Selected work of Maja Borg

Visual Artist and Film Director, additionally working as Director of Photography,
Dramaturg and Creative Editor. Borg works internationally and is based both in
Sweden and the UK.

La parte dell’ Angelo

“This is a story of something that does not exist (or does it?) except in people’s minds:
”The Angel’s Voice”. The phenomenon is much talked about, though, at least in the Italian mountains. It could certainly not be filmed and recorded, but we did that anyway (did we
reallly succeed?).” Carl Henrik Svenstedt

The film centers on an acoustic phenomenon where a ‘third voice’ is being created by the auditory conditions of a space, and the technique of singing in this space. The occurrence lends itself to reflect on the human longing for something beyond the explainable, something more than the ordinary life of an olive farmer.

The film is composed solely of still photographs from the mountains of Liguria and Italy, animated into motion.

In collaboration with:

Director and producer: Carl Henrik Svenstedt, Sound design: Martin Johnson

Narrator: Erland Josephson

2009, Experimental Documentary, 13 min.

(Director of Photography and Editor)

”The work of Maja Borg exists at the intersection of documentary, fiction and experimental film fusing the languages of these genres into a compelling, visually rich and politically astute body of work. Borg’s films are as likely to be seen in film festivals or television as they are in the visual arts context. The artist uniquely succeeds in defying genre expectations and her language seamlessly combines elements of animation, experimental camera and sound techniques with tools of documentary filmmaking. Her films have tackled subjects ranging from investigations of myths and traditions, borders of desire and violence and, most recently, urgent contemporary issues such as the crisis of capitalism and the global environmental and economic downturn, investigating what options one has in such a dystopian landscape.”

Lina Dzuverovic, co-founder and Director of Electra
– contemporary art agency, London.

Densen

A musical voyage through photographs from Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Barcelona, Milan and Buenos Aires. The word for power line in Japanese is densen.

In collaboration with:

Director: Anna Linder, Producer: Lisbet Gabrielsson, Sound: Jan Alvermark, Mucic: Tape

2009, Experimental, 8 min.

(Director of Photography and Editor)

Staden (the City)

Exploration of the relationship between the city (Norrköping/Linköping) and the notion
of creativity.

In collaboration with:

Production Manager: Lovisa Farrow, Sound Design: Martin Johnson, Voice: Bruno K Öjer,
Moa Matinsson Mfl., Music: Slagsmålsklubben, The Flesh Quartet

Östsam – east of Sweden arts council

2008, Experimental, 7 min.

(Director, Director of Photography and Editor)

Future My Love

Future My Love is a unique love story challenging our collective and personal utopias in search of freedom. At the brink of losing the idealistic love of her life, filmmaker Maja Borg takes us on a poetic road trip through the financial collapse, exploring a radically different economic and social model proposed by 95-year-old futurist Jacque Fresco. How much freedom are we prepared to give to the ones we love? And how much responsibility are we ready to take for our society? Carefully weaving a texture of archive footage, black and white Super 8 film, and colour HD, Borg poignantly depicts the universal struggle between our heads and hearts in times of radical change.

In collaboration with:

Producer: Sonja Henrici, Scottish Documentary Institute.

Co Producer: Lisbet Gabrielsson, Lisbet Gabrielsson Film AB

Editor: Colin Monie, Cinematography: Minttu Mäntynen

Music: Per Störby and the New Tango Orquesta (from the Album Vesper)

2012, Feature Film, 93 min.

(Director)

Harg! (a soundscape for home comers)

Documentary based on the soundscape of a rural Swedish community.

In collaboration with:

Sound design: Martin Johnson, Narrator: Sven Wollter

Swedish Television

2008, Documentary, 28 min.

(Director of Photography and Editor)

Ottica Zero

Ottica Zero pivots on two people who refuse to conform to the present and instead choose to live for their own concepts of a better future, here and now. Instead of adapting a post-modern worldview of multiple truths and apocalyptic resignation, they look at the common needs of the global society in order to provide people with the necessities of life through the universal methodology of science.

