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Tag archives for Uppsala Short Film Festival

Closing time. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.

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We are finally here, at the end of the road. You are reading my last post in the Sweden.se’s film blog. I do admit that it’s a little emotional. My face isn’t leaking but I am ready with some tissues so if it breaks out I can wipe and type.

As a final goodbye here at the end of the year I do feel the urge to share my thoughts of what I consider being the most interesting and fun films & events of 2010. I didn’t just want to do a regular top 5 list. Those are so easily forgettable after reading. Instead I wanted to mix it up a little. I hope you enjoy.

My three favorite Swedish films of the year are:

Behind Blue Skies (Himlen är oskyldigt blå).
This was easily my number one of 2010. It’s a beautiful film with a huge heart and some fantastic acting.

Simple Simon (I rymden finns inga känslor)
Sweden’s choice in the run for the Oscars is a very lovable film which hopefully will win the love of a lot of people around  the world.

Easy Money (Snabba Cash)
This is a film I haven’t mentioned in the blog. The reason for that is that it had a very early 2010 release. It’s based on a book by the same name by Jens Lapidus. Easy Money is a film that no doubt has flaws but at the same time it showed that Swedish crime film can do more than just watered down cop films.

Films people should have seen but didn’t.

Trust Me (Puss).
A very likable film with True Blood’s own Alexander Skarsgård. It’s directed by Johan Kling who did a film called Darling a few years back. Darling is considered being one of Swedens best films of this decade and Trust Me isn’t that far behind.

Psalm 21.
A film that scared basically everyone that went to see it. Sadly a lot of people skipped this one.

Best film where Swedes were involved.

A Better World (Hämnden).
This film which stars Mikael Persbrandt is my favorite Scandinavian film of 2010. The emotions and actors in this film are just mind blowing.

Shanghai.
Directed with a perfect hand by Swede Mikael Håfström. It’s a film noir that basically makes love to your eyes.

Best event of 2010.

Uppsala Short Film Festival. Even if ticket prices are going up (Buu!) they still deliver a very high standard when it comes to films( Yeay!). Stockholm Film Festival was a great one but the very narrow selection of Swedish films forces this festival to take the backseat.

Where the hell are you hiding?

Lukas Moodysson.
The director that took the world by storm a few years back has put the filmmaking hat on the shelf for a while and will be releasing his first book in 21 years this coming March. The book titled Death & Co is about a boy by the name of Lucas whose dad suddenly dies.

It’s an oldie but goodie. Swedish films that you just can’t miss.

Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in).
The vampire film that already has a Hollywood remake (Let Me In) is considered by the very famous English film magazine Empire to be number 15 when it comes to the 100 Best Films of all time.

In Bed With Santa (Tomten är far till alla barnen)
All I have to say about this one is that if you think you have a dysfunctional family around Christmas, just check this one out.

And there we have it people, the latest of the greatest when it comes to Swedish cinema. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed reading my blog. I hope it’s been a fun read as much of an interesting look at Swedish cinema. Like I wrote in my last post I really don’t know when or even if I’ll be back but with fingers crossed it feel s pretty good.

What will I do now? I’m actually off to Asia for a few months to recharge my batteries. If you would like to follow my journey you may do so here or on my Twitter.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

(And no, that’s NOT me in the video)

Chris Gardner - Film

December 9, 2010

Short films – Make them, all the cool kids are doing it

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Claes, a man fighting his inner jail. Photo: Martina Carlstedt

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s Interview Man. Fighting films, one question at a time. Well maybe I’m not that bad but every time I get invited to a screening I immediately need to fire a couple of questions at the people involved. Yes, I’m weird that way and friends stop inviting me to things but it’s totally worth it. This just gives me more time to watch films.

The other day I got invited to the first screening of a short film called Claes, directed by Martina Carlstedt. She’s currently studying documentary filmmaking at the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre (Dramatiska Institutet) and this is her latest baby.

Reality often outperform fiction says filmmaker Martina Carlstedt. Photo:Martina Carlstedt

Since visiting Uppsala Short Film Festival I’ve gotten completely hooked on shorts. I get really inspired excited by good short films and I have to say that the Uppsala festival really missed a great one because after Claes I felt like going home and paint a Jackson Pollock.

First off I want to say thank you for the screening. You and your producer, Geir Hansteen Jörgensen, were great hosts and the film was fantastic. A simple film with a huge heart that managed to catch the complex life of an old man with a fear of leaving his front door. Would this be a good way of describing the film?

Yes that is a good way of describing it. But it is also a film about fighting fears. Fears that sometimes creates an inner jail. It also highlights what lonesomeness and isolation can do to a person.

