Truth and Film – Danish Film School

The ‘Truth & Film’ symposium (June 22-23) will bring together leading international filmmakers from documentary, fiction, and visual arts at the National Film School of Denmark to engage in discussions about cinematic truthfulness, current global challenges, and the possibilities for film to serve as a relevant source of understanding and engagement with the world around us.

Social media, live-streamed mass violence, and misinformation created by AI and other technologies like deepfakes are bringing us into a whole new era as a society. Images not only reflect but also drive new forms of development in the world. What does this mean for cinema, and what role can and should film play in this new context?

On 22-23 June, the National Film School of Denmark will welcome the first-ever Arab woman with two Oscar nominations, Venice and Cannes winner Kaouther Ben Hania (‘Four Daughters’, ‘The Man who Sold His Skin’), double Cannes winner Cristian Mungiu (‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’; ‘R.M.N.’ ), Sundance winners Kirsten Johnson (director of ‘Cameraperson’, who also was director of photography on the Oscar-winning ‘Citizen Four’) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (‘The Viewing Booth’; ‘The Law in These Parts’), the prominent visual artist Yuri Ancarani (‘Atlantis’; ‘Il Popolo delle Donne’), and award-winning editor, director, producer, and writer Tabitha Jackson, who recently served as Director of the Sundance Film Festival.

We are facing a truth crisis and we are bombarded with daily sensational and polarising content that threatens to limit our curiosity and understanding of the world around us. Our guest-directors refuse to be drowned in the flood of disinformation, and against this backdrop, we invite the film industry to challenge the status quo and redefine what makes film credible, risk-taking, and relevant to audiences. We look forward to an inspiring symposium weekend, which is important at a time when trust in the media is shrinking.