Soon after her ‘big break’, the Italian actress Nadya Cazan disappeared. In spite of many TV and film offers, she rejected the competitive and superficial values of the society they represented. Ottica Zero follows Nadyas’ new persona, NEM, on her search of an alternative way of living; a quest to discover a means to recycle a whole spectrum of cultures and political ideologies into a new way of managing a global society. It is a journey that takes us from Rome to Venus, where 91-year-old social innovator and futurist, Jacques Fresco, proposes a solution.

The film is structured around the RGB colour spectrum and the optic definition of ‘white’; the precise balance of red, green and blue, which produce the illusion of no colour. The term ‘Ottica Zero’, the optic zero point of white light, is used by NEM, to describe the goal of her search, the point in which all humans are the same. Instead of moralist opinions, religious convictions or political control, it is these points of commons, both NEM and Jacques Fresco hold as the solution and foundation to a constructive global society.

Told through polemical poetry with sci-fi style visuals and plays on the preconception most of us have of people with radical solutions. It seems harder for us to embrace positive visions of the future than dystopian criticism of the world.

In collaboration with:

Co-Producer: Jason Hall, Sound design: Martin Johnson

With: Nadya Cazan and Jacque Fresco

Swedish distributor: FILMFORM

Made as a part of the lottery funded Bridging The Gap scheme run by The Scottish Documentary Institute, supported by Scottish Screen and The National Lottery Fund.

2007, Documentary, 13 min.

(Director, Director of Photography and Editor)

Happy Birthday You're Dead.

Her life was supposed to end at 25 so why give up smoking? Why restrain life in any way or plan for the future? But three weeks before deadline she wants to cling on to it all, appeal the verdict, so she sets on a journey to confront what had grown out of control in her mind but given her the privilege of not taking anything for granted.

In collaboration with:

Producer: Jason Hall, Teebster Ltd., Director of photography: Sasha Snow

Sound design: Martin Johnson and John Cobban, Music: Mario Adamson

Sound recordist: Cameron Mercer, Editor: Gary Scott

Commissioned by Channel 4 UK. TX December 2007 and August 2008.

2007, Documentary, 24 min.

(Director)

Construct -Two Moments in Beauty

CONSTRUCT (TWO MOMENTS IN BEAUTY) is a local artist and science collaboration between filmmaker Maja Borg, historian Maria Björkman, sound designer Martin Johnson and composer Mario Adamson, all exploring the human tendency of wanting to systemize in order to understand and/or control the world. The film is a result of a series of discussions about the destructive effects we have encountered in history, when trying to apply an idea about the world upon the reality of it.

In collaboration with:

Sound design: Martin Johnson, Music: Mario Adamson

Film I Öst, arts council of east Sweden.

2007, Experimental, 6 min.

(Director)

Al Hudud (The Border)

A group of young Swedish performers, on a tour around Jordan, strive to find a meaningful use for their artistry. In the midst of a politically charged conflict they endeavor to constructively use their skill: to meet people as people, beyond national, religious and cultural borders. The goal is to perform a show for children in a number of Palestinian refugee camps. However, as the trip is shadowed by the ongoing war in Lebanon, the artists begin to question their inherent motives and achievements; is it meaningful to make the Jordanian children laugh when, just a few miles away across the border, other children are dying?

In collaboration with:

The Swedish Drama Institute, and Clowns Without Borders.

Sound: Lovisa Farrow

Director of Photography: Maja Borg

2006, Documentary, 20 min.

(Co-directed and co-produced with Lovisa Farrow)

Se pa Lucia (Look at Lucia)

‘Look at Lucia’ explores the history of the myth of Lucia, an archaic tradition central to Swedish society, in its contemporary appearance – a beauty contest. Upon investigation, the irony of how it has been interpreted over time is exposed, showing how a deeply moral and empowering feminist message has been lost to give way to its polar opposite – a manifestation as crass a beauty contest.

In collaboration with:

Director of Photography: Minttu Mäntynen

Sound design: Marcelo De Oliveira

2006, Documentary, 52 min.

