Born in Greenland to Danish parents in 1975, Ivalo Frank has lived in six countries, including the UK and Paraguay. Holding a MA in Social Science from Lund University, she is an award winning film director and CEO based in Berlin and Copenhagen.
Frank has made films in various countries such as Bosnia, China and Greenland and the content range from post-war portraits and post-colonial perspectives to in-depth interviews with citizens from the former DDR. Her films are shown in academic, art and film contexts world-wide, e.g. at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and IMC gallery, New York.
Frank has won a number of awards a.o. the Honorable Mention Award, Los Angeles International Film Festival and Best Documentary Award, London Underground Film Festival. Her work has been selected for numerous international film festivals, including CPH:DOX and the Trento Film Festival.
Ivalo Frank is head of Greenland Eyes International Film Festival, the world’s largest festival dealing with culture and political issues concerning Greenland. She has contributed to several art catalogues, books and newspapers including Asian Art Newspaper (UK) and Dagbladet Information (DK). She speaks Danish, English, German and Spanish.
On the 8th of May ECHOES will be shown at the opening of the ‘Arctic Spring – Arctic Matters’ festival at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. The event is from 1PM – 5PM and starts with a Panel discussion, followed by the film screening. Address: Baird Auditorium, Ground Floor, 10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20560
We are delighted to announce that the Smithsonian Institution has invited Greenland Eyes to the National Museum in Washington D.C. in May, when the USA takes over chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
Further details to follow: www.greenlandeyes.com // https://www.facebook.com/greenlandeyes
Greenland Eyes international film festival is the world’s largest festival on contemporary culture from Greenland.
Greenland Eyes premiered in Berlin in 2012 and took place at the Arsenal Cinema, HBC and Humboldt University. In 2014 Greenland Eyes travelled across the Nordic region with nine stops in Greenland, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Norway. It featured film, photography, music, performance and academic symposiums.
OPEN has been selected for the 55th Nordic Film Days Lübeck. There will be two screenings followed by a Q&A with Ivalo Frank
For more information please check: http://www.luebeck.de/filmtage/en/
OPEN has been selected for the CPH:DOX and will screen at the festival on Nov 17th, at 4:30PM. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director Ivalo Frank
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (DK) will be exhibiting Ivalo Frank’s latest film OPEN as part of the show Arctic running from 25th of Sep 2013 untill the 2nd of February 2014. Louisiana’s autumn exhibition ARCTIC is an account of the descriptions and dramatizations of the magical, cultural and artistic attraction that the Arctic regions in general and the North Pole in particular have had for human beings for generations.ARCTIC is a crossover exhibition about the ways in which people with very varied backgrounds realize ideas, imaginings, dreams and visions of the unknown, and it incorporates both classic Romantic images and contemporary art, authentic expedition photos and scientific specimens, literature and sound.
For more info check http://www.louisiana.dk/uk/Menu/Exhibitions/Coming+exhibitions+2013
The 22nd June celebrates the theatrical premiere of Ivalo Frank’s film OPEN – as well as showing her short film ECHOES – in Babylon Kino in Mitte Berlin, 8PM. Both films deal with Greenland; ECHOES is an electronic music documentary recorded on abandoned U.S. military bases in east Greenland; OPEN deal with the most dangerous, mentally ill Greenlandic patients who have been sentenced to treatment in Denmark. Both films have won several awards internationally, including the Gold Kahuna Film Award at the Honolulu Film Festival (OPEN) and Best Documentary at the London Underground Film Festival (ECHOES).
There will be drinks and snacks at the premiere and Ivalo Frank will be present to answer questions from the audience after the screening.
You can read more about the film at Babylon’s website: http://www.babylonberlin.de/open.htm
You can watch the trailers here:
OPEN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIYfzHgYaxo
ECHOES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF9-Dbus8A4
Be welcome!
OPEN is exhibited at the Museum Ovartaci in Risskov (DK), which opened on April 14th 2013.
