Sundance 2025: ‘Folktales’ is an Amazing Doc About Dogs and Snow
by Alex Billington
January 26, 2025
Every once in a while you come across a film that is so perfectly made to connect deeply with you and your soul, so wonderfully crafted that your emotions reach a boiling point the moment it starts, so exciting in its majesty that you can’t help but fall instantly in love with it. Folktales is one of those film – for me, and hopefully for many others who take the time to watch it. Folktales is the latest documentary film from the incredible filmmaking duo Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, who have been to Sundance many times before with many great films including Jesus Camp, 12th & Delaware, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, One of Us, Dogs, and the narrative feature film I Carry You with Me. This time they travel up to Norway where they film teens spending a year at a rural folk school above the Arctic Circle. Here, various students learn skills like dog sledding and other solo survival skills which, even if they don’t be come dog-sledders after, helps them learn to grow as people and develop themselves in unexpected ways. It’s amazing to watch.
Folktales, co-directed by master doc filmmakers Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, was filmed at the Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway. Hundreds of “folk schools” can be found all around Scandinavia – they are places where young students can spend an unconventional “gap year” learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection & meaning in the modern world. The film focuses on three students, emphasizing their coming-of-age experiences growing up and learning though this experience. But the film also focuses on the extraordinary dogs who are there living and working as sled dogs. Half of the film is about the dogs, the other half is about the people. This has the best doggie POV shots in it since the other amazing doggie doc The Truffle Hunters (from 2020). There’s also a major part of this doc film that wonderfully captures how the connection between human and dog is vital to their growth, their happiness, and to their own emotional development. It’s a reminder of the power of nature, specifically the power of connection between animals & humans. There’s even a snow-loving orange cat that appears in a few scenes.
I just cannot stop raving about this doc. Words were pouring out of me about it for hours after the screening at Sundance – talking about this shot, that scene, this moment, these ideas. And above all – the doggies. THE DOGGIES IN IT!!!! The most cutest loveliest doggies ever helping these humans grow up. I adore this film – if kids can’t go to these folk schools themselves, this should be taught in school. It’s a near perfect 106 min distillation of their 9 months at this school, capturing nearly every vital aspect of what it’s teaching and their experiences and how they grow through these lessons. It features the most spectacular cinematography and score and storytelling and characters and everything you could want in a doc. Enshrined by poetic voiceover discussing the Norse mythology that these folk schools based their lessons around – specifically the three “Norns” which are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate around trees and shape humans’ futures. The film is also a deeply moving reminder of the power of teachers, and how the right people who are open & understanding can help anyone overcome their greatest fears and conquer any challenge. This is known, of course, but the teachers they highlight in this are some of the most loving and humble ever in a doc film.
I also must specifically mention the two cinematographers who worked on this film – Tor Edvin Eliassen and Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo. I can’t rate a film highly without being entirely enamored and in awe of the shots and the composition, and this is some of the best cinematography in any doc. I don’t care if this all comes across as hyperbolic, this film absolutely deserves this kind of acclaim. These two cinematographers are able to perfectly capture this world in the Arctic North. Not only do they use drones & handheld cameras in extremely cold conditions, they spend months in complete darkness, then return to the school’s campus where they craft some of the most creative angles of the students hanging out and attending classes. It never feels obtrusive or disruptive, it’s all so natural, and naturally a part of the experience of the film and what these students are going through. There are a few drone shots that I can’t stop talking about. Folktales is an instant all-time favorite doc. Another doggie doc masterpiece. Another film that I think can and will change lives. As it should. Now it’s time for it to emerge from Sundance and make its mark upon the whole world.
Alex’s Sundance 2025 Rating: 10 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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