Creative trustafari of the water tribe
Leif Eriksson is a swedish sailor, filmmaker, photographer, sound designer, musician, author, film editor, post-production producer and former teacher at the Valand Film Academy, University of Gothenburg. He has studied theater, photography and music i.a at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and the Nordic Folk High School.
In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Leif Eriksson began his creative career, as a press photographer.
In 1980-92 he worked as a street musician, factory worker, warehouse worker, and musician for, among others, Teater Bastard, Boras City Theater and in film projects collaborating with dancers from the Gothenburg Opera.
He also studied psychoanalytic theory at the Gothenburg Psychotherapy Institute.1991-92 he studied musicology and various music and media courses at the Gothenburg Academy of Music, and School of Musicology, at Gothenburg University.
In 1993-99, Leif Eriksson was the manager of the film post-production department at Film i Vast, and edited, sounddesigned and created the final soundmix in a large number of productions, especially documentaries and short story film series in collaboration with SVT, swedish national broadcaster. He also appeared in the crew of a number of feature films, such as Fucking Åmål (Show me love) directed by Lukas Modysson and Raymond directed by Björn Runge.2000-2010, Leif Eriksson was employed as a teacher in the film directing program at the University of Gothenburg.
During the years 2000-2020, he has, especially as a film photographer and sound designer, participated in a large number of documentary productions, dance films, music videos and short films for a.o. SVT, UN Child Foundation, Hasselblad Foundation, Greenpeace, Swedish National Radio P1, Gothenburg City Theater, Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg Opera etc. During this period, he has also worked internationally in India, Senegal, Tanzania, Ukraine and Argentina with film production as well as workshops in connection with moving images. In 2000, he edited, created the soundtrack and mixed the short film Faces of time, which later won nine international film awards around the world.
2010-2019 he was also part-time employed by the non-governmental cultural company Natverkstan, as a supervisor and manager for the Medialab, a resource facility for artists and filmmakers.
In recent years, Leif Eriksson has to a greater extent worked with stage projects as a visual designer / filmmaker. In 2017, he created visual scenography for the opera Elektra at the Gothenburg Opera, directed by Stephen Langridge. In 2021, together with Patrik Gunnar Helin, he was the creator of the video design for the Hakan Hellstrom musical Love does not spare anyone. He also does visual design for the romani theater group Arthem, which toured 2018-19 with The Unforgettable History, and which in 2022-23 will tour for the Riksteatern, the National Touring Theatre, with a unique version of Carmen.
In 2023, Leif Eriksson will make his literary debut with the collection of essays Walking on water, which is published by the book publisher Korpen.
Since 2013 he lives a voluntary simplicity lifestyle on his sailboat sailing extensively all year around and working with different projects onboard to reduce carbon footprint and to live more environmentally friendly. He has a non-religious spiritual view on life and profound interest in meditation, vedic philosophy, buddhism, christian mysticism, sufism and other esoteric perspectives.
Ref:
https://www.opera.se/opera-musikal-och-konsert/gaster/leif-eriksson/
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