The idle, plotless meandering of slow TV flies in the face of every entertainment maxim. And yet, while programs in the genre offer no story to speak of, they manage to captivate us—whether we’re watching newly hatched ducklings milling in a pond or the prow of a ship splitting placid waters. Slow television is largely credited as a Scandinavian phenomenon. Its big moment came in 2009 with the premiere of the Norwegian Bergensbanen Minute by Minute—a recording of the seven-hour train journey from the coastal city of Bergen to Oslo, filmed in real time with minimal adornment. Almost all the footage is near-silent, save for station announcements and a steady rumble of train on track. As the hours tick by we see the countryside evolve from pine-trimmed fjords to snowy This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Four Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 30 Pillars of Hosting: Entertainment Storytelling virtuoso Bobette Buster on the art of the anecdote. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 23 Day In The Life: Adia Trischler Adia Trischler speaks about life on set and the difference between having it all and doing it all. Arts & Culture A New Wave: Films for a New Year We select five films to begin a sublime new year. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Jenny Odell The acclaimed author in search of lost time. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Amalie Smith The Danish arts writer finding clarity between the lines.
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