We’re really excited to have the chance to look back with filmmaker Marcus Lindeen at his first film in an ongoing trilogy of studio-based documentaries, Regretters, on the occasion of the second film in the series, The Raft’s,  release at Metrograph on June 7. Almost a decade after Regretters premiered, we are curious to look back on this raw conversation between Lindeen’s subjects Mikael and Orlando to think about the evolving public discourse around gender identity and representation in this passing time. How do the limitations of the gender binary influence these characters and in this time that has passed what has changed dramatically and what hasn’t? The necessity of a more complicated dialogue has clearly emerged, one that looks past the binary and welcomes a more complex fluidity that is intimated in this dialogue. Join us for this conversation and to discuss the studio-based methodology used in the film with director Marcus Lindeen. We’re thrilled he’ll be joined by Pejk Malinovski following for conversation after the film.

At centre stage sit Mikael and Orlando. Both men, now well into their 60s, share a common bond—they were men who became women and decided to change back. In this raw and candid tête-à-tête, Mikael and Orlando explore their pasts and trade war stories of their individual journeys through gender reassignment and back again. Mikael, deciding to become a woman later in life, was immediately hit with a wave of regret post-surgery and now longs to feel “whole” again. The flamboyant Orlando, one of Sweden’s first cases of gender reassignment, chooses not to live as a woman anymore, but is comfortable with the fluidity of his somewhat undefined current gender.Regretters offers a rare and penetrating look at a subject seldom talked about. Marcus Lindeen’s minimalistic staging allows for Mikael and Orlando’s compelling stories and insightful reflections to jump off the screen into our hearts and minds.

PRIZES
Best Documentary, Guldbaggen (Swedish Academy Awards), 2011, Stockholm
Best Documentary, Kristallen (Swedish TV Awards), 2011, Stockholm
Best Documentary, Prix Europa 2010, Berlin
Best Documentary, Krakow International Film Festival, 2011
Best Documentary, Tel Aviv Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2011
Best Documentary, Identities Queer Film Festival 2011, Vienna
Best Documentary, Barcelona Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2011, Spain
Best Documentary, Side by Side Film Festival 2011, St Petersburg, Russia
Best Documentary, Queer Lisboa 2010, Portugal
The Jury Prize at Hamburg Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2010, Germany

FESTIVAL HISTORY 2010/2011
Documentary Fortnight at The Museum of Modern Art, New York / Silverdocs Film Festival,
Washington, DC / Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Durham, NC / Hot Docs
Documentary Film Festival, Toronto / Inside Out LGBT Film Festival, Toronto / London
Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, London / Tokyo Gay & Lesbian Film Festival / Expresion en
Corto, Mexico City / GAZE Film Festival, Dublin / Krakow Int. Film Festival / Tel Aviv Gay &
Lesbian Film Festival / Liverpool Pride Festival / Athens Int. Film Festival / Queer Lisboa Film
Festival / Nordisk Panorama, Bergen / DokLeipzig / Hamburg Int. Queer Film Festival /
Nordic Film Days, Lübeck / CPH:DOX, Copenhagen / RIDM, Montreal Int. Documentary
Festival / Gothenburg Int. Film Festival / Vinokino Film Festival, Helsinki / Chicago
Filmmakers / Boulder Int. Film Festival / Tempo Documentary Film Festival, Stockholm /
Göteborg Int. Film Festival

Marcus Lindeen is a writer and director. He made his debut with documentary feature Regretters, which won the prestigious Prix Europa for Best European Documentary in Berlin, the Swedish Academy Awards (Guldbagge) and the Swedish Emmy for Best Documentary in 2011. His second film was fiction feature, Glorious Accidents, that premiered at The Venice Film Festival, winning the prize for Best Medium-Length film. Lindeen’s theatre work has been produced and presented at Sweden’s National Theatre (Dramaten), The National Theatre in Oslo and The Schaubühne in Berlin. His latest short film Dear Director picked up a prize when it premiered at The Locarno Film Festival in 2015. In January 2017 he exhibited the art installation The Acali Experiment at Centre Pompidou in Paris. The installation was also presented as part of the CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen, where his feature documentary film The Raft premiered in 2018 and won the main of the festival. Since then, the film screened in festivals like IDFA, BFI London, Sao Paolo, Zürich, Melbourne, and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The film also won the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Pejk Malinovski went to a Marxist kindergarten in his hometown of Copenhagen. He is a poet, translator and radio producer. His radio dramas, conceptual documentaries and sound art pieces have aired on radio stations around the world and been shown in museums and galleries. In 2012 he launched Passing Stranger, an audio walking tour of the East Village’s poetry history. He was also the co-creator and host of Thirdear, an online audio magazine and he continues to edit and translate books for Forlaget Basilisk a poet-run publishing house in Copenhagen.