Ester Martin Bergsmark (born 1982) is a Swedish movie director and screenwriter of the documentaries ''Maggie in Wonderland'' and ''She Male Snails''. Bergsmark's first fiction feature '' Something Must Break'' (2014) has been shown in more than fifty film festivals. The film has won ten awards, including the Tiger Award, 43rd Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award in Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival or Best Film and Best Performance for

Saga Becker Saga Becker (born 1988) is a Swedish actress. Becker is known for her performance as Sebastian in ''Something Must Break'' (2014) for which she was nominated for a Rising Star Award at the Stockholm Film Festival in 2014 and won a Guldbagge Awar ...

in the Lisbon International Queer Film Festival.

Biography

Bergsmark was born in 1982, in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden. They studied documentary filmmaking a
Biskops Arnö Nordens Folkhögskola
and were also trained at the Swedish University College of Arts Crafts and Design. Together with Swedish director Mark Hammarberg, Bergsmark directed the short film ''Svälj'' (2006) and the documentary ''Maggie in Wonderland'' (Swedish: ''Maggie Vaknar på Balkongen'') (2008). In Maggie in Wonderland they worked together with Maggie Beatrice "Maggie" Andersson and also participated in ''Svälj''. ''Maggie in Wonderland'' was rewarded with a

Guldbagge Award The Guldbagge Awards (, ) is an official and annual Sweden, Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a Cetonia aurata, rose chafer, better known by the name Guldbagg ...

for best documentary the same year as it was released. In 2009, Bergsmark took part in a feminist project in which several directors and artists directed twelve short movies for a collection called ''

Dirty Diaries ''Dirty Diaries'' is a 2009 collection of thirteen short films of feminist pornography made by Swedish activists and artists and produced by Mia Engberg. The individual films are highly diverse in content, although many of them feature humour and ...

''. The collection was made with the aim of rethinking pornography; Bergsmark's segment is called ''Fruitcake''. 2009 was also the year in which Bergsmark got the legal right to change their first name to Ester. Before it had not been possible as the previous name law in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

had denied people from adding or changing their name to one from another legal

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

. Bergsmark received another

nomination for best documentary 2012 for the movie ''She Male Snails''. The movie was made in collaboration with Swedish author Eli Levén. Bergsmark and Levén had previously been in a relationship that ended a couple of months before the filming of ''She Male Snails'' begun. The movie protests against the binary gender system that consists of women and men and begins with Bergsmark talking about the first time they saw Levén as a teenager and the fact that Levén dared being something beyond boy or girl. In interviews Bergsmark has said that while not wanting to live as a woman they consider themself a

trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Sociology * Trans, a sociological term which may refer to: ** Transgender, people who identify themselves with a gender that di ...

person and find security in not having to have a static gender identity. The movie is a mix of documentary and fiction and received financial support for feature movies. In the fall of 2011 Bergsmark and Levén moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and worked together in a mutual office on the manuscript to Bergsmark's film ''Something Must Break''. The film opened the

Gothenburg Film Festival Göteborg Film Festival (GFF), formerly Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF), known in English as the Gothenburg Film Festival, formerly Gothenburg International Film Festival, is an annual film festival in Gothenburg, Sweden and the large ...

2014 and was nominated for a Dragon Award for Best Nordic picture. The movie is based on a book by Levén (Swedish title: ''Du är rötterna som sover vid mina fötter och håller jorden på plats''). Just like ''She Male Snails'' ''Something Must Break'' deals with the topic of belonging somewhere in between what is considered being male and what is considered being female. It also circles around young love and beginning to accept yourself. 2014 Bergsmark received the Mai Zetterling-scholarship, a scholarship for movie directors working with short movies or documentaries. The scholarship was handed out at the

on the January 24 that year.

Filmography

*2006 – ''Svälj'' *2008 – ''Maggie in Wonderland'' ''(Original Title in Swedish: Maggie Vaknar på Balkongen'' *2009 – ''

'' (Fragment: ''Fruitcake'') *2012 – ''She Male Snails'' ''(Original Title in Swedish: Pojktanten)'' *2014 – '' Something Must Break'' ''(Original Title in Swedish: Nånting Måste Gå Sönder)'' *2018 – Swedish Candy, Some Violence and a Bit Of Cat

Prizes and awards

for best documentary �
''Maggie in Wonderland''Tempo Documentary Festival
honorable mention * The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography honorable mention – ''Pojktanten''

''Something must break''

* Tiger Award, 43rd Rotterdam International Film Festival * Mai Zetterling Grant (Ester Martin Bergsmark), 37th Gothenburg Film Festival * Frameline38 Wells Fargo First Feature Award, Frameline38 – San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival * Grand Jury Award, International features, 2014 Outfest LA * Best Feature Film and Best Performance (Saga Becker), Lisbon International Queer Film Festival 18 * Silver Hugo Q Award, Chicago Film Festival 2014 * Jury Prize, 25th Hamburg Queer Filmfestival * Sunny Bunny Winner, Molodist- 45th Kyiv International Film Festival * Best Film, 15th Mezipatra Queer Film Festival (Prague) * Best Feature, Side by side LGBT International Film Festival (St Petersburg) * Ocaña Award-Best LGTBI Film,

Seville European Film Festival The Seville European Film Festival (SEFF; ) is an annual film festival dedicated to European cinema held in November in Seville, Spain, since 2004. History The festival is an initiative of the Instituto de la Cultura y las Artes de Sevilla ( ...

2014

References

External links

*
Article in a Swedish Newspaper about ''She Male SnailsEster Martin Bergsmark
at the

Swedish Film Database The Swedish Film Database () is an Internet database about Swedish films, published by the Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute () (SFI) is a statutory body located in Stockholm, Sweden that supports the Swedish film industry. Fo ...

Article in Swedish about ''Something Must Break''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergsmark, Ester Martin 1982 births Living people Writers from Stockholm Swedish film directors Swedish women screenwriters Transgender screenwriters Transgender women writers Swedish transgender women Swedish LGBTQ screenwriters