COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – The contributors’ list for the new film ‘Isolation’ for the Danish organizations Mothers’ Aid and Live Without Violence is a rare sight. Award-winning photographers like Kasper Tuxen and Jasper Spanning are lined up next to directors like Martin de Thurah and Martin Werner.
Watch the harrowing film here.
The reason? The film was created during lockdown in Denmark with footage donated by colleagues of directors Christina Amundsen and Emilie Thalund and production company Bacon. We talked to the two directors who came up with the idea about how they pieced the whole thing together.
Where did the idea for this film come from?
Emilie Thalund: We have wanted to do a film on abusive homes for a while as we have realized how widespread the problem actually is in Scandinavia. So we have done a lot of research on the issue. Then the corona virus happened, which set us back, but it also made us think that this is especially a scary time to live in an abusive home. Children don’t have the safe spaces of going to school or other activities, and there are no other adults than their parents to keep an eye on them.
Christina Amundsen: It just seemed like a horrible situation, so we talked to Mothers’ Aid and Live Without Violence about it, and they told us they get more calls to their hotlines every time someone makes video content for them. And luckily Bacon was ready to support us in making the film.
Then you just had to solve the problem of creating a film in a lockdown situation. How did you go about that?
C: We send out an email to photographers and directors in our network and asked them for footage. And that was the real experiment because we did not know if they would send anything and if they would send stuff that we could use.
E: We really did not know if the footage would fit together if they even had the trust in us to send us something.
C: As we began to receive clips, we tried to figure out how we could make it work.
E: Instead of seeing the process as a limitation, we actually thought it was cool to work in a way you would never do otherwise. One of the things that has really been great about this time is the feeling of community and how people help each other. There is this myth about photographers and directors as these stubborn auteurs, but in this case everybody has been so lovely and open. The film could literally not have been made without the help of our colleagues.
How did the process affect the narrative?
C: Really, one of the strengths of the project turned out to be the difference in the footage. The many different takes on home isolation.
E: In the end we would have loved to gathered more footage, but there was also an urgency to the launch of the film. We had sent a wish list to all the contributors describing what we wanted, so we had already asked for this type of imagery – stuff that makes you wonder what is going on next door.
C: But normally we would have a script, and that was not the case here. So early in the process we tried to do a voiceover with my friend’s children and that ended up driving a lot of the narrative.
What was the biggest challenge of making this fim?
C: One of the big challenges was to not be able to physically sit together, to communicate online. Normally it is really nice to get a sense of the footage, while you are in the same room.
E: Even though many things could be done smoother if we had to do it again, I have been surprised at how much was actually possible. But it is a longer process when you are not able to be physically together and have to meet up on Zoom, write emails and call each other all of the time. You really learn how much you appreciate being close to each other, because it is a lot more fun to make films in the real world.
About the Directors
Emilie Thalund is a director from Copenhagen, Denmark. She burst onto the international scene in 2018 as she won gold at the Young Director Award in Cannes for her film ‘Period.’ – a bold and artistic take on a topic that is virtually a taboo worldwide. Since then, she has continued to create visually stunning narratives and has worked with brands such as IKEA and Pandora.
Copenhagen-based director Christina Amundsen‘s work has been acknowledged at festivals all over the world. She started out working with documentaries, music videos and creating visual identities for musicians and designers, and she has since then added commercial work to her repertoire.
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