False Belief

Forum Expanded 2019

False Belief is the love story of a couple caught up in the gentrification of a neighborhood that is wiping out a seminal African-American cultural legacy and displacing its original residents. In 2008 Norwegian artist and filmmaker Lene Berg moved in with her partner, a Black New York publisher, who will be referred to as D. After giving a statement to the police about being harassed by his neighbor in Harlem, D. was arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned. But for what exactly? His arrest initiated a journey over the course of which D.’s faith in the American justice system put everything he cherished in life at risk.
Berg attempts to untangle the circumstances around the criminal case through D.’s candid storytelling accompanied by her own narration, driven by collaged images, court documents, and still and moving images. By scrutinizing what at first seems to be an isolated minor case, False Belief uncovers the larger picture of a corrupt justice system that employs incarceration as a political and economic weapon.

by Lene Berg
with D. Norway 2019 English 105’ Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

Crew

Written and Directed by	Lene Berg
Editing	Zayne Armstrong
Sound Design	Swenn J Jakobson
Narrator	Lene Berg
Assistant Director	Mikael Brkic
Producers	Lene Berg, Ingebjørg Torgersen

Produced by

FABB001

Photos

Lene Berg

Lene Berg, born in Oslo, Norway in 1965, studied film at the Dramatiska Institutet (University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theater) in Stockholm. In 1997 she directed the feature film En Kvinnas Huvud (A Woman’s Head) and has since produced mixed-media artworks and installations for galleries, museums, and public spaces as well as a number of short films and two more feature-length films.

Filmography

1990 7 (Sju); 26 min. 1991 Doft av Lycka (Scent of Happiness); 26 min. 1997 En Kvinnas Huvud (A Woman's Head); 110 min. 1999 33 minuter (33 minutes); 33 min. 2006 The Man in the Background (Mannen i Bakgrunnen); 20 min. 2007 The Weimar Conspiracy; 13 min. 2008 Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache; 30 min. 2010 Shaving the Baroness; 7 min. 2012 Kopfkino; 75 min. 2013 Dirty Young Loose (Ung Løs Gris); 32 min. 2014 Gompen og andre beretninger om overvåking i Norge 1948 - 1989 (GOMP: Tales of surveillance in Norway 1948-1989); 84 min. 2019 False Belief

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019