Canal UNED
In Spain showed excerpts of “The Cut” in a segment on female genital mutilation in December 2009. Can be seen at http://www.canaluned.com/#frontaleID=F_RC§ionID=S_TELUNE&videoID=3779
CNN
Showed excerpts of “The Cut” as a part of a story on super model and activist Waris Dirie in the program African Voices on the 10th and 11th of October, 2009. The movie based on her autobiography “Desert Flower” has just recently been released.
Stavanger Aftenblad
Wrote once more about “The Cut” while writing about how the local film industry and other individuals reached out to donate money to ensure that Lucy Mashua could bring her children from Kenya to the USA in November 2009. This article was published on October 7th, 2010 (page 1 and page 2.)
National radio station NRK
Had a live interview with Lucy Mashua and me, moments before the cinema premiere of “The Cut” on October 1, 2009. Listen to the entire radio program here (the interviews are about one third into the program).
Stavanger Aftenblad and Rogalandavis
On The Cut and The Stavanger Short Film Festival (page 1 - page 2), published October 1st/September 30th, 2009. The main focus of these articles were to tell about the Stavanger Short Film Festival 2009 - but both specifically wrote about “The Cut” having its cinema premiere. Both also wrote about Lucy Mashua who was present at this event and who bravely shared her story as a survivor of fgm.
Rogalandsavis
On The Cut, (page 1 - page 2) published October 23, 2009.
ABC-Nyheter (ABC News) on the Kielland film project
This article , published May 20, 2009, focuses on the fact that several filmmakers are working on film projects related to Norway’s history as an oil nation. Our film project is about the 1980 Kielland tragedy where 123 people died.
National radio programs about documentary “The Cut”
Two national radio stations - NRK (both P2 and P1) and P4 - have aired interviews on May 20, 2009 about the documentary on female genital mutilation “The Cut”, which is almost
completed. For podcasts of the programs, please click on the
links below:
NRK wrote about this on their homepage as well. See article here.
Article on “The Cut”
Rogalandsavis wrote a small article on “The Cut” on May 11th, 2009.
First page again for Kielland
The first grants towards research on the project “Kielland” were announced at a press conference May 8th, 2009 held by funder Filmkraft Rogaland. “Kielland” made the first page again -this time in the Rogalandsavis the following day, as well as a large spread inside the paper.
Celebrity blog on “The Cut”
Ttv/radio celebrity Trine Grung published an article about “The Cut” on her blog on April 27, 2009. Trine is among the ten most possible bloggers in Norway. Thanks to her blog, several other bloggers wrote about the documentary in progress. The youtube video of the trailer had close to 2000 hits the first day after she published this blog.
Kielland on national radio
One of the large national radio stations did an interesting piece on the Kielland-movie concept, as a way of commemorating the 29th anniversary of the accident. In addition to an interview with me, they interviewed a spokesperson of the relatives of those who died, as well as included original news footage the day it happened. It is really difficult to provide an exact link to the radio program, but I am trying to figure this one out. Hopefully I can put it here on a podcast.
Kielland: Feature film received huge media coverage
In March 1980, Norway experienced the greatest disaster in it’s history as an oil nation. The accommodation platform Alexander Kielland capsized. One of its 5 legs were torn off. I got the idea to make a movie about this exciting, but tragic story where only 89 survived and 123 people died. I presented the idea to production company Phantomfilm and they immediately loved it. This article, which made a first page splash, was our first announcement to the world that we had started the loooooong process of working towards a feature movie called “Kielland”.
VM Media
For about a year in 2008-09, I worked as a producer in TV Tro. This special project is aimed at young filmmakers. I directed several film productions for and with the young people in Vardeneset Menighet. These teens and young adults, ranging from 13 to early 20’s, have simply blown me away as far as what they are able to do. Together we went to Thailand to do a documentary for 10-14 year olds, made a half hour talk show filmed in front of a live studio audience and made a documentary on 14-15 year old thoughts on faith, life and the afterlife. The newspaper Rogalandsavis must also have found this interesting, since they ran a 2 page spread on the work we were doing.
I spent some weeks in Liberia during the autumn of 2007, while working for the Norwegian office of Mercy Ships. I was there to film a series of documentary and promotional films. During my stay there, I spoke to a lot of people about the post-war situation in Liberia. Shortly after returning home, I attended a conference in Oslo called “New Images of Africa”. The Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf also attended. Stavanger Aftenblad interviewed me on my impressions of Liberia as a part of their coverage of the conference.
The Cut
Right before we left to do for our second research trip and to film for the pilot of The Cut in July 2007, the newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad interviewed photographer Justo N. Casal and me about the project and issues related to female genital mutilation. See the article here.
Winner of screenplay contest
In May 2007 I won a national short film contest called “8 Shorts” with my screenplay “En Nøkkel” / ”A Key”. Actually, we were 8 winners. The contest was announced as a part of Stavanger becoming the European Cultural Capital 2008. Blaa, together with Stavanger2008, held a film contest with the topic “Open Port” (the theme for the year). The goal was to produce 8 films at 8 minutes each. 8 scripts were awarded winner prizes, but in the end only 3 of the films made it into production. Mine was not one of them. The films that did get produced have had great success, so I am proud to have least been in their company in the screenplay stage. Here is the article announcing the eight winners.
Film workers move to Stavanger
Shortly after I moved to Stavanger during the summer of 2006, one of the newspapers in Stavanger ran a piece on people returning to Stavanger - to work with films. The article features two young directors, in addition to me.