OPEN is a one hour film, a skype installation and twelve photographs from R3, the closed ward for psychiatric Greenlandic offenders and patients in Denmark. The exhibition contributes to demystifying mental illness through a thoughtprovoking insight into the fate and lives of people in an otherwise secluded and obscure world. It tells us a very distinctive chapter of Danish history from a psychiatric point of view and reflects the social climate of contemporary society.
OPEN – the film – will celebrate its international cinema premiere in Babylon cinema in Berlin on June 22nd, 8PM. IvaloFrank will introduce the films and be there for Q&A after the screening. Further screenings in Babylon Cinema on the 24th and 26th of June, 8PM.
For more information please visit: http://www.babylonberlin.de/
Director: Ivalo Frank
What kind of person can kill another? What drives a person to murder? Since 1954 Greenland’s most dangerous criminals have served their sentences in Denmark, thousands of kilometers away from their families, for undefined periods of time. Entering into interplay with the Forensic Psychiatric Unit R3 in Denmark, Ivalo Frank creates a work based on moving, honest, and critical interviews with five mentally ill patients who live their lives in a closed, locked ward, home to around 18 mentally ill Greenlandic people who have been sentenced to psychiatric care by a court of law. Many of the patients/inmates have committed acts of grievous bodily harm resulting in death, and most battle addictions and personality disorders.
”They are intelligent, sweet, ordinary people like you and me. Almost. Things have just gone wrong for them. All wrong. I wished to meet them as people rather than as the monsters conjured up by media descriptions of violent criminals” (Ivalo Frank, 2012)
As the film develops, the viewer is invited into the most intimate lives of the five patients thereby getting a rare insight into their personal stories about boundless grief, sadness and shame. Furthermore, OPEN touches upon the bigger political aspects of the Greenlanders serving sentences. Since 2006 the displacement of Greenland’s most dangerous criminals has been declared a violation of their human right to maintain close ties with their families,
a right they are entitled to under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human
Rights. However, the construction of a closed ward in Greenland suffers continuous setbacks because of conflict over cost between the Greenland Government and the Danish Ministry of Justice.
(2012, 1h, B/W, Danish/ Greenlandic with English subtitles)
OPEN has been nominated for the California Film Awards taking place in San Diego on January 26. 2013: http://www.calfilmawards.com/
OPEN has been selected for the Arctic Heat Film Festival which takes place in Jyväskylä, Finland 14.-16. of February 2013
OPEN a film by Ivalo Frank
(2012, 1h, B/W, Danish/ Greenlandic with English subtitles)
What kind of person can kill another? What drives a person to murder? Since 1954 Greenland’s most dangerous criminal and psychiatric patients have served their sentences in Denmark, thousands of kilometers away from their families, for undefined periods of time. OPEN is an art documentary film based upon moving, honest, and critical interviews with five mentally ill patients who live their lives in a closed, locked ward in Denmark home to approximately 18 mentally ill Greenlandic people who have been sentenced to psychiatric care in a court of law. Many of the inmates have committed acts of grievous bodily harm resulting in death, and most battle addictions and personality disorders. ”They are intelligent, sweet, ordinary people like you and me. Almost. Things have just gone wrong for them. All wrong. I wished to meet them as people rather than as the monsters conjured up by media descriptions of violent criminals” (Ivalo Frank, 2012)
As the film develops, the viewer is invited into the most intimate aspects of the five convicts lives thereby getting a rare insight into their personal stories of endless grief, sadness and shame. Furthermore, OPEN touches upon the wider political aspects of the Greenlanders serving sentences. The displacement of Greenland’s most dangerous criminals has been declared a violation of their human right to maintain close family ties, a right they are entitled to under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the construction of a closed ward in Greenland suffers continuous setbacks because of conflict over cost between the Greenland Government and the Danish Ministry of Justice.
