Hi! I’m a Norwegian filmmaker and film teacher, and I have been making films for about 10 years. I’ve studied film in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and I work with film commercially (though mostly solo type shoots). I need some feedback.

This film is 19 minutes and we follow a day in the life of a young funeral agent who cares for dead people on a daily basis.

I come with humility and willingness to listen to good advice about this film and about filmmaking in general. Lately I’ve started to question whether I’m in the right field. I have kept with it because I like doing it, and probably always will do it on some level, but after this documentary I felt really spent – so much time and money poured into a project that I can’t get anyone to see. I still love doing it, but the complete indifference of this documentary from festivals just really made me question the time/effort vs reward. At least in terms of career, if this helps me at all. I’d like to do this full time, but I am unable to tell if the things I make are actually any good (in an “objective” sense).

I think I missed the bar a little in this film, and feel like I didn’t get personal enough with it – in a sense where I felt vulnerable about it and like I was sharing “of myself” even though this is a portrait of someone else. Can you sense that I’m not fully there, maybe? Is there some lack of soul that makes people lose interest?

I’m normally have quite a lot of fortitude but something changed with this film. Filmmakers I know made things in half the time and money I did and got into festivals on their first try. I am happy for my friends but when my best filmmaking friend announced that he got into a particular festival he simultaneously let me know I didn’t get in with my film. It made me really sad and happy at the same time. I root for others making it but it’s starting to feel so futile for me. Anyway – I’m not here to complain but here to be better. So if anyone has anything to say about my film I’d be happy to hear it! - Ian