iceland in A Land Shaped By Women
Anne-Flore Marxer and Aline Bock travel Iceland in search of epic surf, snow and the ultimate inspiration in their latest film, A Land Shaped By Women. Find out how they made it in their own words.
Considering they have so much in common, it's almost surprising Aline Bock and Anne-Flore Marxer took this long to collaborate on a film project. Both have spent the past two decades as professional snowboarders, both have Freeride World Tour titles to their name and both are passionate feminists who’ve fought hard for gender parity in a male-dominated sport. They also both love to surf.
Bock is an accomplished filmmaker with two previous travel documentaries under her belt, Way North (2015) and Way East (2016). Meanwhile, after a long and successful snowboarding career, first as a freestyler and later as a freerider, Marxer has now turned her focus to film making, taking the writer and director role in A Land Shaped By Women.
Watch A Land Shaped By Women in the player below:
We caught up with Aline Bock and Anne-Flore Marxer to learn more about the adventure of producing their own documentary.
What were the main reasons to make this film?
Bock: Iceland has long held the crown for the most beautiful landscapes, perfect playgrounds for splitboarding through the mountains, incredible surf sessions in the cold water and hiking under the spectacular Northern Lights. As a professional snowboarder, I was trying to find my place in a male-dominated sport throughout my whole career, so I was really happy when Anne-Flore asked me to join her on this journey to dig deeper into the Icelandic women's mindset, while combining it with our love for the mountains and the waves.
It felt absolutely amazing to explore the country in my van and through our beloved adventure sports and with the goal to empower women and bring a feminine narrative to the outdoor practice. A Land Shaped by Women is an inspirational depiction and hopefully motivates other female riders to step up and try to be part of creating a world that will make sense and be sustainable for the next generations.
Marxer: Growing up, I loved the mountains and snowboarding, but I soon realised that girls weren't allowed in slopestyle contests, so for the past 18 years I've written petitions and articles for the inclusion and equal representation of women in my sport.
Today, snowboarding offers equal prize money in freestyle and freeride disciplines, and I'm glad that I put my energy into it, but I grew tired of having to fight all the time – when all I was hoping for just seemed to be a positive improvement of the sport. I grew tired of having to justify myself for being a woman and I needed to find inspiration and strength for myself.
I found so much inspiration in meeting the Icelandic women and making a film about our trip was the best way to share their strength
When I started reading about Iceland, I found myself digging deeper and deeper into the recent history of the country. The more I read, the more I fascinated I became. I knew there were mountains and waves there, so I started wanting to spend the following winter there and I was so happy when Aline said she'd be up for the trip. I found so much inspiration in meeting the Icelandic women and making a film about our trip was the best way to share their strength.
The vast majority of snowboarding, skiing and mountain films put men on the screens. The same is true for sponsors and such like. However, snowboarding and skiing boast 40 per cent women participants. I wanted to create an innovative female narrative for outdoor films and I wanted to put women on the screen. I didn't want to face the camera and talk about our trip, or the conditions. Instead, I wanted to give the podium to Icelandic women themselves, to plant little seeds of inspiration to empower all women to follow their hearts.
Aline and Anne-Flore are two athletes cut from the same cloth
© Nick Pumphrey/A Land Shaped By Women
What were the most memorable moments and why?
Bock: The adventure began the second we drove off the ferry. Recent heavy snowfall caused our line of camper vans to get stuck on the first mountain pass leading away from the port. Everyone was slipping and sliding everywhere – one van even ended up directly in the ditch. Minutes later we drove off with big smiles on our faces, while the rest of the van owners could only look on in wonder.
It was a bluebird first day on the island and the recent snowfall made the coastal drive to Reykjavik even more beautiful than we could have dared to imagine. We saw glaciers, frozen waterfalls and deer scampering in the snow, all to a constant backdrop of ocean and mountain views. It was quite simply out of this world.
During our trip we met so many amazing outdoor-loving women and female mountain guides. We easily met more here than we've ever encountered in the rest of our lives so far, which, considering we spend most of our lives in the mountains, says a lot.
We asked these women what was unique about their mentality and what made them take on these jobs and embrace them as their own. They all cited President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (the world's first democratically directly elected female president) and the subtle strength and power they'd gained from having a woman president in their lifetime. "Go out and get it," they said. "Without fear or hesitation, go and be whatever you want to be."
Marxer: My all-time favorite memory of the trip was meeting the Icelandic women I present in the film. Meeting Kata Oddsdottir was my biggest Icelandic inspiration. While I was interviewing her and talking about Iceland's new constitution I made a parallel between the new constitution, which was now embraced by most political parties, and how Icelandic women shaped the political landscape by putting women's issues onto the political agenda.
In 1982, Icelandic women relaunched the Women's Alliance, the first exclusive feminine political party in the world, created in 1922. They granted women's demands, such as childcare, to provide parity with men and enable women to participate in the labour market with equal opportunity.
