Jon Bang Carlsen

“A little lie may not be believed at all, but a big lie, if repeated with sufficient vigour and frequentcy, will eventually take deep root in the minds of the uninformed masses.”
Josef Goebbelʼs words resonate well into our time.
“Purity beats everything” is about growing up in an idyllic count...

When I was a boy I often lay for hours staring up into the summer sky for a hole into heaven or a lazy angel daydreaming on a cloud who’d forgotten old God’s strict orders never to be seen by us people from down on this earth.
In middle age my search for God had taken me all the way to the sout...

The Irish West Coast, both harsh and beautiful, creates the frame for this humoristic documentary.The main character is Jimmy, middleaged and lonely. Of earthly creatures seen from his window is an equally lonely cow and a dog whom Jimmy confides in. The batchelor would like a woman to share his ...

A documentary comedy about extras in Hollywood and how their dreams reflect the society they live in. The film's stage is an old hotel in the middle of Hollywood. Dilapidated inside as well as outside, but the passing of time hasn't eradicated all traces of an elegant past. Until the beginning of...

"Boredom is my biggest problem. I think most of us are bored silly, that's why I have always lived on the razor's edge. All the undercover work I have done all over the world didn't make me a rich man, but it helped me to get rid of the boredom for a while. On secret missions I coped with death i...

The film stars two boys, Hjalmar and Simon, who move to South Africa with their parents. Full of wonder the children begin to explore their new world, which until recently was a white dictatorship treating black people like slaves. In everyday life and travelling across the huge country with thei...

I traveled to South Africa to find a white family living on a desolate farm.
I wanted to film how they faced the new days of equality after the fall of Apartheid. But I soon lost my way both on the endless roads and in my mind.
Instead the film became a story about two very different women wh...

For many families in the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles, an idyllic, peaceful middle-class existence is just a facade. What lies beneath is the unseen domestic turmoil: teens addicted to drugs, breaking the law and engaging in violent outbursts—and parents at their wits end. Interventionists, l...

Jon Bang Carlsen´s approach to documentary filmmaking is unique as it´s his firm belief that each of us has to reinvent the world in order to understand it. This film is a filmic essay about his extraordinary documentary style based on the shooting of his award winning documentary from Ireland “ ...

Two aging ladies are preparing for the new season in the hotel that they manage in the Danish island of Fanø. They share memories of old times, clean and inspect the rooms and play a few tricks on one another.

The film was made using the director's special method of inventing reality. After visi...

The film tells the story of two brothers, Hjalmar and Simon, who move to Ireland with their parents. Hjalmar begins in a tiny village school, but doesn’t understand a word they are saying. He feels utterly alone, but gradually he learns English and makes new friends. Suddenly both he and his li...