To mark one year since Finland and the rest of the Nordic Region closed down on 12 March, we’re showing the short Danish documentary “Lockdown – A Children’s Story”. Ahead of the screenings, director and screenwriter Emil Nørgaard Munk will discuss the film and how young people in Denmark have experienced the situation with Finnish film scholar Anni Lappalainen.
When COVID-19 closed Denmark down in early 2020, almost 400 children and young people started filming their new day-to-day lives. Through a myriad of voices, the film shows unique children’s stories and experiences. From Lærke, who has juvenile arthritis and is not allowed to return to school with his classmates. From Filippa, who cannot see her much-loved grandmother who has cancer. From Ella, a 12-year-old instagrammer, who resorts to social media to process the crisis. From Alend, who thought that he’d get to play computer games around the clock, but instead became preoccupied with how COVID-19 is affecting the climate.
“Lockdown – A Children’s Story” allows unique voices to come to the fore. Through aesthetic stylisations it depicts the thoughts and feelings experienced by children and young people in Denmark. This is Danish history from a children’s perspective.
The conversation will be held in English. The film is in Danish with English subtitles.
Emil Nørgaard Munk’s films are at the crossroads of ethnography and hybrid documentaries. He has a master’s degree in Film Science and Visual Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen. His first mid-length film “Gushegu Exile” premiered at CPH:DOX in 2018, later winning the prize for best documentary film at the EKO International Film Festival in Nigeria. “When Denmark closed down” was nominated for the Robert Awards’ Short Film of the Year 2020: Documentary.
Anni Lappalainen is a Finnish film scholar.