When I said this, Kata blushed and confessed to me that it was her mother who'd relaunched the Women's List in 1982. That moment was very special to the both of us. I guess it gave her new perspective on the new constitution, but also appreciation for what her mother had accomplished for Icelandic women.
Iceland: A land of fire and ice
© Eleonora Raggi/A Land Shaped By Women
Who were the three most kind or inspiring people you met?
Bock: Right at the beginning of our trip, we met Katrin Oddsdottir, an impressive woman and incredible person, human rights lawyer and political activist, who was part of the team that drafted Iceland's new constitution with a progressive, open approach and special consideration of women's issues.
I also absolutely admire Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir, the first Icelander to climb Mount Everest and who crossed the South Pole single-handedly. She has her own company to train and inspire other women for expeditions and adventures. She really inspired me and I think a lot about her great motivational tips:
1. Always stay positive.
2. Stay determined, because nobody else is going to make your dreams come true. If you don't get up in the morning, it's not going to ever happen.
3. Be courageous.
In the north of the country we went snowboarding with Heida Birgisdottir, Iceland;s first surfer, one of the first snowboarders and the founder of the iconic women's boardsports clothing brand, Nikita. Her modest, relaxed manner and dedication to doing the things she loves reminds us that women don't necessarily have to impose a strong character in order to achieve big goals and follow their dreams.
Marxer: I could have interviewed all the women we met in Iceland in the film, as they were incredibly inspiring. The most surprising encounter to me, though, was when I randomly went to a high school door and got introduced to classroom full of 15 year-olds, where I met Elísabet Rut Rúnarsdóttir.
A schoolgirl in the North of Iceland, Elisabeth is part of a council that supports youth centers all around Iceland and she actively participates in reforming the school system in the country. I was so impressed to realise everyone we met took active participation in reforming the system that concerns their lives, even at 15.
Snowstorms and freezing water make Icelandic surfing challenging
© Nick Pumphrey/A Land Shaped By Women
What are the three life lessons learned from this trip?
Bock: You just have to dare and go do it. You have to go out there, get motivated, inspire others and be inspired by others. If women work together as a team, then we can do it. We haven't just loved our journey through this land shaped by women – we thrived here and learnt so much for ourselves, too.
You just have to dare and go do it. You have to go out there, get motivated, inspire others and be inspired by others
Marzer: I'll quote Kata Oddsdottir, who says it better then I would. "The pleasure of changing the world is such an incredibly important thing. When you make change, you're not just doing it because you have to and you are all burdened to do it, but because it's great fun. And, if you do it, do it with a sense of humour about the fact that the situation is not good enough and that you want to fix it, but the fact that you have to do it is still a little bit funny in itself."
My experience in a discriminating, male-dominated sport led me to become a passionate advocate for gender equality and to use my voice for good. I get so proud of the younger generation of female snowboarders when I see them shred. That alone tells me it was all worth it.
The creative work of researching, interviewing, directing and writing A Land Shaped By Women was a beautiful opportunity to reconnect with the hopeful side of me, which was always the lead behind my feminist actions throughout the years. The most beautiful gift to me is to see the sparks in the eyes of young women when they see the film.
Iceland: A land of feminist Vikings
Iceland is one of the most beautiful, stunningly rugged places on Earth
© Eleonora Raggi/A Land Shaped By Women
Ranked by the United Nations as the world's leading nation for gender equality for nine years in a row, Icelandi society has feminist credentials that make most other progressive nations look backwards in comparison. Iceland was the first country to have both a female president (1980) and a female and openly gay head of government (2009). Iceland's current Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, is the youngest female leader in Europe.
According to the World Economic Forum, Iceland has the smallest overall gender pay gap in the world. In 2018, Iceland made unequal pay for equal work illegal and by law all corporate boards should not be below 40 per cent for either gender.
Aline Bock and Anne-Flore Marxer skinning up the mountain for a run
© Eleonora Raggi/A Land Shaped By Women
How did Iceland become such a feminist nation? While most of this progress was achieved through the efforts of modern-day feminists, it's interesting to note that women have always been a force to be reckoned with in Iceland. Going back to its origins as a Viking settlement, some of Iceland's earliest known historical figures were female explorers, poets and queens, and although Viking Age society was male-dominated, Viking women could own their own property, ask for a divorce and inherit their husband’s estate – dating back to 870AD.
Aline Bock and Anne-Flore Marxer about to drop in
© Eleonora Raggi/A Land Shaped By Women
Want to see more women's action sports movies?
Full Moon
This two-year film project features the world's best female snowboarders and pays tribute to the history of women's snowboarding, showcasing how it's influenced and encouraged the current state of the sport.
Shades of Winter: Between
Take a trip with a group of extraordinary female skiers and surfers on a global tour. Led by filmer Sandra Lahnsteiner, they celebrate both the thrilling journey, as they ride in epic locations, and the meaningful, soul-feeding moments in between.
