Biography
Torben Skjødt Jensen

Torben Skjødt Jensen was born 1958 in Ålborg (Jutland), but lived early years in Holstebro and Roskilde. After finishing highschool in 1980 he moved to Copenhagen, and now lives in Hellerup, just outside Copenhagen.

Studied filmscience from 1978-1981 at Copenhagen University, and worked thereafter as cartoon- and magazine-editor for Forlaget Interpresse/Runepress in Bagsværd. Since then also worked with graphical production for Gutenberghus and the artstudios Tegneværkstedet and Mand over Bord.

Torben Skjødt Jensen had his debut on video in 1983 at Det Danske Videoværksted in Haderslev with two musicvideos: Shanks: Long Black Song  and Born Zero, and the short story-video Englefjæs (distributed by Statens Filmcentral/Filminstituttet). In 1984 he co-founded the production-company ATC in Århus (connected to the recordstudio Genlyd) and later same year the production-company Englefilm in Haderslev, which primary functioned as producer to the first Danish regional TV-station, TV-SYD.

In 1986 Torben Skjødt Jensen returned to Copenhagen where he started producing at Det Danske Filmværksted, which led to the filmdebut in 1990, the dramadocumentary It’s a Blue World about the Danish artist Hans Henrik Lerfeldt, filmed in S-16 mm. The film was produced at Filmværkstedet with support from Statens Filmcentral, Filminstituttet and TV2/Danmark, which in turn brought the film to the cinema and TV. After this the first artistic success (amongst other prizes, it won the first prize at the San Sebastian filmfestival in 1991), Torben decided to spend his time fully on working with film.

After Its a Blue World followed a row of significant, larger productions, in 1993 the rock-documentary Som et Strejf (produced with support from Statens Filmcentral, Filminstituttet, and TV2 at the productioncompany Film & Lyd) about Danish rockmusic through 25 years, shown in cinemas and as a serial in 3 parts on Danish TV2, in 1994 and with rerun in 1997 - in 1995 the portrait/documentary Carl Th. Dreyer - My Metier (produced with support from Statens Filmcentral, the Filminstitutes in Danmark and Norway, DR, Svensk TV2 Göteborg and Nordisk Film & TV-fond at Steen Herdel & Co.) about the famous Danish instructor, shown in cinema and on TV, nominated for Bodil in 1996 as best movie of the year and awarded a Robert same year for best documentary of the year - in 1996 the portrait-documentary Ole Ege - The Naughty Boy (produced with support from Filmværkstedet and TV2, Danmark as a co-production with Herdel & Co.) about one of the pioneers in the Danish pornography in the sixties, Ole Ege. Shown on TV2 in the winter of 1996, and one of the most seen foreign documentaries shown on BBC 2 in England, autumn 1997. In beginning of 1999 Torbens newest documentary-epos Simons Film, premiers. An movie about the (in)famous, loved and mythical Dane: Simon Spies. The movie premiers in a 100 minutes edition in cinemas and later in 1999 on TV in all Nordic countries in two episodes of each 60 minutes. The film is produced by Steen Herdel & Co. for Filminstituttet and DR and the entire nordvisionsnet (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland).

Torben was one of the pioneers behind experiments with videoart in the 80's (First annual anti anti fashion video performance and Break the Silence, both produced at Det Danske Videoværksted in Haderslev, 1983 - 85) and production of music-vidoes - since 1985 Torben has produced, instructed, photographed or edited around 100 musikvideos, with e.g.. Kim Larsen, Hanne Boel, Nanna, Lars Muhl, Gnags, Lis Sørensen, Søs Fenger, Miss B.Haven, Lars HUG, Palle Mikkelborg, TV2, Dicte, Sort Sol, Laid Back, Overlords, Maria Carmen Koppel.

