Municipality of Esbjerg / Visit Ribe
A short film about the Danish town Ribe’s famous pride, Jakob A. Riis, produced for the local museum in connection with the town’s 1300th anniversary.
The legendary Danish-American Jacob A. Riis was one of the 19th century’s most innovative journalists and the father of modern documentary photography.
Tormented by unrequited love, Jacob Riis emigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1870 and ended up as the very definition of the American dream. His good friend and President at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, called him ‘an ideal American’.
But before that, Riis had to work his way up from scratch as a drifter, a shipwright, an iron salesman and more.
He went on to become recognised as one of America’s most significant social revolutionaries, and in his book ‘How the Other Half Lives’, he documented, through photographs and text, the plight of immigrants living in New York’s slums.
This little film is wrapped in an incredible love story.
“The amazing journey of Jacob A. Riis” is a winner at Luleå International Film Festival in Sweden, at Couch Film Festival in Canada, at New York International Immigration Film Festival, at Political Film Festival, at 15 Minutes of Fame Film Festival, and at KinoDrome Festival in the US, at Incheon International Short Film Festival in Korea, at Sittannavasal International Film Festival, at Pramma International Film Festival, at Kodaikanal International Film Festival, at Cinema Ticket International Film Festival, at Aasha international Film Fest, at Makizhmithran International Film Festival, and at Eagle International Film Festival in India. It has been nominated at Korea International Short Film Festival, at Seoul International Extreme-short Image & Film Festival, and at Busan New Wave Short Film Festival in Korea, at BSFF in Australia, at Film Olympiad in Greece, at City Of Arts Film Festival in Spain, at Djarfogo International Film Festival in Cape Verde, at Global Bengaluru International Film Festival in India, and at Lift-Off Global Network, at Tournadeau Film Festival, at Aphrodite Film Awards, at Avalonia Festival, at SATX Cinema Showdown, at Political Film Festival, at Lane Doc Fest, and at FilmOneFest in the US.
