Anne Wivel
Per Kirkeby's struggle to return to art after an accident. An honest and personal portrait of a headstrong artist.
For two years, director Anne Wivel and her camera followed her husband, the prominent Danish politician Svend Auken. The initial aim was to portray a modern, idealistic politician with great visions for the future. But during shooting, Auken contracted cancer, and the film became a portrayal of the politician, husband and father who feels his life is fading away, even if his work here is not yet finished.
Chelyabinsk, Russia, once the site of a top secret Cold War atomic bomb factory, is now the most radioactively polluted city in the world. Its residents live with the consequences of catastrophic leaks and dumped toxic waste as cancers, auto-immune diseases, and undrinkable water flow freely. But the city most foul sprouts a most unlikely growth—the vibrant, inspiring Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theatre.
A daring, artistically courageous portrait of Sųren Kierkegaard's philosophy, not as dead, abstract theory, but as everyday living actuality. Director Anne Wivel invites us to join a group of students and professors as they passionately debate observations by one of the founders of existentialism, while tranquil scenes from nature illustrate the simple life that anti-rationalist Kierkegaard believed might propel us into a necessary "leap of faith." No dry commentary on an anachronistic ethic here: Wivel aims for nothing less than a radical transformation--dialogue made so richly visual, communication becomes moving image.
A black-and-white documentary which closely follows the rehearsal process of the famous ballet Giselle, originally choreographed by Adolphe Adam. The focus here is entirely on the process by which ballet master Henning Kronstram conveys the spirit and the endless details of the ballet to his dancers.
