The co-founder (pictured above) of one of Denmark’s most prominent doc production outfits, Danish Documentary, is associated to the opening films of CPH:DOX – Man Falling - and IDFA – A Family Affair. She spoke to us.

Sigrid Dyekjær

Man Falling opened CPHDOX last week: how was the film received?
Sigrid Dyekjær: The film got a fantastic reception which shows that there is a big audience for artistic films as well. It screened simultaneously in nine countries and to 22 venues in Denmark and we established a direct dialogue with the world, which is very much what Danish Documentary is about. We founded our company in 2007 to reach out to a larger audience than just in Denmark.

You come from advertising. Is that why you are so aware of the audience?
SD: Advertising means working on short stories and not at an in depth level as with documentaries, but the dialogue with audiences and the way they respond to what you are doing is something I learnt from advertising. You can never start too early to think who the audience is, what is the strength of your story, how are you going to get that across etc. 

How do your directors respond to your commercially-oriented approach?
SD:
Very early on in the filmmaking process we have to think of the international market, how to communicate and collaborate with international partners because our films are quite expensive -between €500,000-€700,000, so we have to involve foreign partners and raise more than half of our financing via pre-sales and co-production.  That’s why I love pitching forums. It’s the first places where we have an international audience and can test our project. I try to bring my directors and ask them to present their films.

Do you put production money aside towards marketing tools such as the trailer and the poster?
SD:
A trailer is essential, especially for a documentary. The trailer is done when the film is finished, but we also put a lot of work into doing pilots very early on. Our directors have a camera and we urge them to film as quickly as possible to figure out if the film is alive or not in their camera. The pilot helps the crew understand what type of journey we are on and why we are on this journey. We also try to understand what the audience could be interested in. 

With the poster, we also try to be as precise as possible from the very beginning, to identifying the selling elements, how to communicate. We do the same work with the PR agent and I put money aside for that at the development stage. 

The four directors/co-founders of Danish Documentary Phie Ambo, Pernille Rose Grønkjær, Mikala Krogh and Eva Mulvad are all strong established voices. Is it easier today for you to raise financing for their projects?
SD:
My strategy is to try to identify the right time to present a film on the market. As soon as I present it on the market, my goal is to close the financing in one year. I want the financing phase to take place at the same time as the development phase, so that directors can just concentrate on making their film.

In terms of financiers, today there are more players on the market, from public money to new digital players and private funds. But the challenge is who to go for. You want to get a theatrical release as well a TV release. So it’s about how to control the different windows and who to bring on-board.

Do you use crowdfunding do raise financing?
SD:
I would never use a crowdfunding campaign to finance a film, because it’s very labor intensive and not very rewarding financially. I would rather use crowdfunding to engage with an audience and to find it.

What films do you have in your pipeline?
SD:
We were very fortunate this year to have been selected both for the opening of CPH:DOX with Anne Regitze Wivel’s documentary about painter Per Kirkeby Man Falling, and for the opening of IDFA with our co-production A Family Affair by Dutch director Tom Fassaert. It’s a personal film about the director’s grandmother and family wounds, filmed like an epic drama. Tom is extremely gifted and we fell in love with his very strong and original story.

Then we have two films ready for early 2016. First of all Andreas Johnsen (who made Ai Weiwei The Fake Case - just sold to POV, PBS in the US) has directed the new film Bugs, about eatable insects and exploring deliciousness. Then I have Max Kestner’s new film Amateurs in Space which follows two young guys building rockets, over a six year period. The film is edited by Jacob Tuesen [Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom].

At CPHDOX Forum, we are pitching Hunting for Hedonia by Pernille Rose Grønkjær. It’s a scientific film about brain stimulation, told in a cinematic way for a wide audience. We are also pitching there A Family on the Run by Eva Mulvad.

Eva was looking for a refugee story with a different angle. She has followed a couple who flee from Iran, because of love, not the political situation.
At IDFA Forum, we will be pitching the film about a female painter Apolonia Apolonia by talented newcomer Lea Glob, as well as School of Life by Mikala Krogh set in the Philippines. The film focuses on sexually-abused children who come to a centre to learn about how to take care of oneself, and get a better life.

How do you support your female directors so that they can combine their all-consuming job as documentary filmmaker with their family life?
SD:
With Mikala’s project School of Life, I hired her husband as production assistant to help her move to the Philippines for a year with their children.
Documentary filmmaking is a very intensive and lonely creative process. You have to cut a whole story in your head but try to dig it out of reality and understand how to shape it. A lot of women also want to have children. My role as a producer is to help women combine the two. Many documentaries made by women would not happen if we producers would not create the right environment for them.