MEDIUM

What if our relations continues on the other side of the canvas?

A creative feature documentary. A different lovestory. Composed by three rooms: From the Brazilian slum through a world of deseased painters to Danish livingrooms. All with a painting brush as the enchanting link and paintings as windows to ”the other” side. Communicated with focus on highly artistic visual and auditive narration.

This different love story has its starting point in the Brazilian trance painter medium Florencio. Since the age of 17 Florencio let deseased painters express themselves through him with their paintings while he is in deep trance. Over 100 painters have painted through him all over the world. Florencio paints in front of audiences in order to show the manifestation of spirits. And to show there is a life after death. The 9-15 paintings of thick oil paint that he produces in 1 ½ - 2 hours trance are sold to the audience. According to Florencio there it is no coincidence who gets what painting. Especially the Danish audience has taken Florencio’s paintings in. Florencio brings the money to Brazil where he helps 42 families and 85 children from the slum with survival, education and upbringing.

Through out the film one question lingers: if our relations continue after life, then how do we want to live life? The film observes, listens and pass on information. It lets the participants experiences speak for them selves no matter if they affirm or conflict. The film resigns from any dictation.  

One man's spirit is another man's bread.

MEDIUM

What if our relations continues on the other side of the canvas?

A creative feature documentary. A different lovestory. Composed by three rooms: From the Brazilian slum through a world of deseased painters to Danish livingrooms. All with a painting brush as the enchanting link and paintings as windows to ”the other” side. Communicated with focus on highly artistic visual and auditive narration.

This different love story has its starting point in the Brazilian trance painter medium Florencio. Since the age of 17 Florencio let deseased painters express themselves through him with their paintings while he is in deep trance. Over 100 painters have painted through him all over the world. Florencio paints in front of audiences in order to show the manifestation of spirits. And to show there is a life after death. The 9-15 paintings of thick oil paint that he produces in 1 ½ - 2 hours trance are sold to the audience. According to Florencio there it is no coincidence who gets what painting. Especially the Danish audience has taken Florencio’s paintings in. Florencio brings the money to Brazil where he helps 42 families and 85 children from the slum with survival, education and upbringing.

Through out the film one question lingers: if our relations continue after life, then how do we want to live life? The film observes, listens and pass on information. It lets the participants experiences speak for them selves no matter if they affirm or conflict. The film resigns from any dictation.  

One man's spirit is another man's bread.

Florencio’s STATEMENT

“If we could only learn to live with the conscience that our relations survive death – we would truly understand that the greatest in life is love. Actually, from one heart to the other there is no distance...The paintings are materializations of the spirit world”, Florencio.    

Director's MOTIVATION

I first experienced Florencio at work in 2011 and could not believe there wasn’t already an into depth going documentary about it! Because if you believe that spirits paint through him or not, it is incredibly inspiring to follow a simple man encapsulated in the typical everyday problems as everyone and with the dedication of a visionary. Empowered by his idea of doing good. So stubbornly focused on changing the world with love and prove life continues after death. An idea most of us Western born find far too naive for our world. But then, what actually happens if you take this ”naive” idea seriously and like Florencio pursues it as your greatest goal in life?

My initial curiosity was focused on what is actually going on when Florencio is in the trance? I am still interested in this part. But my attention was fast captured by the actual effect of Florencio’s work – spirits or not. The concrete effect on the poor people in Salvador, the emotional effect on the audiences - be it an x-ray doctor or a fisherman, spiritual or non-spiritual, the "after effect" of the paintings in the living rooms. The huge dilemma for me has been how to make a fair film about something as toboo in the West as ”spirit world” - and the whole ”food chain” in Florencio’s system – and avoid making a propaganda film for or against. My intention is therefore to let the film communicate as pure as possible. Let situations play out in the three rooms: slum, trance and Danish livingroom without coming to any conclusions. Thats up to the audience. Let the participants look back at the sudience in tableau like sceneries which they tell their own stories over. In turn I welcome scientists examinations of Florencio as a part of the film.

Of all the countries Florencio has painted in, how come excatly the Danish audience crave Florencio’s paintings the most? On his 12th year visiting Denmark his audiences are bigger than ever. Many come back to see him paint year after year.  People as different as the X-ray doctor and the Fisherman.

That and the growing spiritual awareness in Denmark is what stirs my curiosity to examine this.

Judging from the growing interest for spiritual topics in Denmark the Danes are eager to examine this too.

The film strieves for a high integration of artistic visual auditive communication without compromising presence and authencity. For that I have collected a creative dream team of collegaues I have had lovely collaborations with before. 

The AWARD WINNING CORE CREW 

We are professional and successful filmmakers. We put a huge amount of enthusiasm, creative spirit and hard work into our projects why we ensure a high quality result. This is done in a warmhearted, disciplined and fun teamwork atmosphere. 

FILM DIRECTOR Ida Grøn has won several international awards with her film ”The Kid and the Clown”, which has been shown on TV-stations in more than 10 countries among others ARTE France, and Al Jazeera English. She has exhibited video-installation art at the Danish National Gallery. 

She works as a video journalist for TV while also giving hands-on-workshops in poetic documentaries. Ida is currently making a feature documentary with support from the Danish Film 

Institute and Danish National TV. Ida holds a Master of Arts in Film, Documentary Directing, from the National Film and Television School in England and a BA in Art History from the University of Copenhagen.

EDITOR Chatlotte Munch Bengtsen is one of the editors behind the 2014 Oscar Nominated documentary ”The Act of Killing”. She has edited several award winning documentaries including ”Tankograd”, ”American Losers”, ”Complaints Choir” and ”The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song”. 

Before completing her Master of Arts in Film, Editing, from the National Film and Television School in England, 

Charlotte had a succesful career as professional dancer being one of the most sought after modern dancers in Denmark at her time.

SOUND DESIGNER Peter Albrechtsen is almost a cult phenomenon within sound design despite his rather young age. Peter graduated from The Danish Film School in 2001 and has since then worked on more than a 100 feature films and documentaries, domestically as well as internationally. Among Peter Albrechtsen’s recent credits are the multi award-winning The Queen of Versailles and the festival favorites ”Putin’s Kiss”, ”Canned Dreams” and ”The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song”. 

At CPH:DOX 2012, Peter was awarded the ”Sonic Dox Award” for the sound design of White Black Boy. At the same time, Peter has been working on a long list of fiction films, one of the latest being ”The Idealist” and the Sundance winner ”Teddy Bear”. 

Previous work include sound effects editing on both ”The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2009) and Lars von Trier’s ”Antichrist” (2009). 

Peter is a member of the US association of sound designers, MPSE.

STATUS OF the FILM

We are ready to take the film into the first editing state. Where the film's editor and director Charlotte and Ida will collaborate on the narrative, the visual language and analyze what recordings the film needs. We are looking for 250.000 dkk for this. The money will cover technical equipment and vages.