Melissa Lindgren is a program director of Tempo Documentary Festival. Nowadays Tempo exceeds the limits of a screen and rapidly turns into a cross-media forum notable far beyond the boarders of Sweden, the festival focuses on photography, radio and experimental projects in different genres, remaining loyal to documentary cinema ideals. Specially for this year Docudays UA Melissa prepared a program of the best films from the Tempo festival and will choose the best films in the competition DOCU/LIFE. Ihor Andriychuk, Docudays UA newspaper journalist, spoke with Melissa about documentary festival movement in Sweden and her expectations at Docudays UA.
Getting interested in film, getting interested in documentaries
I’ve always been a culture junkie, and my interest in film started during high school when I took a class in film studies. It was the first time I’d seen films from other parts of the world than the US, and I was hooked. I later studied film studies at the University of Stockholm and graduated with an MA in curating for film and video. My interest in documentaries started while doing an internship at the Stockholm Film Festival. I didn’t like their programming that much, but their documentary section was quite good. I then applied for an internship at Tempo instead and the rest is history...
About the popularity of documentary films in Sweden
I believe there is a great interest in documentary cinema in Sweden. The scene is flourishing, and people are starting to understand that documentary film can be more than the TV format. We have seen a bit of a boom, especially since the success of Searching for Sugarman. During the last few years the funding for documentaries has increased, so has trust in documentaries as a ‘cinema-worthy‘ art from the point of view of distributors and cinema owners. Festivals and TV are still the main platforms, but the interest overall has really increased.
Tempo Documentary Festival, the beginning
I started as an intern and worked my way up. I loved the open feel in the office, a kind of “everything is possible” vibe, and I got hooked. I’ve had the privilege to work with Agneta Mogren, festival director, since I started, and she believed in me enough to promote me to program director when the position opened up four years ago. I’m certain that I have the best job in the world!
Tempo and its audience
My vision for Tempo is that we are a platform for documentary storytelling and a place where you discover something new. I want to challenge the audience both visually and emotionally, and I want to create a meeting between the films, the directors and the audience. I do think we have a very curious audience. And people appreciate our unique mix of genres and our style of programming.
Working at the festival
I think the most important thing is to nurture the industry, support both new talents as well as established filmmakers, to keep making fantastic movies and to introduce their work to the audience. The largest challenge for me is to find an audience for every film. I want to have a good mix between docu blockbusters and those quirky, beautiful, challenging smaller films that I love so much.
Ukrainian films in Sweden
There are very few Ukrainian documentaries in Sweden. The films reaching cinema distribution or broadcasting in Sweden are still primarily Swedish documentaries, with the exception of a few American ones. The festivals do play an essential role in bringing other perspectives, though.
Expectations: Docudays UA
My expectations are really high. From looking in old catalogues I know the programming is excellent and I’ve heard a lot of good thing about the festival from international colleagues. I’m looking forward to discovering new Ukrainian films and Kiev, a city I’ve never visited before!
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