ECHOES has been selected for the Associazione Monte Analogo Film Festival in Italy showing in spring 2013: http://www.monteanalogo.net/ ECHOES & Faith, hope and Greenland screening in Paris at the Danish House in Paris, 142 Champs-Elysées, Paris on March 21st 2013. Ivalo Frank will be doing a talk after the screenings.
OPEN – Ivalo Frank’s latest documentary is an art documentary film based upon moving, honest, and critical interviews with five mentally ill patients who live their lives in a closed, locked ward in Denmark home to approximately 18 mentally ill Greenlandic people who have been sentenced to psychiatric care in a court of law. Many of the inmates have committed acts of grievous bodily harm resulting in death, and most battle addictions and personality disorders. ”They are intelligent, sweet, ordinary people like you and me. Almost. Things have just gone wrong for them. All wrong. I wished to meet them as people rather than as the monsters conjured up by media descriptions of violent criminals” (Ivalo Frank, 2012)
As the film develops, the viewer is invited into the most intimate aspects of the five convicts lives thereby getting a rare insight into their personal stories of endless grief, sadness and shame. Furthermore, OPEN touches upon the wider political aspects of the Greenlanders serving sentences. The displacement of Greenland’s most dangerous criminals has been declared a violation of their human right to maintain close family ties, a right they are entitled to under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the construction of a closed ward in Greenland suffers continuous setbacks because of conflict over cost between the Greenland Government and the Danish Ministry of Justice.
Link to trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIYfzHgYaxo
The film will be shown to all the inmates at Herstedvester Prison on the 21st of December and afterwards there will be Q&A with Ivalo Frank.
ECHOES by Ivalo Frank @ the Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art – KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin, Open Call exhibition space and digitally, on the Biennales online platform ArtWiki. From the 27th of April to 1st of July 2012. Echoes is a film about the American and Danish military presence in Greenland see through abandoned airbases and radar stations. It’s also a love story between two people who have met in the stunning landscape of history, in the sounds of music.
Frank has received a grant from NAPA to realise her next film production titled EYES. The film will premier at the Socle Du Monde Biennale in September 2012.
Two Ivalo Frank productions, ECHOES and Faith, hope and Greenland, will be showing at Tellus Cinema in Stockholm, this Saturday at 7PM. Frank will be present to answer questions after the screenings. For more information see tellusbio.nu
films by Ivalo Frank
at
Tellus Cinema, Stockholm
17 March, 2012
Faith, Hope and Greenland is a documentary from 2009 by Ivalo Frank. The film is a poetic journey into the very hearts of the people of Greenland. Based upon interviews with leading representatives from the art-world including; film producer Mikisoq H. Lynge, visual artist Julie Edel Hardenberg, actress Makka Kleist and musician Peter Tuusi Motzfeldt ‘Tuumotz’ (whose music, along with songs from Nive Nielsen accompany the film), the four figures reveal their personal beliefs of what Greenland currently stands for and their dreams for a contemporary, Greenlandic society.
Echoes is a film about the American and Danish military presence in Greenland see through abandoned airbases and radar stations. It’s also a love story between two people who have met in the stunning landscape of history, in the sounds of music.
ECHOES is showing at the University of Greenland on the 21st of January. The film is directed by Ivalo Frank and is an experimental documentary about the American and Danish military presence in Greenland see through abandoned airbases and radar stations. It’s also a love story between two people who have met in the stunning landscape of history, in the sounds of music.
For more info on the University of Greenland please check http://www.ilisimatusarfik.gl/
Ivalo Frank’s film ECHOES wins the Festival Award for Best Documentary at the London Underground Film Festival 2011. ECHOES takes place on a little island in Greenland, home to Anna Kuitse and her husband, sharing the (love) story about two people who met here in in the midst of international politics and war. The music documentary was recorded on abandoned military locations in Greenland, and it incorporates the sounds, structures and colours of the mosaic landscape of steep mountains.
