Cutting Edge Nordic Docos Come to Town

Hot on the heels of the NOTCH art festival, another Nordic cultural event is rolling into town – the 2009 Nordic Documentary Film Festival, or Nordox for short. Now in its fourth year, the festival will be bringing more cutting-edge socially and politically engaged documentaries to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art at 798. The diverse selection of films look at everything from scamming undertakers to the violent life in Haiti’s ghettos.

“I started the Nordic film festival in 2006, when Chinese artist Huang Rui asked me to organize a screening for the Dashanzi Art Festival,” says Henri Seng, head of Nordox programming. Seng, a Chinese-Swedish film director, made his name with the documentary, Beijing Beijing, about the city’s burgeoning artistic community. Seng also spent more than 10 years working and traveling around north Europe, where he gained many contacts in the Nordic documentary industry.

Seng explains, “This year, we invited festival director Tine Fisher from CPH:DOX (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival ) and Agneta Mogren from Tempo (Tempo dokumentärfestival) to be our program consultants. All our films focus on contemporary topics.”

Seng adds, “The opening film, Necrobusiness is highly recommended. It won the Tempo Award and was in IDFA’s official selection and many major European TV stations were involved in its making. It created a big stir when it premiered in 2005.”

Set in late-90s Poland, Necrobusiness looks at a group of ambulance drivers involved in a swindle that leads to murder. As Seng explains, “Due to the sensitive topic, it was unbelievably difficult to film. To complete the movie, the directors had to pay multiple visits to prisons to do research and interviews. We are very honored to have one of the directors, Fredrik von Krusenstjerna, in Beijing for a Q & A after the screening.”

Von Krusenstjerna isn’t the only director in attendance. Asger Leth, director of Ghosts of Cité Soleil, a portrait of two gang leaders in Haiti, will be in Beijing for the festival, along with Norwegian Charlotte Røhder Tvedt with her documentary From Prison to Parliament; Mats Bigert, one of the directors of Last Supper; Antti Seppanen, director of Iceberg Shadow’s; and Mika Koskinen, director of Facing Changes.

The December issue of the Beijinger has a feature on Hunting Down Memory, screening on Dec 4, which tells the story of a Norwegian musician trying to recover his memory.

The 4th Nordic Documentary Film Festival, Saturday Nov 21-Saturday Dec 5. All films in original language with English and Chinese subtitles. Synopses for the films can be found here, and a full schedule here. Festival attendance requires entry to UCCA (RMB 15, free for students with valid ID).