ALICE HJORTH
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A FILMMAKER?
I have always loved to tell stories. When I was a child, I wrote short stories and drew comics. Later on I started to do small films, and to work as a photographer and editor. When I began to make fiction films, I fell in love with it. It’s an incredible feeling when you’re working with a team of passionate people, all striving towards making the story unfold and come alive. I love to make films about nature, and our relationship with it as humans.
HOW DID YOU COME ACROSS THE IDEA FOR ECOCIDE?
The idea for the film came out of my engagement as a climate activist, and from a wish to explore on an intimate level, how people tend to react differently to crisis. I have worked a lot on myself because I have suffered from anxiety. Through this work I discovered parallels in the different ways we tend to relate to the climate crisis, and to personal crisis in our lives. I wanted to explore this in ”Ecocide”. The idea was also inspired by Denmark’s first greenwashing court case in 2021. The Danish pork giant Danish Crown, had made a campaign claiming their pigs were ”More climate friendly than you think.” The phrase had no basis in facts, and they were sued by Danish NGOs for greenwashing and misleading the public. The NGOs won the case and Danish Crown had to draw the campaign back. In ”Ecocide” I wanted to explore the fight between corporate ambition and environmental activism on a much more intimate level, through a difficult relationship between two siblings. A brother who’s an advertisement executive, and his estranged sister who is an activist from the controversial network ”Ecocide”, leading to an inevitable confrontation.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CONCERN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE? AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOUR FILMMAKING DECISIONS?
I always loved nature and animals a lot. Nature feels like a sanctuary to me. One of the things that also breaks my heart about the climate crisis, is that it affects people in the global South the most. The people who contributed the least to the problem, has to pay the highest prize. I am very interested in making films about the climate crisis, its causes and how we relate to it psychologically. I think it is one of the most important stories of our time.
HOW DO YOU WORK AS FILMMAKER? (WITH ACTORS, THEMES, VISUALS ETC.)
That is a big question. A short answer would be that I like to prepare a lot. To take photos from locations, to storyboard and to create moodboards. To see a lot of films in the tone and genre I am working with. To work a lot on character and dialogue in the script, to get as rich characters and storyline as possible. To have meetings with actors and let them improvise scenes with the characters, so they get to make them their own, before we go to set. I find that the more you prepare, the more free you are, when you are on set, to make good decisions and also try new ideas.
FUTURE GOALS?
Right now I am in development with a new project. It also deals with our relationship with nature but has a very different tone and target audience. It has a more joyful and hopeful ”solarpunk” tone. I think we live in quite dark times right now. I hope that film, art and good stories can help shed some light, and help create reflections about living in balance on our beautiful planet.
ABOUT
Alice Hjorth is a Danish director and screenwriter known for ECOCIDE & GOLIA / IMDb
