Walking on water. A film about the Öresund Bridge, one of the most significant construction projects in Scandinavian history.
The film premiered at the Nordic Panorama in Oulu and has also been shown at the documentary festivals in Thessaloniki, Zagreb and Stockholm. The third of May the producer of the film Fredrik Gertten will show the film at the Greek Doc Day in Athens. There will be a special case study on Milkbar. The arrangement attended by the documentary comunity of Greece is co-organized by Greek TV station ERT and EDN, European Documentary Network.
Meanwhile WG film producer Margarete Jangård is closing a mayor contract with French/German broadcaster ZDF/ARTE commisioning editor Sabine Bubeck Paaz. This is a an important brick in the financing of the project. Other broadcasters and funders involved: Sundance Institute, USA, Nordic Film & TV Fund and NRK, Norway, Swedish Film Institue, SVT, TSR, Switzerland, VPRO, The Netherlands, ODISEA, Spain. More co-financiers to be announced soon.
Development money is fundamental if you want to do great films. So 230 000 Euro in development support adds good energy to the projects. This is the third time that WG film get's MEDIA Slate funding and the second time the company gets development support from the Swedish Film Institute programme: Independent Producers support. The money goes to five new projects that will be presented when they are ready to meet the world. One of the projects is Fredrik Gerttens "Bananas".
Milkbar opened with great reviews and an audience laughing and cheering. In December Folkets Bio released the film on DVD and it is available here. If you want to enrich your Milkbar experience, check out these NEW recipes. It is a Polish Beetroot soup, Barszcz, and a Polish hash with red wine, prunes and honey, Bigos.
On a trip? Milkbar will be screened at ZagrebDox in Croatioa (the end of February) and at Thessaloniki Festival in Greece (March 7-16).
Milkbar competed at Nordisk Panorama - 5 Cities Film Festival in September 2007. Watch the trailer here and listen to the new Milkbar tunes on WG radio.
One third of the production price of the average banana covers the cost of pesticides.
All over the world, banana plantation workers are suffering and dying from
the effects of these pesticides. Cancer, kidney failure, sterility. Juan
Dominguez, a million-dollar personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles, is on his
biggest case ever. Dole Food Company and Dow Chemicals are on trial. And history is about to be made.
Juan Domingues - personal injury lawyer representing the banana workers
On Monday Fredrik Gertten together with producers Margarete Jangård and Bart Simpson will pitch the project, to broadcasters from around the world, at the IDFA Forum. The jury in Los Angeles made Dole pay Millions of dollars in punitive damage to the banana workers. We wonder who will pay for the film in Amsterdam?
Fredrik Gertten pitched his new project at the Nordic Forum in Oulu, Finland together with the producers Margarete Jangård and Bart Simpson (The Corporation). The project was very well recieved. This summer has been intense with research shootings in Nicaragua and Los Angeles. The development of the film is supported by Sundance Institute, The Swedish Film Institute, Big Media Corporation, Canada, and the regional film fund Film i Skåne.
The prize-giving ceremony will be held in the foreign office of France on November 22nd. Director Malin Andersson will travel there together with other winners of the “Boundless” contest. Patron of the evening is the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The Contest, honouring cultural diversity and cross-border journalism, aims to improve the professional interplay and exchange of experiences of young journalists from different cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean region and the area of the European Broadcasting Union. “Boundless” received entries from more than 20 different countries. Gongratulations Malin!
Now we have new songs from True Blue 1 & 2 on WG radio. If you have'nt seen the films yet, check out the DVD-box in the store!
Who filmed the monk's uprising in Burma last year? Who risked their lives to tell the world? WG film is coproducing a film by the eminent danish director Anders Østergaard, Denmark on the Burma VJ:s. This is a co production with Magic Hour Films in Copenhagen. The Swedish support comes from SVT and Swedish Film Institue. The master of sound Martin Hennel and composer Conny Malmqvist, both Malmö will work on the film. Anders Østergaard is internationally known for the award winning: Tintin and I, 2003. In the 2006 his film "Gasoline" made 220 000 danes go to the
cinemas.
The clarinettist and composer Dan Gisen Malmquist have made the music for many of our films. Now he have collected his film music on the record Illusion. "La Familia" from WG films An Ordinary Family is one of the tracks on Illusion and available for you on WG radio. Get to it :)
The Man Who Saved the World, by Danish director Peter Antony, is a co-production together with Statement Film in Copenhagen. WG Film is proud to be a part of the pitch team during the Toronto Documentary Forum on April 24th. Fredrik Gertten will pitch for additional funds along with delegate producer Jakob Staberg and Antony. The project already has secured great support from TV2 Denmark, the film institutes in Sweden and Denmark and a theatrical distribution deal with Buena Vista International in four Nordic countries. Discover the story here.