fredag den 24. april 2009

Jorgen visits Asger in LA



After my masterclass at NYU and three days of scriptwriting with Frederik Jacobi in NYC. I went to LA to visit Asger. Asger is currently preparing for the film CARTEL which he will direct for Imagine Films and Universal Studios. The shooting will take place in Mexico City during the summer of 2009 with Sean Penn as lead actor. I thought that Asger was very calm and clear-headed. He has done his homework and is in control of the complicated process of development.

The day after my arrival, Asger had a big meeting at Universal where he succeeded in convincing the studio executives that it is in fact possible to shoot a complicated film in a megacity that is reknown throughout the world as one of the world's most dangerous cities. Asger has a good relationship with co-workers and producers, especially Imagine's strong man Brian Glazer. I spent some days at the cozy Petit Hotel in West Hollywood while Asger had daily casting sessions at the hotel.

A few days later Asger went on a final research trip to Mexico City with Sean Penn and a couple of production co-workers. Comprehensive security measures have been taken around set, and I consider it a big advantage for Asger that he has such a friendly relationship with Sean Penn.

Jorgen

The Expatriate


A borrowed flat in NYC, overlooking Hudson River.

Frederik Jacobi is working on a script for the film project "The Expatriate". Jorgen's son Asger Leth has come up with the idea, and Jacobi - having already written the treatment for the film - is now developing first act with Jorgen, director of the film. Jacobi will be writing the film script in the fall of 2009.

søndag den 5. april 2009

Three radio programmes about Haiti

Jorgen Leth is a part time resident in Haiti and has been for almost two decades. In three new radio programmes, Danish journalist Frank Esmann and Jorgen Leth take a closer look at Haiti. 
The first radio programme will air on the Danish radio channel P1 on the 6th of April 2009 at 8.30 pm. For further information, click here

onsdag den 1. april 2009

MASTER CLASS AT NYU

THE CHAIR'S WORKSHOP PRESENTS:
JORGEN LETH, Wednesday April 1., 6:00 PM, Room 1027
Join us for what will surely be a memorable evening when esteemed filmmaker Jorgen Leth conducts a master class to discuss his vision of filmmaking that inspired the Dogme movement.
Jay Anania will host a Q&A and strongly urges you to see "The Five Obstructions", a documentary film in which Lars von Trier tasks his mentor, Jorgen Leth, with a series of filmmaking challenges. 
A note from Jorgen Leth:
"I will select some clips and discuss things like "pure filmmaking", deconstruction, language, grammar, putting the single image above context, working with a single roll and "hypnotic implicity", making films like notebooks, the existential feeling of time passing through a film scene, working with movements and time, inspirations like The Living Theatre, Grotowski, Godard, Cassavetes, Dreyer, Julie Rainer, Warhol, talk about "cinema pauvre, using Bolex, the film roll counts down of eternity, about fascination and curiosity as the motor for my filmmaking, about the necessity to reinvent film language, to question what is image, what is sound, what is editing, or discuss my confidence in chance. I see chance always as a gift in fiction as well as in documentary, my idea that film should be like poems, don't know where it goes and why, never wrote a script, not even for my fiction films, the idea of studying human actions and being under a microscope, people doing simple things, facing camera, no need to move around and be busy etc., and basic thoughts like bringing order in chaos, the clarity of tableaux. There are many angles to talk about my method, as you can see - also how to travel, how to use your senses. I work with rules of game, as in "The Five Obstructions", limitations, in some films camera can't move, in other no editing. I would like to discuss all these kind of basic and maybe shocking ideas with the students."