Tell me a little about the film Claes. How did it come to life?

I knew Claes when I was a little child. He was almost like a step-dad to me, a very kind, loving and social person. But when i was 6 years old he moved away and we didn’t have any contact for over 18 years. Last year I was in Gothenburg with another film project and decided to visit Claes where he lives nowadays. When I realized how he changed since i was a child, and what kind of isolated life he lives, I got very affected and sad. But I also felt his need of talking to someone about his situation. So i started filming him, without any intention of what i was gonna do with the material. His brutal honest way of describing his fears and angst in life made me feel that i had to do a film about him.

How come you decided on focusing on the genre of documentary? Is it a genre you enjoy more then others?

To me documentary and fiction have the same purpose. To tell a story that affects people in one way or another  and hopefully make people reflect a little bit differently on their own life or the world that we live in. But what I’ve experienced is that the reality often outperform fiction and I often find the stories I want to tell in my surroundings, in my reality as I see it.

Tell us a little bit about the process, how has it been? Has it been a struggle? A labor of love?

The process of making this film was really hard from time to time. It’s hard to be close to a person who is suffering. I wanted to understand his inner conflicts and isolation. This affected me mentally more then I could have imagined. I reflected a lot on my life during this process and filming claes was a bit like  therapy for me and him. I felt like Claes looked at the camera as someone who finally listened to him.

How do you feel now when you’ve released Claes into the world? Nervous, excited, sad?

I feel both nervous and excited. The most important for me was that Claes felt OK with me doing this film. He has seen it and feels good about it. Now i just hope that people will see it and hopefully gain something.

Since Uppsala Short Film Festival has already been this year, are there plans on next year? Have you sent it to any other festivals?

I’ll try to send it to Uppsala next year. Now we’ll see if Gothenburgs Film Festival and the documentary film festival Tempo wants a piece of it.

Chris Gardner - Film

November 14, 2010

I got PTFD but don’t worry, I have the cure

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From the documentary Hand Gymnastics. Photo: Ellen Fiske

I’ve just realized that I’m suffering from post-traumatic festival disorder. Two of the symptoms of PTFD are that you keep checking for subtitles, even if the film is in English and while watching a feature film you press pause after about 15 minutes, give a round of applause and then start the film again. Side effects are that it takes a bit longer to watch a film and the amount of friends that want to hang out and watch a film with you decreases in a rapid pace. But I got my medicine right here and that’s my festival interview I did with Caroline Gynther (CG), Cajsa Jönsson (CJ) and Ellen Fiske(EF), the three musketeers behind two films that got screened at Uppsala Short Film Festival. I mentioned this in a previous post. Their films were among the most interesting ones coming out of Sweden and I felt that an interview would be great.

What got you started in film making?
CG: Well that’s simple. I got interested in making film when I was studying art.
CJ: I’ve always been interested in acting so when I had to choose which program to focus on in high school I chose Theater and Film. I thought it would be a good idea to learn more about what´s going on behind the camera. A year later I discovered I’d become more interested in movie making than I was in acting.
EF: Two years ago I was working in a clothes shop in Uppsala. Selling clothes was truly boring me and when I heard the shop was about to go bankrupt I decided to do something completely different. I had always been interested in theater and film so when I heard about the documentary film school at Biskops-Arnö I made my first film as a part of the application. Making film turned out to be something I really enjoyed and sometimes it just completely absorbs me.

What people in the industry inspire you? Anybody in Sweden?
CG: Internationally I would say Miranda July. In Sweden it would be Ruben Östlund.
CJ: Most of the movies I’m inspired by are Swedish and my favorite directors are Ruben Östlund and Roy Andersson. Their movies can be mistaken for documentaries because most of the time the scenes are shot with a static camera in one shot and the actors are really talented. Hoyte van Hoytema is a cinematographer who I admire. He knows what looks beautiful on the screen and how to show the spectators the characters inner feelings. I think he´s done a great job in both Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) and The Girl (Flickan).
EF: I just saw a film called Tussilago at the festival by the filmmaker Jonas Odell. I love the way the film combines documentary and animation. I will definitely try to get a hold of his other films.

