Douglas Gordon is the maverick Turner Prize winning Scottish artist who built an international reputation on the back of works like 24 Hour Psycho (an installation for which he slowed down the Hitchcock classic to microscopic pace) and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, a multi-camera documentary co-directed by Philippe Parreno and following the football life of Zinedine Zidane.
Now, the lens is being turned on Gordon himself. The artist is the subject of the new feature documentary, Douglas Gordon: Self Divided, being directed by Finlay Pretsell. The film is being produced by Edinburgh-based producer Sonja Henrici through her company, Sonja Henrici Creates. The project was pitched at CPH:DOX in the spring. Henrici is also on the International First Feature Competition Jury at Sheffield Doc Fest this week.
“It’s telling Douglas’s story but also [following] his process,” Henrici explains of Pretsell’s film. “He [Gordon] really lets us in close.”
Gordon is based in Berlin. Pretsell, who also directed the cycling-themed Time Trial (2017) for SDI, has known the artist for many years and has been given intimate access both to his life and to his work.
Henrici is making the film together with French producer Estelle Robin You from Les Films de la Grande Ourse. There is already support from Screen Scotland and Henrici is in talks with Austrian outfit Autlook for sales.
Another new project on Henrici’s slate is Thomas Riedelsheimer’s new feature doc, Tracing Light. She is minority co-producer on the doc which explores the phenomenon of light and looks at how artists Rosa Barba, Robert Henke, and Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) use light in their work. The lead producer is Stefan Tolz and the film is being made through Filmpunkt, the company Tolz and Riedelsheimer formed together. Leslie Hills’ Skyline Productions is also involved.
“We are filming with various artists and scientists across Scotland and Germany,” Henrici notes of the new venture.
Meanwhile, Henrici is working on two new docs dealing with mental health. She is producing the Amy Hardie film Untitled Love Story, which looks at PTSD through the story of a married couple. One partner is a military veteran while the other endured childhood abuse. “We are looking at their journey to recovery, the different methods they use to get off the pills and to understand their condition,” Henrici explains. “It’s a really hopeful look at PTSD.”
The film is receiving a rough cut screening in Sheffield this week. Henrici is searching for completion financing for the film which has support from Screen Scotland and BFI Doc Society.
Henrici is also collaborating with Welsh director Daniel Gough on his hew new project Night Gardener, which is a personal film about trauma in the medical profession told through the story of the filmmaker’s father, a high ranking doctor in a Welsh hospital. Henrici is producing alongside Anne Milne of Hand-Drawn Pictures Ltd. Creative Scotland and Fflim Cymru Wales are aboard.
“I am really interested in psychology and how we create healthy selves,” the producer explains why she is drawn to projects dealing with mental health. “I am probably less attracted to big stories set in war zones but more interested in personal stories around people’s personal experiences – how they come through and deal with their challenges and issues.”
Early in her career, Henrici helped establish Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) as a significant force in European documentary. She launched its production arm SDI Productions in 2007, and was involved in multiple projects there including Pablo’s Winter, Future My Love and Time Trial. She was was Co-Director/Exec Producer of the institute from 2013 until 2020 before founding Sonja Henrici Creates the following year.
“I’ve stepped back completely there,” she says of SDI. “They don’t really do features there anymore. Informally, I talk to them.” However, she praises the new leadership at SDI (“so far they’ve done a great job”) and welcomes such initiatives as their pitch prizes offering financial support to female-led projects.
Henrici is realistic about the state of documentary funding in a period when, as she points out, “the UK has no substantial broadcast money for creative feature docs.” She acknowledges that the BFI’s Global Screen Fund offers support for minority co-production. “That’s a great addition and much needed because the BBC is not really putting much money into creative docs.” Nonetheless, she suggests documentary producers working on “observational docs where you don’t know what the story will be” face more challenges than ever before in getting their films financed.
“No-one is really putting money up front for that. Financing or just keeping going with these types of films is really difficult. Screen Scotland is brilliantly supportive but a lot of people want money from them and so that is getting a bit stricter,” Henrici reflects. At a time of dwindling public resources, she believes that co-production is “more important than ever to really pool money and resources.”
High-profile co-productions on which Henrici has recently been involved include last year’s Merkel, directed by Eva Weber and telling the story of Angela Merkel, the East German woman who grew up under a dictatorship and went on to become Chancellor of Germany and arguably the most influential politician in Europe. The film had its world premiere at Telluride and is now on Netflix across most of Europe. Henrici’s partners on the film included big players like Passion Pictures and Sigrid Dyekjaer’s Real Lava and Odd Girl Out Productions.
Henrici is working again with Real Lava on another new Finlay Pretsell film Cyclovia, which looks at “why Colombian cyclists are so good and at why the bike is a vehicle for positive change in Colombia.” Henrici describes the film as “uplifting and positive” and more a “cultural” film than a sports one.
Henrici was also recently involved in Emma Davie’s The Oil Machine, exploring the sometimes baleful consequences of Scotland’s dependence on North Sea Oil. This was Lottery funded and backed by BBC Scotland.
As a member of the First Feature Jury this week, Henrici will be taking the opportunity to talent spot new directors whom she might work with at a later date. “That is definitely an attraction, to get to see new films and where people [are] at and what the current trends are,” she says of her Sheffield jury duties.
