Nordisk Panorama Forum 23-24.9 2024

This was the 21st edition of the classic Nordic meeting for documentary directors and producers held parallelly to the Nordisk Panorama festival here in Malmö, where it has had its home for years after – as in the beginning – having moved around to cities in other Nordic countries. I remember having been to Bergen, Reykjavik, Kiruna, Helsinki… and having been in the panel representing the National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral) and when in EDN as moderator for some years invited by Heidi Elise Christensen, who is now back after 15 years as the director of Nordisk Panorama after Anita Reher.

It´s all professional, invited are Nordic decision makers and several broadcasters from Europe and the US to sit in the panel with the selected projects coming from both experienced filmmakers and newcomers. Talents. Which is good even if I thought – attending the pitches – that maybe some projects would have profited from waiting a year or two. To mature.

The tone is polite, the moderators are kind and well prepared. Thank you for the pitch the panelists say, we can talk further in a meeting – which is of course not so good for the show, for us, who are watching and listening to the presentations. But that´s how it is, new decision makers hesitate to ask critical questions, contrary to a veteran like Sabine Bubeck from ZDF/Arte from whom you can always expect a reflection that the pitching filmmakers can profit from. Like in the case of one of my favourites, presented this morning, “Orsoq” to be directed by Inuk Silis Høegh, producer Emile Hertling Péronard, a film on “the exploration of man’s longing for solitude” with, in the trailer, gorgeous shots from Greenland. Beware of the difference between solitude and loneliness, said Bubeck.

Another of my favourites is from Scotland, which was a visiting country. Finlay Pretsell (Photo from film on Millar) who I know from way back and whose film on David Millar, legendary bicycle racer, I loved a lot. Pretsell was back with another bicycle film, or at least one that takes its start in bicycling, in Colombia, where so many excellent racers come from like Rigoberto Uran. “Cyclovia”. “The bicycle is embedded deeply in Colombia’s culture, the catalogue says. They had a great dynamic trailer. Danish Jørgen Leth will love this film…

The Icelandic “Midgardakirkja – Portrait of an Island”, in Iceland with English Nikolai Galitzine as director was also one of those films I want to see – a church burns down and the 30 (!) residents decide to go together to have it rebuilt, the trailer was very inviting as was the director’s talk. With the same geographical angle, but in Norway, the director Håvard Fossum with “Facts About a Distant Valley” wants to depict the differences among a small population in the North of Norway, where some do not wish to adapt to modern city life. Maybe nothing new but the visuals were compelling as the characters were charismatic.

The company Story founded by – among others – Göran Hugo Olsson – see https://filmkommentaren.dk/goran-hugo-olsson-reframing-documentary-a-talk-at-nordisk-panorama/ came up with a shocking trailer for “Fear Fokol” to be directed by Tuva Björk, from Johannesburg, where the filthy rich employ private security guards to protect them. In the clip one of these guards tells the director about the different “weapons” to be used towards the intruders… “Fear Fokol” is the title of the film which the company wants to release in a 15 minutes version, later it could be longer.

Summing up: I had a good time watching the pitches, as said professional, no technical problems. The makers sit or stand up, they all have papers to read from, surprising for me, I though “we” had taught them to speak without looking down, anyway…