BIG TIME & Den anden side

For those of our visitors, who don’t read Danish: I have written two reviews, with top scores, in Danish language as this could push Danes go to the cinema. ”Den anden side” by Pernille Rose Grønkjær about and with standup comedian Anders Matthesen has been running in cinemas all over Denmark since April 27, mainly through the chain of Nordisk Film Biografer. Big marketing work has been done, good reviews, hope it will give results, the film deserves it. The film will definitely have an international appeal as well, when it gets to the festival circuit.

Where ”BIG TIME” by Kasper Astrup Schröder will also go, for sure. It premieres tomorrow May 3 in more than 50 cinemas in Denmark with DoxBio as distributor. Again big marketing work, interviews with Bjarke Ingels, the now world famous architect, clips on tv etc.

(A footnote from one who started as consultant and press person at the National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral) in 1975, where it was almost impossible to make the press interested in documentaries – why… because they were not screened in cinemas or at festivals. Today Copenhagen (and some other bigger Danish cities) are full of festivals like CPH:DOX, like the architecture festival that runs now, Cinemateket has its ”documentary of the month” etc. etc. So happy about this development!)

Back to the standup comedian Matthesen and the architect Ingels. Both have been followed over several years, you see that in the final results and both deal with men, who face crises in their private and professional work at the age around 40! The directors Pernille Rose Grønkjær and Kasper Astrup Schröder go close to their protagonists, both public persons, who are often in the media and who deserve a bravo for letting the filmmakers into their stressful lives. These two well-produced films fit perfectly into the international line of direct cinema portraits of celebrities, that we know mostly from the American documentary history.    

Share your love
Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

Articles: 3909