28/03/2014 - Six Danish documentaries will be on show at the largest documentary film festival in North America, which runs between 24 April and 4 May

After the recent international success of Danish documentaries, including US director Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was nominated for an Oscar and collected more than 20 awards on the festival circuit, Toronto’s Hot Docs – the largest documentary film festival in North America – has selected Denmark for the annual “Made in” focus.

“Showcasing the region’s finest contemporary non-fiction cinema,” according to the festival, “Made in Denmark” will offer a selection of six films, screening alongside another 191 documentaries from Canada and the entire world in the 24 April-4 May programme.

“Denmark has been at the forefront of high-quality documentary filmmaking, consistently pushing the boundaries of the art form and elevating the calibre of style, substance and approach,” said programming director Charlotte Cook, of Hot Docs.

The line-up includes Andreas Johnsen’s Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which won this year’s Bodil, the Danish Critics’ Award, for Best Documentary. It portrays Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who is on probation after 81 days in solitary confinement, still with a lawsuit pending, under house arrest and police surveillance. Still he finds ways to provoke the authorities.

Anna Eborn’s Pine Ridge [+see also:
film review
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film profile] describes life in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre; Ulrik Wivel’s A Different Kind of Boy shows the story of Alexander – 18 years old and autistic – as he leaves home. Meanwhile, Karen Stokkendal Poulsen’s The Agreement recounts the face-off between Serbian and Kosovan representatives over a co-existence agreement.

Erlend E Mo’s Four Letters Apart – Children in the Age of ADHD [+see also:
trailer
film profile] portrays Victor, Martine and Marino’s struggle with the symptoms and stigma of their attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Elvira Lind’s Songs for Alexis tells the story of two passionate teenagers – but 16-year-old Alexis’ parents disapprove of her 18-year-old boyfriend Ryan. Unspooling in the “Love, Factually” programme, Emil Langballe’s Beach Boy examines “romance travelling”: when elderly European women go south to find young, local admirers. While jobless Juma’s pregnant girlfriend is working in Qatar, he tries to make money from tourists on the beach of Mombasa.