Norwegian director Gunnar Corridor Jensen has made a trademark of his playful and quirky self-portraits by which his reflections on life typically discover a common echo. His newest movie, “Portrait of a Confused Father,” got down to discover his relationship together with his son, drawing on footage filmed over 20 years. Three weeks earlier than filming was to have wrapped, he heard that his son had been killed.
Corridor Jensen speaks to Selection about how he discovered the braveness to finish his movie amid his and his household’s immense grief. The trailer to the movie, which has its world premiere Sunday at CPH:DOX, debuts under.
The extremely private documentary is a heartfelt and uncooked story of a middle-aged control-freak father, who struggles to attach together with his defiant son. It’s a narrative of affection, of the problem and fantastic thing about parenthood, but in addition of loss.
We see Gunnar – the filmmaker/protagonist – who does his utmost to attach together with his beloved rebellious solely son, whereas navigating his personal conventional and barely outdated ideas of masculinity. As Jonathan turns right into a defiant self-confident younger man, testing his personal limits, Gunnar will get confused, like several father or mother with children from Gen Z would, but in addition as a result of Gunnar’s personal father – a captain on a cruise ship within the Caribbean – was by no means there for him.
Then when Jonathan turns 18, issues go south. The younger man disappears for weeks, after having emptied his saving accounts. When Gunnar lastly finds him, Jonathan resides a very totally different life in Brazil with a male social media influencer with over 10 million followers. Drawn by the promise of straightforward cash and a world of hyper masculinity, Jonathan begins to lose management. Someday, Gunnar will get a cellphone name that may change his and his household’s lives endlessly. Jonathan, on the age of 21, has been fatally attacked. A interval of grief, and reconstruction follows, as Gunnar – who had separated from Jonathan’s mother – will get again collectively along with her.
Chatting with Selection about his expertise, Corridor Jensen says: “Three weeks earlier than filming was accomplished [in November 2023] I obtained the message dad and mom worry probably the most: Jonathan – 21 years previous – was killed. After the surprising information, I actually simply wished to die myself. It was an excessive amount of. Jonathan’s lovely nature had been minimize, taken out of the world at a younger age.
“One thing in me had been damaged that would not be fastened. I do know most dad and mom that lose a baby really feel that manner. However paradoxically one retains on respiration. And after the primary months of logistics from hell, I clearly noticed that the movie needed to be accomplished, with the horror of my son’s demise included. I noticed it as an obligation in direction of Jonathan, and likewise as an obligation in direction of the viewers on the market.
“Firstly, it’s consultant of the love between a son and a father, how troublesome and rewarding it may be.
“Secondly, I additionally noticed the movie as a related illustration of the occasions we’re residing in and the [inherent] risks. How straightforward it’s for a younger man to get misplaced in right this moment’s chaotic world with twisted concepts of the best way to succeed and turn into wealthy, promoted problematically by right this moment’s gurus, coaches, influencers on the web.
“Thirdly, now we have an overload of books and movies round mom/daughter relationships, however only a few genuine tales about fathers and sons.”
To finish the movie, going by the footage of his son was very exhausting, says Corridor Jensen, and it concerned “plenty of tears and agony.” Nonetheless, the filmmaker developed a way.
“Daytime, going by the fabric, I shut off my feelings as a father as a lot as attainable. I noticed the fabric as a filmmaker. I pressured myself to be skilled telling a narrative in one of the simplest ways attainable. Then, within the night, I took a few glasses of wine, and broke down. All the attractive reminiscences I had seen in the course of the day hit me exhausting. It was meltdown! My spouse typically discovered me within the house workplace crying, helpless at nighttime. She questioned why I did this to myself.”
Two individuals had been essential in serving to Corridor Jensen construction his narrative and discover the proper tone: his long-time editor Erlend Haarr Eriksson, and BBC Storyville’s commissioning editor Lucie Kon, who had boarded the challenge at an early stage through the movie’s gross sales agent DR Gross sales.
“Lucy had purchased a private movie a few father and son making an attempt to attach. Then after the tragedy, I made a decision to maneuver on with the movie and to incorporate the tragedy and what led to it. Lucie stayed on board, full on,” Corridor Jensen says. “It was exhausting for me to alter the movie from an artistically playful and light-footed documentary right into a extra explanatory work, however Lucy helped loads, each in taking out scenes that now appeared irrelevant, with sharpening the story in a extra explanatory manner and with going closely into the voice-over narration. I’m deeply grateful to her. She helped carry the movie to a stage I couldn’t have accomplished myself.”
One of many challenges within the script, was to determine when to announce the surprising information to the viewers. Corridor Jensen says lengthy discussions on the topic had been had with Haarr Eriksson and Kon. There have been two decisions, says the director: both he would inform the tragedy because the story unfolds, chronologically, or he would do that in the beginning, an possibility he went for. Not solely was that the pure approach to inform the story from his perspective as a narrator, conscious of the tragic occasions, however that was additionally a approach to seize the viewers’s consideration, therefore his resolution as properly to insert reminders of the tragedy by the voice over at varied intervals. That stated, because the director factors out, the movie is “under no circumstances some type of true crime story” because it’s in the beginning “a narrative a few father and son, making an attempt to attach.”
“Being a good father is a tricky journey,” says Corridor Jensen, who remembers his son as “an unstoppable pressure of nature.” “I don’t have options, however I hope this father and son story will resonate with the viewers. I additionally want to warn different dad and mom of the hazards of the web, and the necessity to monitor kids and youngsters,” he provides.
Kim Christiansen, government producer, in control of documentaries and co-production at DR Gross sales, praises Corridor Jensen’s achievement. “It’s unbelievable how Gunnar has managed to finish the movie and we’re extraordinarily proud to current ‘Portrait of a Confused Father’ for each the trade and particularly the viewers on the world premiere at CPH:DOX. Regardless of the tragic final result, it is very important state that that is probably the most lovely father and son love story I’ve ever got here throughout, in any style.”
The movie is produced by Norway’s prime banner Upnorth Movie, credited for Corridor Jensen’s earlier movie “Oh, It Hertz!“ (CPH:DOX, 2021), Håvard Bustnes’ pageant hits “Phantoms of the Sierra Madre,” and “Two Raging Grannies.”
The movie is produced by Ingrid Aune Falch, Christian Aune Falch and Torstein Parelius at UpNorth Movie, and is being co-produced by Valérie Montmartin and Anders Justin for France’s Little Massive Story and Sweden’s Movie Väsernorrland, with Kon at BBC Storyville. Jan Rofekamp and Freddy Neumann function government producers.
Following its screenings at CPH:DOX, the documentary will likely be launched theatrically by Norsk Filmdistribusjon in Norway in August 2025 earlier than a TV launch on NRK in Norway, Yle in Finland, DR in Denmark, SVT in Sweden, RTS in Switzerland, BBC within the U.Ok. and France Télévisions.
The post Gunnar Corridor Jensen on Finishing Movie About Son After Youth’s Demise appeared first on Allcelbrities.
