LECTURE MOVING DANES

MONDAY 17.10. / 9.30 AM / ZAGREB DANCE CENTER (ILICA 10)
(as part of Moving Danes lecture screening of Room 304, EUROPA CINEMA, Monday, October 17th at 15.00)

Zagreb Film Festival has again recognized the importance of workshop training. In cooperation with Croatian Audiovisual center, MEDIA Desk Croatia, Danish Film Institute, MEDIA Desk Denmark and Embassy of Denmark in Zagreb will reveal the secrets of success of Danish film as part of an event with a unique name – MOVING DANES. Danish cinema is on the rise, both in terms of international acclaim (Palm d'Or in 1991 and 1992 and Oscar in 1997, 1998 and 2011; the latter one having been won by Susanne Bier's 'In a Better World') and substantial progress on the national level. Compared to other European film industries, Danish films rank well on their national market, too, with a share of 23 percent of the overall cinema program.

Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Susanne Bier are but a few names hiding behind Dogma95, the film manifesto proclaimed in the 1990s. Boosted by successful distribution of films like 'Antichrist' (2009), 'Submarino' (2010) and 'In a Better World' (2010), this movement deserved credit for international positioning of Danish films in general.

Danish Film Institute, the government's umbrella agency, is responsible for supporting, empowering and preserving of Danish film culture. Its scope of work includes a series of activities, including participation in development and production of feature, short and documentary films, and their distribution and promotion, including management of the national film archive and library.

When listing specific characteristics of Danish film industry, it is important to emphasize the high-quality education provided by Danish Film School and educational alternatives provided by Superior 16, European Film College in Ebeltoft and the Film and Media studies at the University of Copenhagen.Besides Danish Film Institutes, Danish broadcasting companies like DR and TV2 also have an important role in positioning/production, promotion and distribution of modern Danish films.

Examples of successful Danish practice will be presented by Claus Ladegaard, Head of Development and Production Department at the Danish Film Institute, Vinca Wiedemann, Creative Producer of Zentropa Production Company, Birgitte Stærmose, director of the film 'Room 304', Philip Einstein Lipski, a marketing expert, film director Michael Noer, and Ingolf Gabold, a representative of DR Broadcasting Company.

Join us in the Zagreb Dance Center (Ilica 10, Zagreb) on 17 October at 9:30am and experience the charming power of Danish film! We are looking forward to see you!

LECTURERS:

Claus Ladegaard, Vinca Wiedemann, Birgitte Stærmose, Philip Einstein Lipski, Michael Noer, Ingolf Gabold

Claus Ladegaard is Head of Development & Production at the Danish Film Institute, which is the main funding body of films in Denmark and funding 20-25 features and 30-35 documentaries a year, along with tv-drama, talent films, computer games and workshop productions. He holds a master degree in communication and has previously worked as documentary director and producer of documentaries, factual television and fiction. Before coming to the Danish Film Institute he was for 10 years producer and partner in the production company Easy Film A/S and member of the board of the Danish Producers' Association. He has worked as consultant and teacher within the film, tv and radio business in Denmark. He is also chair of the board of the Nordic Film & TV Fund.

Vinca Wiedemann graduated in film editing from the National Film School of Denmark. Being appointed as film consultant (i.e. film commissioner) at the Danish Film Institute, she was responsible for granting development and production support for feature films. Among them, some were nominated or won awards at important international film festivals: Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Cannes, San Sebastian, film titles: ‘Italian for Beginners’ (Lone Scherfig), ‘Open Hearts’ (Susanne Bier), ‘Dogville’ (Lars von Trier). Vinca was also appointed as the first Artistic Director of the Danish Film Institute’s new production scheme – New Danish Screen – prioritising the unconventional and innovative with the aim of providing Danish cinema with fresh ideas and change. On behalf of the Nordic Film and Television Fund and the five Nordic National Film Institutes, she wrote the report The Art of Individual Decision Making. Together with a producer Sisse Graum Jorgensen (Zentropa), she worked on a feature film ‘Family' by Pernille Fischer Christensen (Competition, Berlin Film Festival 2010), winner of the Fipresci Prize; Los Angels Film Festival 2010, winner of the Narrative Award. In 2011, she became story supervisor for Lars von Trier’s 'Melancholia' and currently has been collaborating on his script for his next feature 'Nymphomaniac'. At the moment, she is also advisor and lecturer internationally on film institutes and film schools on film politics, development, script writing and artistic collaboration, as well as, senior advisor at European ThinkThank on film and film policy.

Birgitte Stærmose holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University. ROOM 304 is Stærmose’s first feature. Her latest film, ‘Out Of Love’, a staged monologue based film with street children in Pristina, Kosovo, has been honored with a Special Mention at the Berlinale, the Prix EFA at Rotterdam IFF, Prix de la jeunes at Festival du cinema de Brive, a Jury Special Mention at Melbourne IFF, the award for Best Short at Stockholm IFF and a Danish Academy Award for Best Documentary, and was also nominated for Best European Short at the EFA Awards in 2010. Her other award-winning shorts have screened worldwide as well: ‘Small Avalanches’, based on a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, won UIP Prize for Best European Short at Edinburgh IFF 2003 and was nominated for Best European Short at the European Film Awards. ‘Principles Of Attraction’, four stories about four women includes ‘Sophie’, the last of these stories. ‘Sophie’ had its international premiere at Sundance in 2007, was selected for New Directors / New Films at MOMA in NYC and was awarded the ARTE prize at Dresden International FF. Stærmose is currently in development on two feature projects: ‘Beauties’, a film with Albanian turbo folk singers; and ‘Julie’s Face’, a modern take on August Strindberg’s play ‘Miss Julie’ with Danish dramatist Peter Asmussen (‘Breaking the Waves’).

Philip Einstein Lipski was born in 1974, Denmark. He was a Copywriter at various advertising bureaux during the period 2000-2007. He has worked in promotion teams marketing films such as the Danish hits 'Terribly Happy', 'Terkel in Trouble', 'Journey to Saturn', 'Armadillo' and the Swedish-Danish Millineum Triology: 'The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo', 'The Girl Who Played With Fire', 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'. The 3D animation feature film, 'Ronal The Barbarian', co-directed with Thorbjørn Christoffersen and Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, is Lipski's feature film debut.

Michael Noer, graduated at Danish National Film School. In the meantime, he has made several award winning documentary films. In 2010, he had his feature film debut together with co-director Tobias Lindholm, with the prison film ’R’ - a modern hybrid between documentary filmmaking and fiction. By doing a lot of research and using former inmates in many of the roles, the film does create a scary like feel of being in prison. Michael Noer will talk about hybrid filmmaking and how this is used in his movies and his generation of danish filmmakers. Not only does hybrid filmmaking create a strong realm of realism, it is also possible to make low or almost no budget film under these dogmas. In pre production are ’Northwest’ a film about youth crime and ’Key House Mirror’ a film shot in an elderly home - the films are fiction, but based on a lot of research and the method is the same as in the film ’R’, using a trained actor, acting in a real environment. Beside feature film ’R’ (together with Tobias Lindholm) Noer did almost no budget film ’Son of God’ (together with Khavn de la Cruz). In 2009 he did a feature documentary ’The Wild Hearts’ and the interactive internet series for teens ’Doxwise’ (in co-operation with MySpace) (www.doxwise.dk), and a year later feature documentary ’Vesterbro’.

Ingolf Gabold was born in 1942 Germany. He is a Danish composer, graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He is currently the head of the dramatic fiction department at DR, the Danish national broadcaster and behind all the big TV drams from DR TV the last years.