Who was Niels Jensen?

To our non-Danish readers who might have noticed that several recent Danish language articles circle around the name, the very Danish name, Niels Jensen.

The reason is that Jensen (photo below) died a week ago, 81 year old after a long and important contribution to Danish film culture. He taught film – and many other topics – at the Danish folk high school Krogerup, he was a teacher at the Danish Film School, he served years as film consultant at the National Film Board of Denmark (now Danish Film Institute), and was a member of the board of directors at the same institution, and many other committees.

And he was an excellent writer which we film buff Danes have profited from. He wrote the best Danish book on film, ”Filmkunst”, and made reviews and presented films on television. A constant source of inspiration and semper ardens and interested in other people. Niels Jensen, I am sure, also has fans outside Denmark, he made several tours to American universities.

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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.

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