Is there any particular job you have done that you are particularly proud of and why?
CG: I’m very proud of our two films that we had at the festival, We Are Fourteen and Hand Gymnastics.
CJ: I’m really proud of a short film I made about a year and a half ago. It’s called And In That Cottage I Want To Live With You (Och i den stugan vill jag bo med dig) and is about a day in the life of my grandparents. It features no dialog, only the sounds they make. The sound of my grandmother baking, my grandfather walking the dog in the forest one windy morning and so on. I’m proud of them because they allowed me to film them and they had no problem at all with it.
EF: I’m proud of our film Hand gymnastics and the way that the old ladies acted in front of the camera. The atmosphere was relaxed and after a while they seemed to forget that the camera existed and just went on doing their business. I think I’ll always remember the moment of feeling invisible.

You are three directors. Isn’t that hard? How do you divide the work?
CG: We kind of do all of the work together, just by taking turns. It hasn’t been that hard since we agree on most things.
CJ: I’m used to work in a team and I think we worked it out quite well. We are good friends all three of us and that helped. You respect each other and their opinions better if you are friends. We divided the work in terms of days. One day perhaps me and Ellen took turns filming and Caroline took the sound, though all three of us always decided together which angles we should use and so on. When it came to editing we sat together and made the choices together. It’s lucky we get on so well and like the same sort of movies.
EF: When we work together we divide the work equally, so that each one of us got the chance to improve our skills in both cinematography and editing. We had to formulate and argue for our own ideas, which made the process quite long but also rewarding. Personally I prefer working in a team instead of being alone with all the different parts in the process of film making. I’m also very happy that I got to know Cajsa and Caroline through our work with the films.

You are the directors of two films, Hand Gymnastics and We Are Fourteen. They are different in both style and subject. How did these ideas come to life?
CG: With Hand Gymnastics, we where just lucky to be there without that much preparations. It was a school assignment and that was to catch a moment or a scene. While We Are Fourteen was the opposite. It was a long film making process. We were interested in how girlfriends act with one another.
CJ: Hand Gymnastics was an exercise in school. One of us, I don’t remember who, came up with the idea that we should go to an elderly house to film. And that day they happened to do hand gymnastics. The idea to We Are Fourteen came from just brainstorming. We thought it’d be fun to do a film about girls in the age we’d left and to show their relationship as best friends. They are still children and they like to do childish stuff, but they are so eager to become grown ups so they get confused. We wanted to show the contrast between these two and how these girls deal with it.
EF: Hand Gymnastics was actually a film exercise we got from school. We decided to film at an old people’s home, and when we got there a group of old ladies were about to start a class of hand gymnastics. We had no idea while shooting it that it would later be considered a short film and be screened for an audience. I’m very glad that it turned out the way it did. We Are Fourteen was our final exam at Biskops-Arnö. We thought it would be interesting to make a film about fourteen year olds and started filming three best friends in a small town called Bålsta. The idea was to capture the every day life of teenage girls, what they do and don’t do as being stuck in the middle of childhood and adulthood.

People think it’s hard enough to get one film into a festival. You have two! How did it feel when you found out that both films got accepted to Uppsala Short Film Festival?
CG: It was just really fun and exciting to have been picked.
CJ: It felt great of course! I’m really proud of all of us and the movies. And I’m thankful towards Ellen because she sent in the tapes.
EF: I’ve been to the festival several years in a row and I love watching short films so I was really excited when I found out that our films were going to be screened!

What is your dream project? Who would be involved?
CG: That is a hard question. I’m sorry but I don’t know.
CJ: It’s hard to tell. I don’t know really. But I would like to have Hoyte van Hoytema and me filming together. It would probably be shot in Sweden. I’d like to explore more about the Swedish mentality.
EF: I think I’d like to make a series of documentaries for television. I’m not sure what the topic would be, but the idea of making episodes and reaching out to a broader audience really appeals to me.

And to end the interview softly I have to ask, If you only had to watch one film for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
CG: Me and You and Everyone We Know by Miranda July.
CJ: The Back to the Future trilogy.
EF: I think I’ll have to answer Karl-Bertil Jonssons Julafton as I see it at least once a year. I love the way the story is told, the drawings, the music, yeah everything!

Chris Gardner - Film

November 5, 2010

This is the end. My only friend, the end

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Ladies and gentleman, the festival is over. The winners have been crowned and Elvis has left the building. This year has been a great one. Fantastic films, more people and just a great atmosphere. So without further ado, I present to you this years winners.

The Cage (Colivia) by Adrian Sitaru won the international prize for best film or the Uppsala Grand Prix as it’s known around the water coolers. Not only does Mr. Sitaru go home with the Uppsala Film Jackdaw award, he also leaves 25 000 Swedish kronor richer. The Cage is a great little film where a young boy finds a injured pigeon and wants to keep it but his father refuses. I never thought this would win, but after hearing the jury’s reason it all made sense.

