Dwight in Denmark Documentary

I'm in love with this story!

I'm Cris Anderson, a filmmaker in Minneapolis.

I was asked to produce this documentary, Dwight in Denmark, on the amazing story of Danish-American fiddler and accordionist Dwight Lamb who plays tunes learned from his father and grandfather that went extinct in Denmark. We accompanied Dwight, his fellow musician Bill Peterson, and the stellar Danish folk musicians Mette Kathrine Jensen Staerk and Kristian Bugge on a music tour in Denmark. He accompanied and performed with Bugge and Staerk at venues small and large for 7 days. We went along and documented this modest hero's return as part of our documentary, Dwight in Denmark.

To date, the show has been accepted into two festivals and Iowa Public Television has expressed interest in a television broadcast. Here is the complete list of screenings:

June 2023, Museum of Danish America, Elkhorn, IA

June 2023, International Federation on Ageing Conference, Bangkok, Thailand

October 7, 2023, Canton Performing Arts Center, Canton, SD

November 2, 2023, American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Portland, OR

March 2024, American Documentary and Animation Film Festival, Palm Springs, CA

March 2024, Ethnografilm Film Festival, Paris, France

Funding for this project has come from you, dear people, on this GoFundMe page. Additional funding has come from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and the Museum of Danish America.

Along the way, we were honored to produce a video vignette on Dwight for the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts which represents the project really well. Dwight received a 2017 NEA National Heritage Fellowship.

We're in love with this story of music, dance, heritage, mentoring, romance and community cohesion. This is about Danish-Americans, and also about the experience of many immigrants and colliding cultures, with its ironies, pain, joys, and search for belonging and meaning. We are holding off making the show available online until it is seen at the festivals and on public television.

All funds raised for this project will be used to cover expenses of producing the show and getting it to audiences.

We are so grateful for your support to help bring this amazing story to audiences. Thank you for being part of this! We still have expenses planned to make a digital cinema project file for use in the festivals, and for errors and omissions insurance for the Iowa public TV broadcast. Your participation is welcome! If you are in the U.S. and would like an acknowledgement that you can use to deduct your charitable contribution from taxes, you can contribute through our 501(c)3 fiscal agent, Kairos Alive! at 4524 Beard Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55410. Please write "Dwight Lamb" in the memo on your check. Thank you!

If you haven't seen VISIBLE TARGET (link below), another story about community cohesion – regrettably, it is still relevant.

More info about my work:

Journalist and filmmaker Cristopher Anderson (http://goodstory.us/) received national awards for his PBS documentary with John de Graaf and KCTS/Seattle, VISIBLE TARGET (https://vimeo.com/196028052/66d61ee86b), and is associated with the documentaries, BUILDING A DREAM (scriptwriter–http://redeyevideo.org/Stave.html) and the award-winning JOURNEYMAN (story consultant – http://www.mirrormanfilms.org/). He plays folk fiddle on the American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag CD, LOVE IS HARD TO HIDE, and at local Minneapolis jams. He serves as a Teaching Artist with Kairos Alive! (https://kairosalive.org/), whose work was featured in the PBS documentary, ARTS AND THE MIND.

VIEW DOCUMENTARY, VISIBLE TARGET (28:00): https://vimeo.com/196028052