Esther van Messel’s Swiss-based First Hand Films is launching sales during IDFA on There’s A Border In My Backyard, a new Danish doc that looks at “the conundrum of our country’s European borders by way of a small, seemingly insignificant fence risen to protect one country’s tame pigs against another country’s wild boars.”
Some top talent is involved in the project. The director is Jens Loftager (Faith, Paradis), the producer is Mille Haynes, Head of Meta Film Doc since 2018, and the cinematographer is award-winning Talib Rasmussen. The editor is Jacob Thuesen, known for his work with Lars Von Trier, and a successful director in his own right.
In the film, Ruth, Thorsten, Jakob and Henrik, four local Danish citizens living on the border between Germany and Denmark are startled when a tall green metal fence suddenly appears as if out of nowhere. This is described as “a politically inflamed wild boar fence. Risen to keep out the swine plague, an allegedly very real threat to the main export of our country: pigs, pork, bacon.” As the filmmakers point out, the fence is erected in “the year of the 100th anniversary for peaceful relations to Germany, it is built two years after refugees suddenly crossed the border on foot, and it is put in place at the same time as a plague in its own right, the pandemic coronavirus.”
First Hand has just picked the project up and will be introducing Border In My Backyard to buyers during IDFA. It’s both theatrical and television. No distributors have yet boarded it.
Another new title on the First Hand slate is Leslie Shampaine & Pip Gilmour’s new doc Call Me Dancer. This is a Billy Elliot-style story about a teen from the slums of Mumbai with a passion to dance. He struggles against the disapproval of his family and culture, until he meets a tough ballet master who shows him how to turn his dreams into reality.
Meanwhile, Van Messel has several projects in Docs For Sale, among them Divorce Denied, the doc from David Ofek and Mia Webb about divorce in Orthodox Jewish communities; Nils Bökamp’s TV eco-doc Day Zero, and Hansjürgen Schmölzer’s Riot In The Matrix, about data protection activists.
For once, though, First Hand is not handling any films in the IDFA main selection. The First Hand boss noted that many titles in official selection at festivals like IDFA may be “beautiful” and with strong artistic values but that they are tough to sell in a Covid-affected marketplace.
“We are in a time when if these films are made because they can get their subsidy systems to come up and fund them, that’s wonderful, but I don’t know how to find audiences for them,” Van Messel commented. “We are actively acquiring a smaller number of films than usual right now because we are not selling.”
“There’s a huge lethargy and people [buyers] are just overwhelmed,” the First Hand boss continued. “They don’t have enough security to plan anything. I am not blaming anyone. I just think people are paralysed with the fatigue, the insecurity – it is too much,” Van Messel noted of the uncertainty currently surrounding independent documentary sales.
