Archive of films Blue Collar White Christmas / Nede På Jorden
Denmark
2004, 82 min
Section:
Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now!
Year: 2005
Extraordinary documentary, shot like a Ken Loach feature film, set in a lifeboat factory threatened with redundancies.
Synopsis
An extraordinary documentary, shot and edited like a Scandi realist drama, Blue Collar White Christmas blurs the genre’s margins in striking ways. Centered on a small group of employees at a lifeboat factory who are threatened with pre-Yule pink-slipping, pic is neither traditional docudrama nor straight reportage, more a decanting of true events into a smarter-looking bottle. The Viking lifeboat factory is a key employer in the small town. So when the management announces in the lead-up to Christmas 2001 that it will be “operating at a lower level,” the employees’ settled lives start to look less settled. Director Max Kestner and d.p. Henrik Ipsen present everything in a managed, visually planned way. Audience has to continually remind itself that this is not a scripted feature film a la Ken Loach — and in the very last scene the filmmakers have one delightful, Hans Christian Andersen-like trick up their sleeves.
Derek Elley
Contacts
Danish Film Institute
Gothersgade 55, 1123, Copenhagen
Denmark
Tel: +45 337 434 00
Fax: +45 337 434 01
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.dfi.dk
TV 2/Denmark Programme Sales
Sortedam Dossering 55 A, 2100, Copenhagen
Denmark
E-mail: [email protected]
About the film
Color, 35 mm
Section: | Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now! |
---|---|
Director: | Max Kestner |
Screenplay: | Dunja Gry Jensen |
Dir. of Photography: | Henrik Bohn Ipsen |
Music: | Povl Kristian |
Editor: | Nanna Frank Møller |
Producer: | Jens Pedersen, Thomas Heurlin |
Production: | Lynx Media a/s |
Contact: | Danish Film Institute, TV 2/Denmark Programme Sales |
Guests
Max Kestner
Film Director
Hanne Skjodt
Film Institution Rep.
Christian Juhl Lemche
Film Institution Rep.
Dunja Gry Jensen
Screenwriter