Danish Documentary is run by producer Sigrid Dyekjær and four of Denmark's most internationally renowned documentary filmmakers, Eva Mulvad (Enemy of Happiness), Pernille Rose Grønkjær (The Monastery), Phie Ambo (Mechanical Love), and Mikala Krogh (Cities on Speed - Cairo Garbage). The five women partners have two main rules: doing together, what is best for each film and keeping ambitions high. Concretely, this has meant cutting overheads to make sure all money invested shows on screen, and having a constant dialogue with each other and financiers.
For Mulvad, the input she received from her partners, and editor Adam Nielsen on The Good Life was crucial. The film competing for the DOX award in Copenhagen and for the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary portrays the downfall of a mother and a daughter, living in Portugal's Costa del Sol, suddenly forced to provide for themselves after having lived in luxury. "One of the challenges was to trust that the small setting: a mother and a daughter in a small living room would be cinematically interesting for one and a half hours," says Mulvad. "Sigrid and the other girls in the company helped me gain that trust because they could see that the everyday life of this particular mother and daughter created interesting scenes."
Dyekjær feels that the uniqueness of Danish Documentary is also the way the five women/partners ‘do everything at the same time'. "We use the financing period to develop a project creatively. We also edit at the same time as we shoot and research, presenting pilots with different footage to financiers to explain our ideas and investigate the creative core of a film."
Raising financing for The Good Life wasn't easy, despite Mulvad's excellent track record. "Financiers thought that making a documentary about two elder women who were broke and rather eccentric, wasn't a good idea," said Dyekjær. She and Mulvad still fought for the concept and submitted an advanced pilot version to financiers. The film was eventually produced for DKK2.9 million with financing from TV2 Danmark, SVT, NRK, support from the Danish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. DR Sales is handling world distribution. The Good Life will be transmitted by TV2 Danmark on prime time probably in March.
The Home Front, screening at IDFA's mid-length documentary competition, was already shown on TV2 Danmark's prime time slot early August and attracted a record 900,000 viewers, according to Dyekjær. A true victory for Ambo who, from the outset, took on the challenge to make her film for a mainstream audience. The director who is currently busy filming in the US her new documentary project Free the Mind-the second film after Mechanical Love focusing on human minds-will not be able to attend IDFA. Dyekjær however will be on hand. She will also be pitching at IDFA Forum Christian Bonke and Andreas Koefoed's Ballroom Dancing. As for Pernille Rose Grønkjær, she is putting the final touches on Love Addiction, set to wrap at the end of December.