Janus Metz Pedersen
Janus Metz Pedersen (born 1974 in Denmark) is an award-winning Danish documentary filmmaker. He received a Master's degree in Communication and International Development studies from Roskilde University.
Work
Metz worked as a documentary researcher and moved to South Africa. There he worked on the television drama Soul City before making his debut documentary short Township Boys in 2006.
His feature documentaries include Love on Delivery and Ticket to Paradise. These two films are a two part series depicting women in a situation of mail-ordered brides from Vietnam and Thailand to Denmark.
In 2010, Pedersen directed Armadillo, an astute exploration of the culture of war. Director Janus Metz follows Danish soldiers fighting the Taliban in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan with sophisticated visual artistry rarely achieved under such raw conditions. Building his film around the characters within the platoon, Metz allows us to witness how war transforms the different personalities, and the group, approaching his subjects with an intimacy equal to that of fiction.
In 2015, Pedersen directed the third episode, "Maybe Tomorrow", of the second season of True Detective, starring Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, and Vince Vaughn.[1]
Filming Technique
Pedersen focuses on factual content when making his documentaries, but also uses staged components-such as the shower scene at the end of Armadillo - to grasp the attention of viewers. He uses strong appeal to emotion and often manipulates close-up camera shots of facial expressions in order to capture and show the raw, true feelings endured by those characters. One particular memorable image is the closeup of a Danish Special Forces Soldier after he is shot in an ambush by the Taliban. In an interview for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Pedersen states the difficulties of filming in war for Armadillo - "Shooting in battle situations is quite difficult, everything is so chaotic in war, you have to be in the right place at the right time." He also goes onto mention that for shooting technique he and his film crew often relied on two cameras and on helmet cameras worn by the soldiers.
Awards
Winner at BFI London Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Critics' Choice Movie Award, and Shaken's Stars.
Official selection of Brisbane International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival.
References
- ↑ Dibdin, Emma (June 11, 2015). "Everything we know about True Detective season 2, including cast, synopsis and new trailers". Digital Spy. Retrieved June 16, 2015.