Nothing is. Everything is becoming. Even life already lived.
After my wife had died, I tried to kick-start my days by throwing myself into the shooting of a new film, but when I looked through the viewfinder, I felt the motives I was focusing on were hiding what I really wanted to see. Everything in the little American town reminded me of your absence. Thus, this little stammering love letter came into being.

Direction: Jon Bang Carlsen

Script: Jon Bang Carlsen

Production: Jon Bang Carlsen

Cinematography: Jon Bang Carlsen

Editing: Martin Munck Schmidt, Thomas Papapetros

Sound: Henrik Langkilde

Original Title: THE BANALITY OF GRIEF

Original Language: English

Film Production Country: Denmark

Website: jonbangcarlsen.com

Statement of the Director/s
I did this film without applying for any funds. I couldn’t face the usual procedure of meeting different commissioning editors from various TV-stations or film funds. I needed to be along with my emotions and the need to frame them without having to verbalise my thoughts prematurely to come across as a man, who knew what he was doing. Also, I needed to find out if my very personal feelings of grief, love, solitude, gratitude etc. had any relevance to a complete stranger before I applied for that stranger’s money. By the time I had finished the movie and some strangers seemed to recognise the emotions displayed on the screen it was too late to apply for funds. Luckily the talented people who helped create this film agreed to work for free … until one day maybe …

Biography of the Director/s
Born in 1950 in Denmark, Jon Bang Carlsen squatted a former army base in Copenhagen in 1971 together with a lot of other people. There he worked as an actor, playwriter and film maker for the theatre group Solvognen. He graduated from The Danish Film School in 1976 and developed a style he called "the staged documentary" in 1977, that operates in a no-man's land between the documentary film and the fiction film, that he still feels at home in. Jon Bang Carlsen has also written and directed feature films, published novels and collections of essays and poems. He just shot a new staged documentary in Arizona with the working title FREEDOM.

Filmography of the Director/s
2021 THE BANALITY OF GRIEF
2017 I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE
2016 DEJA VU
2014 CATS IN RIGA
2013 JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF VIOLENCE
2008 PURITY BEATS EVERYTHING
2007 BLINDED ANGELS
2004 THE CONFESSIONS OF AN OLD TEDDY BEAR
2002 ZUMA THE PUMA
2001 PORTRAIT OF GOD
1999 ADDICTED TO SOLITUDE
1999 MY AFRICAN DIARY
1997 MY IRISH DIARY
1996 HOW TO INVENT REALITY
1996 IT'S NOW OR NEVER
1995 CARMEN AND BABYFACE
1993 LIFE WILL BE LIVED
1990 ICH BIN AUCH EIN BERLINER
1988 BABY DOLL
1988 TIME OUT
1987 FIRST I WANTED TO FIND THE TRUTH
1986 BEFORE THE GUESTS ARRIVE
1985 OPHELIA COMES TO TOWN
1984 PHOENIX BIRD
1981 HOTEL OF THE STARS
1980 NEXT STOP-PARADISE
1978 A RICH MAN
1977 A FISHERMAN FROM HANSTHOLM
1977 JENNY
1975 THE SANTA CLAUS ACTION

Production Company:
C&C Productions Aps
Jon Bang Carlsen
Harebjerg 3
Fårevejle, 4540, Denmark
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +45 20150567
Website: http://jonbangcarlsen.com/

World Sales:
C&C Productions Aps
Jon Bang Carlsen
Harebjerg 3
Fårevejle, 4540, Denmark
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +45 20150567
Website: http://jonbangcarlsen.com/

Press:
C&C Productions Aps
Jon Bang Carlsen
Harebjerg 3
Fårevejle, 4540, Denmark
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +45 20150567
Website: http://jonbangcarlsen.com/