(Director, Producer and Editor)

To She In Me

”Both playful and poetic, To She In Me exposes the desires and contradictions of one youthful mind. Images of suburban cityscapes rapture and jar against the bliss of countryside backdrops, while the Swedish and English spoken are lyrically combined in a mixture of foreignness and familiarity. The film is framed by abstract noise compositions and old Swedish folk songs weaving in and out of the narrative. Taken from childhood diary notes, these fragmented stories are irreconcilably caught between adolescent hopes and future ambitions.”

Isla Leaver-Yap for MAP magazine

In collaboration with:

With: Elin Magnusson, Voice: Maryam Hamidi, Music: Dave Millan, Sound design: Maja Borg

Film I Öst, arts council of east Sweden.

2005, Experimental, 6 min.

(Director, Writer, Direcor of Photography, Editor)

Gilengo Lon (The Salt Of Your Song)

For centuries the Romanian Romas have been discriminated against, as has been the unfortunate case for Romas all over the world. However, there is one area where the Romanian Romas have for a long time also been celebrated; for carrying on and preserving the amazingly rich folk music tradition of Romania. In Gilengo Lon this music is the focal point, transcending political tensions and cultural differences.

2001, Documentary, 21 min.

(Co-directed, co-written, co-produced with Marie Liden)

Screenings and awards

Densen
(not full screening list):

Swedish cinema premiere 30th october 2009.

Ismailia IFF, Egypt, 10-17 October 2009.

Expresion en Corto IFF, Mexico,
24 july – 2 august 2009.

Lilla Filmfestivalen i Båstad, Sweden, 30 july 2009.

Cannes - Short Film Corner, SCANDINAVIAN SHORT FILMS, may 2009.

Tribeca Film Festival, New York, USA.
Worldpremiär: 22 april - 3 may 2009.

Ottica Zero
(not full screening list):

Momentum 5th Nordic Biennial of Conteporary Art, Favoured Nations’ 29th August – 18th October,
Moss, Norway 2009.

20th edition of the Impact Festival, Utrecht,
The Netherlands 14th-18th October 2009.

Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008.

Temecula Valley International Film Festival, CA,
USA 2008, awarded “Special Jury Prize Award for Best Short Documentary”

Raindance Film Festival, London, October 2008.

12th Split Film Festival September 2008.

Oberhausen 54th international Film Festival
– Film Form programme, Germany May 2008.

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007, nominated for best Scottish short, honourable mention European Film Academy Short Film 2007 - Prix UIP.

Construct- Two Moments in Beauty
(not full screening list):

3rd Beijin Independent Film Festival 2008.

Exhibited at Länsmuseet I Linköping, October 2008.

Le Lieu Unique Nantes, France Nov 2007.

"Am Rande des ... on the edge of...." Berlin, Germany June 2007.

Se pa Lucia (Look at Lucia)
(not full screening list):

Awarded Scottish Students on Screen Factual
Award 2007.

Selected for the XXI Pärnu International Film Festival, Estonia 2007.

Selected for the Imagining Ourselves Online Film Festival, International Museum of Women, October 2007.

Selected for the Offensiva Film Festival Poland 2007.

Awarded the Adam & Company Production Prize, 2006.

Awarded the Anders Sandrews stipend, Upcoming Artist, Sweden, 2006.

Awarded The Clason-Harvie Bursary, 2006.

Awarded The Helen A. Rose Bequest for distinguished work, 2006.

To She In Me

Selected for the Zebra Poetry Award screenings in Berlin October 2006.

Awarded ‘best editing’ at the October Film Festival, Sweden 2006.

Selected for the NUFF Norway 2007.

Selected for the Memories in Motion, Munich Germany September 2007.

Selected for the Culture Bound 7, East Wing Collection, Courtauld Institute, London 2006

Selected for the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), Biarritz, France, 2006

Selected for the ‘The Dream Factory’ at the Swedish Film Institute May 2006

Selected for Pavilion Intermix, Leeds International Film Festival 2005

Gilengo Lon (The Salt Of Your Song)
(not full screening list):

Norrköping Video Film Festival, Sweden, 2002.

Screened several times at Söderkoping Cinema, Sweden, 2002.

For contact email info@majaborg.com