“A beautifully simple and simply beautiful tale of a father’s love for his son, that is shrouded in musicality whilst never leaving the confines of the characters’ apartment. With a perfectly judged pace and tone this is short film making at its finest.”

The people have also spoken. The Cage was crowned by a jury but then we have the peoples vote. And as I consider myself more of a man of the people than a man of the jury (wow, that was very John Grisham of me) I found this result more interesting. The winner of the Audience Award for best international film was Tussilago. When I heard that I gave myself a mental high-five. I was worried that my predictions in my previous post would crumble like a house of cards but when Tussilago by Jonas Odell was called out it was all good.

On the Swedish front the winner for best film was Not Panic (Ingen Panik) by Elisabeth Marjanovic’ Cronvall. Once again, a film I really enjoyed but thought nothing else to it. However after seeing it again I really understood what the jury meant with their motivation:

“We don’t know exactly what we are watching, and we like that. The future is wide open and uncertain, and you’re not to panic Head on, with all systems go and a strong sense for detail, the films portrays a group of young people on their way into the adult world where everything is possible; you can become an underwater-welder, a baker, drive a really huge excavator or become an actor. And the adults aren’t turned into clichés either.”

The Swedish Audience Award went to Miss Remarkable And Her Career (Fröken Märkvärdig och Karriären) by Joanna Rubin Dranger. This is an animated film that really got loved by a lot of people. Was it my favourite? No but it’s still a damn good film and I’m very happy for the director.

Do you want to read about more winners you can visit the Uppsala Short Film Festival homepage and there you can find other winners like who won for best children’s film, best cinematography or the new prestigious Ingmar Bergman award. All with motivations and information about the people behind the film.

I want to sincerely congratulate all the winners of the festival for their great films but I would also want to take the time and applaud all film makers that managed to get their films into the festival. I wish you all the luck in the future and hopefully I’ll see you next year when Uppsala Short Film Festival turns 30 years old. I’ll bring the cake!

Signing out from Uppsala.

Chris Gardner - Film

October 31, 2010

Ground control to Major Bill. Take your protein pills and get your acting on

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Simon is NOT having a good time. The scene is from Simple Simon. Photo: NIKLAS JOHANSSON

When discussions over the Academy Award comes up, Swedish film isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Actually it’s not even the second. It may be harsh coming from a SWEDISH film blogger and all but it’s the truth. I wish it rained golden statues over Swedish film but we’re not there, yet. However let us not forget that we do have some excellent films that go a long way and actually make it to the red carpet in Hollywood. We just need that extra push, that extra twist and a little more “umph” or panache if you will.

This year Sweden’s contribution to the Academy Awards is Simple Simon or as it’s named in Sweden, I rymden finns inga känslor, which means “In space there aren’t any emotions”. It’s directed by first timer Andreas Öhman. The film is about an 18 year old kid with Asperger’s syndrome. His name is Simon and he lives at home with his parents. On a daily basis he drives them nuts. The reason for this is that he only listens to his older brother. One day they decide that Simon should move in with his older brother and from that moment on, everything changes. Sam, his older brother, gets dumped because she can’t stand Simon. This gives Simon a mission. He needs to find his brother a new girlfriend. Even if he doesn’t want one.

Sorry, no subtitles.

Could this be the film that brings a little golden man back to Sweden? Yes. Will it? No, but I really hope so. This year the foreign films around the world are really top notch so the competition is hard. However, this film has a huge heart. The story is beautiful and you leave the cinema with a smile so big that you actually forget the weaker parts. I wish the acting was a little better and some scenes a little tighter but overall it was a great little film.

Later this week I will be reviewing Behind Blue Skies (Himlen är oskyldigt blå) and the reason for this, other than both being interesting films, is because the actor Bill Skarsgård is one of the leads in both of them. He is the latest in a long line of Skarsgårds to be a success on the silver screen. All of them are good actors so whatever that family is drinking I hope they never stop. Skarsgård is now a stamp of quality, kind of like the IKEA of acting.

No subtitles here either.

Next week like you (should) know is Uppsala Short Film Festival and I will be all over it. I will try seeing as much as possible and share as much as possible here on the blog. Writing what I think of every single film is something I can not do. It would take way to much time and it would end up with me seeing 3 films the entire week. Don’t worry, modern technology is our friend (most of the time) so I will be using Twitter to cover even more of the festival. There I will give quick thoughts and try to be as up to date as humanly possible. You don’t have to have a Twitter account to read it, but it makes it easier to follow.

See you in a few days.

Chris Gardner - Film

October 21, 2010