For more info: http://www.londonundergroundfilmfestival.org.uk/
Greenland Eyes International Film Festival is happy to announce that the festival with take place from the 24th of April to the 30th of April 2012. The festival, which takes place in Arsenal Cinema Berlin highlight feature, documentary and art films from Greenland and will be supplemented with a workshop Greenland Film in Context at Humboldt University’s Nordeuropa-Institut focusing on theoretical and practical aspects of filmmaking in and about Greenland. Greenland Eyes IFF is a project initiated by Ivalo Frank in collaboration with the Nordic Institute at Humboldt University of Berlin, Arsenal Cinema – Institute for film and video art and the Nordic Embassy in Berlin.
For more information on the festival: www.greenlandeyes.com
Ivalo Frank’s film ECHOES, has been chosen as part of the Official Selection for ASFF, the Aesthetica Short Film Festival and will be screening at the festival from 3rd – 6th November 2011. The festival is a celebration of independent film from across the world with 150 films being screened from 30 countries.
Ivalo Frank’s film ECHOES has been nominated by the selection committees of the 28th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival for the prize The Golden Key. 14 films were selected amongst the 2,500 submitted films.
Ivalo Frank has signed a world-wide distribution deal with Shorts International. In future, Shorts International will be in charge of distributing and selling Ivalo Frank’s music documentary ECHOES to TV stations across the world.
Shorts International is the world’s leading short movie entertainment company, functioning as distributor, broadcaster and producer.
With a catalogue of over 3000 short movies, they represent every genre across multiple platforms. Their titles include past Oscar winners and nominees, festival favourites and revered classics. The company is headquartered in London with additional offices in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
http://www.shortsinternational.com/
GREENLAND EYES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Ivalo Frank, Lill-Ann Körber and Milena Nikolova launch new film festival.
Greenland Eyes International Film Festival will take place in Arsenal Cinema Berlin in the spring of 2012. The festival will highlight films from Greenland as well as other filmic examples that deal with Greenlandic images while produced in foreign countries. With Greenland Eyes International Film Festival it will be for the first time that the Berlin audience is offered a chance to gain an insight into a range of films dealing specifically with various representations of Greenland.
Incorporates: Screenings, workshops, lectures, artist talks.
The tri-city American Independent Film Festival celebrates the work of independent filmmakers. It is a unique platform for new talent and a tour-de-force of low-budget creativity and innovation. The Festival attracts an amazing array of filmmakers from across the world and offers film lovers coast to coast an extraordinary chance to glimpse the future of cinema.
AIFF focuses on the work of new filmmakers and films presenting new approaches and innovative solutions to limited budgets. As the festival venues are all closely connected with prominent film schools, the audiences are unusually sophisticated in their appreciation of quality film.
In May 2011 we’ll show more than 70 films in our three screening venues in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York.
http://www.film-fest.us/
ECHOES by Ivalo Frank – is a film about the American and Danish military presence in Greenland see through abandoned airbases and radar stations. It’s also a love story between two people who have met in the stunning landscape of history, in the sounds of music.
ECHOES has been selected for the London Underground Film Festval, which takes place at the Horse Hospital in London, December 2011
http://www.londonundergroundfilmfestival.org.uk/
Winner of the Award of Merit in the Best Shorts Competition in the US
From the official press release:
Ivalo Frank has won a prestigious Award of Merit from the Best Shorts Competition. The award was given for Ivalo Frank’s experimental documentary ECHOES, which takes place on a little island in Greenland where we meet Anna Kuitse and her husband. The film takes the viewer on a hypnotic journey through remnants from the Cold War and the Second World War left in the midst of breath-taking nature. ECHOES features exceptional story line, location, visuals, sound and main characters.
“It was very important to me, to work not just with the sounds and beauty of the Greenlandic landscape, but to also combine this with some of humanities more brutal past”
The best Shorts Competition recognises film professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change.
ECHOES has won the prize Honorable Mention Award in the category Short Documentary. The festival is running from the 22nd to the 25th of April 2011 in Los Angeles, US.