Torben has used the experiences with musicwork and videoart in a number of more or less experimental film and videoproductions. On video e.g. with The Flood and Visage Uno (produced at Filmværkstedet 1993-94), a video-dance co-project with Nyt Dansk Danseteater and choreographer Anette Abildgaard, that has resulted in videoversions of the performances Speranza, Morels Opfindelse and Quattsiluni, and dansedocumentary Abildgaard - The Dancing Storytellers - all produced at Filmværkstedet, last-mentioned with financial support from Canal+, Spain.

In 1993 Torben created the film Wayfarer, contracted by the musichouse of Randers, a city-symphony with music by Anders Koppel and a text by Peter Seeberg. It has furthermore resulted in the outstanding, personal and essay-istic work - Flâneurtrilogy - 3 movies on the concepts city and space in a poetical filmtrack. Flâneur (8 min., 1993) was in competition at the Berlin Filmfestival in 1993, Flâneur 2:Dandy (28 min., 1995) with texts by Charles Baudelaire premiered in Tampere, Finland spring 1995 and Flâneur 3: Benjamin's Shadow, had worldpremier at Nordisk Panorama 1998 in Kiruna, Sweden, where it was awarded a special prize.

Torben was introduced to working with fiction witha series of smaller video-productions at Det Danske Videoværksted in Haderslev in the 80s's: Englefjæs (24 min., 1983), Sort Samba - den sidste dans (10 min., 1984), Bennys Flyver (10 min., 1985) og Moments - Gud skabte kvinden (16 min., 1986).

In the 90's he further developed the ultra-short format (4-6 minutter) in 3 small 35mm productions: Le Veritable Homme Dans La Lune (4 min., 1993), Freelancer (5 min.,1996) and To Be or Nothing to Eat (6 min., 1996).  Last-mentioned produced for Dansk Novellefilm for Final Cut Productions.

Torben has filmed two stories by Peter Seeberg as medium-length productions, both produced at ASA filmproduction in Valby. Hvileløse Hjerte (28 min., 1996) produced with support from Dansk Novellefilm and shown on TV2, Danmark i 1997 and DR in 1998 plus Gensidig Berøring (20 min., 1997) which was shown on DR autumn/winter 1998.

Torbens first full length fiction feature , "The man who would live forever" has been selected as openingfeature at the main competition of Göteborg Film Festival 1999 (29/1 - 7/2). This is also the world-premier. A great number of established and popular actors, including Lars Simonsen (known from Malmros' film "Barbara") as Adrian, Stina Ekblad as Ester and Ghita Nørby as Helene Lorentzen, are in the cast. The black/white cinemascope picture has Harald Paalgard at the camera and is edited by Ghita Beckendorff. The script was written by Orla Fokdal and Torben Skjødt Jensen, inspired by a short story by Peter Nilson. The film is supported by Filminstitutttet, TV2, Danmark and Canal+. It is filmed in black/white super 35mm, cinemascope (1:2.35 ratio).

As filmworker Torben has often worked for other directors as photographer and editor - latest as photographer on Erik Clausens drama-dokumentary Tango, filmed in Uruguay and Copenhagen for Dansk Novellefilm (1996) - as editor on a number of productions from Filmværkstedet: Gangway i Tyrol (1986), Next stop, Sovjet (1990), Instant Karma (1991), Museum Europa (1993) and at Statens Filmcentral: The Misfits (Lars Movin, 1993) and Billeder til Tiden (Dola Bonfils, 1994).

Torben has been contracted instructor/producer for a number of projects:

Commercials for Lyre & Valbo Special (1995/96) Nordisk Film Commercial (1994) Bellevue Teateret (1995), Museum Erotica (1995) - Behind the scene-productions for ASA film/DR (1996-97), informational productions for Statens Filmcentral (1992), Arbejdsmiljøfonden (1993) Socialministeriet (1996) and latest as director of the travelmagazine "Jensen Rejser" (5 programs for TV2, Danmark 1997) and the series Rejsekammerater, with Erik Clausen and Niels Hausgaard (6 programs for TV2, Danmark 1998).