- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we bring you the story of Nik and Maria Payne,
a Norwegian couple with four children
who have chosen to raise them off the grid
on a sustainable farm, until a family tragedy causes them
to leave their idyllic existence for city life.
Tonight's film is A New Kind of Wilderness,
a film Variety calls "exquisitely breathtaking."
The Payne family
were a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson,
a close family completely at one with nature.
That is until 2019, when Maria Payne passed away
due to complications from cervical cancer,
forcing the sale of the family's beloved farm.
Nik became a single parent
and had to deal with the challenges that came
with raising four children.
Add to this having to sell the farm his wife loved,
and also dealing with his own struggle
with his self-admitted inadequacies as a breadwinner.
It was Maria's income from her side business as a photographer
that kept the family and farm afloat.
Nik is forced to bring his grieving children,
who only knew life in nature, into modern-day society.
The film documents the kids assimilating to regular school
as well as Nik's relationship with Ronja,
Maria's daughter from a previous relationship,
who at times feels like an outsider
to her three siblings and stepfather.
Sometimes the way a documentarian finds material
is almost as interesting as the film itself.
A New Kind of Wilderness is directed by Silje Jacobsen.
Jacobsen found her story about 10 years ago
when she was in the process
of trying to become a mother herself.
The director says she stumbled onto Maria's video blog
about her life living off the land
with her children and husband.
She was captivated by the vlog but also Maria's photographs,
and initially thought the family's story
would make an interesting TV series.
Jacobsen continued to talk to Maria about the project,
but after some time, Jacobsen learned that Maria passed away.
The director says it was like losing a dear friend,
even though they had only met in person once.
The director changed her approach
and decided to tell a story about grief,
the loss of a mother set against this beautiful natural backdrop
of the family farm,
and how a widowed father and his kids adjust.
Jacobsen says she only filmed Maria once,
so the time she is on camera during her documentary
is a result of archival footage.
She said Nik Payne agreed to do the documentary
as a tribute to his wife
and so he could continue to feel connected to her.
Jacobsen says what made her job as director much easier
was how natural the Paynes were.
She said no time was needed
getting them used to being on camera,
and that they went about their lives
as natural as the surroundings they were raised in
before their mother's passing.
A New Kind of Wilderness starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.