WG Film
In Sweden famous for local stories with universal understanding, WG Film has been producing and developing author driven documentaries since 1994. We have also been active in the international co-financing world with five documentaries sold to over forty broadcasters in 25 countries. Now WG film also develops fiction projects for TV and cinema.
The history of WG Film
Westman & Gertten AB was founded in 1994 by the experienced documentary filmmaker Lars Westman and journalist Fredrik Gertten. Lars Westman is one of the great Swedish filmmakers, his breakthrough came as early as 1970 with the film "Kamrat motståndaren är välorganiserad/Comrade, the opponent is well organized". Since then he has made many films that today are part of Swedish film history. In 2000 he received the Bo Widerberg award in recognition of a lifetime dedicated to film.
Fredrik Gertten has been a journalist since he was 20 years old. He has worked all over the world for radio, television and newspapers.
Westman & Gertten realised that Swedish documentary film needed stronger structures, and stronger producers. The goal was to create better conditions for the sort of documentary film that we love. The company has grown out of necessity, it is hard today for a documentary filmmaker to manage on his own if he wants to make films with high artistic and technical quality. Today we have two AVID-suites in a quiet, comfortable environment. Documentary film of high artistic quality needs a long editing process. We have created good conditions for that.
Our premises are located in central Malmö, near the train to Copenhagen. We mostly work with long, time-consuming film projects, often with a production-time of more than two years, sometimes even longer. We have had the time to develop the skill of managing large quantities of recorded material and turning it into strong documentary films.
We are well known for making films about the local community in a universal perspective. We will continue to do that. But we will also make more international films.
After close to ten years of great artistic success we would now like to consolidate our business. We are today a more professional production company, working with several independent directors. To mark that, we have now changed our name to WG-film.
We are engaged in seeking new audiences. The majority of our films are co-produced with Swedish Television, SVT, but we will not settle with that. Three of our full-length documentaries have been shown in theatres: "Blådårar/True Blue", "Gå på vatten/Walking on water" and "Vägen tillbaka – Blådårar 2/The way back - True Blue 2", with distribution all over Sweden in co-operation with Triangelfilm, Sweden's main quality film distributor with it’s own chain of filmtheatres. "Gå på vatten/Walking on water" was also screened in Danish movie theatres.
Two of our short films have been shown in theatres together with feature films. "Boogie Woogie Pappa/Boogie Woogie Daddy" was shown together with David Cronenberg's "Spider" and "The Great Bridge" was shown with Amos Kollek's film "Fast Food Fast Women". In addition, two of our other films have run regularly in movie theatres in Malmö: "Mordet på en tidning/The death of a working man's newspaper" and "Poesigeneralen/The Poetrygeneral". A third film has its premiere at the theatre this September, "Kranen/The Crane."
All films are distributed on VHS and DVD. "Gå på vatten/Walking on water" was released in four different languages: Swedish, Danish, German and English, and has today sold over 20. 000 copies. "Blådårar/True Blue" and "Vägen tillbaka – Blådårar 2/The way back – True Blue 2" have sold about 5.000 copies each. Our other films have sold about 500 VHS cassettes each. All films have been shown at Swedish festivals.
"Walking on Water", "The Great Bridge", "Boogie Woogie Daddy", "The way back – True Blue 2" have been screened at festivals all over the world. "Boogie Woogie Daddy" was the Swedish film that received most international awards in 2002 and 2003.
International work
We participate every year in IDFA in Amsterdam, in Hot Docs in Toronto, in Nordisk Panorma and in Sunny Side of the Docs. We have a network of friends in the international documentary film world. Fredrik Gertten is also a board member in EDN, European Documentary Network. When it became impossible to finance documentary film in Sweden it was through these contacts that WG Film could be saved. We have during 2004 and 2005 presented five projects internationally. We have pitched in Amsterdam, Toronto, Barcelona, Malaga, Thessaloniki, Malmö, Reyjkavik, Bergen and Marseille. The results have been beyond our expectations. All the films are being produced with a reasonable budget. We are no longer underfinanced. The work load as regards producing has of course gone through the roof, we have about forty conctracts in fourteen countries and more are being signed right now. We work regularly with the solicitor Jennie Kastberg who helps us with all our contracts.
The funding from the MEDIA programme gives us a good reputation internationally, but it also puts great demands on our organisation. These demands that we place on ourselves make us better but they also complicate our accounting and make it more expensive. We have done a great amount of work to develop structures that allow us to manage MEDIA funding and our other international work.
The Auteur tradition
In Sweden the auteur-tradition has been predominant mostly among documentary filmmakers. In reaction to this we realized that it was time to move on, and that therefore, it is necessary to have strong producers. Dramaturgically strong editors have allways been important to us. Since 1998 we have had an expanded cooperation with some of Denmarks foremost editors like Nils Pagh Andersen, Jesper Osmund and Åsa Mossberg. This link to the Danish film industry has been and still is an important part of our identity and of our future. Our shared experience gives us a lot to contribute to younger filmmakers in need of a producer. We have created a strong enviroment that contributes to projects both artistically and economically.
A Crossroads
Some years ago the Swedish Government changed it's agreement with the Swedish Film Institute with regards to the methods and the amounts of funding to be distributed to documentary film production companies. Along with this problem and SVT's re-organisation and re-prioritisation of it's documentary department, Swedish documentary film making has gone from crisis to crisis. The result is that it is today virtually impossible to fully finance an ambitious documentary film in Sweden. Several years ago our organisation was at a crossroads, to either shut down productions, or work offensively towards financing our films internationally. We survived.
Women and film
One of our goals is a workplace in balance. At the moment female co-workers are in a majority at WG Film. Margarete Jangård is leading the company together with Fredrik Gertten and four of our five current documentary projects have women as the lead characters and women as the most important co-workers.
It has been important for us to:
- Reduce our dependence on funding organisations like SFI - The Swedish Film Institute and SVT - Swedish Television. This has been acheived through distributing more films in cinemas, on VHS and DVD, and on video on demand, along with increasing international coproductions and the preservation of broadcast rights.
- To keep the rights as close to the originator as possible. We own the rights to all our films.
- To increase the degree of financing in each project. MEDIA slate funding increases our ability to finance the projects in time and in the right order. Media's regulatory framework forces us to organize better. Carefull management accounting and better planning!
