Per Erik Eriksson ("Pelle") was born in southern Sweden. After completing high school and military service he worked as a music journalist for a local public radio station. In the early 1990's Eriksson worked as a radio correspondent for Swedish National Radio in Vietnam and China. Realizing the constraints of radio reportage, he started to make video documentaries. In 1994, in China, he met his future wife (Narquis Barak) - an anthropology PhD candidate at Harvard University. Between 1994 and 1998 Eriksson studied political history, history of Vietnamese film, and Vietnamese at the National University of Hanoi. During this time Eriksson and Narquis co-produced several digital video documentaries in Vietnam and southern India - several of which were ethnographic videos made for Harvard. In 1998, they moved with their daughter Yasmin to Cambridge. Eriksson completed his BFA in Film and Video at Massachusetts College of Art in 2000. In 2003 several of Eriksson's photographs and videos were on display at the Museum of Natural History, New York.

Bad Ass
digital video
24 min.

In Bad Ass the viewer will meet a familiar but truly misunderstood Equine, the donkey. By examining the historical and contemporary role of the domesticated and wild donkey in California through the eyes of people who have tried to eradicate it and people who have tried to rescue it, this documentary aims to unravel and problematize stereotypes and misconceptions about the American donkey. In the process of examining the American donkey and its plight from a variety of angles, the documentary examines the moral-ethical relationship between humans and animals.

Travels Rightward
16mm, color film
10 min.

Travels Rightward is a portrait of adventurers David and Rita Jordt. After spending almost 40 years in Asia and Africa under primitive conditions, they now reside in the "Lost Sierras". While living a "frontier lifestyle" on their ranch, David and Rita are regretting how the US changed while they were away living their dream.

Propane Rain
Co-directed by Nils Per Eriksson and Mark Rinehart
digital video
10 min.

Propane Rain is a film about the San Francisco machine art group, The Seemen, and its founder Kal Spelltich. While exploring Kal's attitudes towards fear, fire and audience participation the film centers on a rare live show in the very warehouse where Kal both lives and lets the audience members operate his dangerous machines.

FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS:

• Golden Gate Award Nomination, San Francisco International Film Festival, 2003
• Honorable Mention, Marin County Film Festival, 2002
• Perth International Film Festival, 2002

Framed Nature
16mm, black and white film
3:30 min.

Framed Nature is about our conflicting views about an open space, namely the Stanford foothills, and the place of humans in it. The film explains Stanford’s desire to convert the foothills into an imaginary construct to avoid future controversy.