Editor Janus Billeskov Jansen has cut some of the most original documentaries of the last ten years. Yance Ford’s Strong Island chronicles the personal hunt for a Black man’s killer in the early 1990s, and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing is one of the most striking documentaries ever put on film.

Editor Janus Billeskov Jansen has worked on several high-profile projects in the past, including multiple collaborations with Thomas Vinterberg, most recently last year’s Oscar-winning film Another Round.

Adds Flee editor Janus Billeskov Jansen, “All the time we were guided by the truth, which was Amin’s recording. It’s a subjective truth because he is holding back things or trying not to remember, but the recording is the truth as Amin saw it.”

“There was a back and forth between storyboarding and editing because we had an editor that came from live action,” explained Nicholls. Editor Janus Billeskov Jansen, a close collaborator of director Thomas Vinterberg on “The Hunt” and the Oscar-winning “Another Round,” requested changes to the storyboards once the team had already finished them.

Janus Billeskov Jansen, editor of 'Flee' (also 'Another Round' & 'The Hunt') discusses his work on the award-winning animated documentary. Moderated by ACE Eddie nominee editor Nels Bangerter ('Dick Johnson is Dead').

When Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s film Flee was listed as one of the films selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2020 (which ended up being cancelled), very few were paying attention to it, and when it finally premiered at Sundance earlier this year, it probably also didn’t have quite the expectations of other films.

Adds Flee editor Janus Billeskov Jansen, “All the time we were guided by the truth, which was Amin’s recording. It’s a subjective truth because he is holding back things or trying not to remember, but the recording is the truth as Amin saw it.”

On this episode, we welcome Janus Billeskov Jansen, editor of Flee.

Gordon sits down with editor Janus Billeskov Jansen to discuss editing the groundbreaking documentary Flee.

His most recent effort was on the 2021 Danish submission for Best International Feature, "Flee" (which is also contending for Best Documentary and Best Animated Feature Film).

FLEE editor, Janus Jansen began his filmmaking journey when he first stepped into an editing room on Monday, February 5th 1970.

Flee editor Janus Billeskov Jansen was Eddie nominated, and called the honor the “top of my career of 50 years in an editing room.” The film is Oscar nominated for Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature, yet relegating editing to a pre-taped segment strikes him as wrong. “Would it be fair to say that that is rude?” Jansen said. “You wouldn’t have any film without the editors, would you?”

Flee, an animated feature film by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, is about a man (Amir) recounting his experience being forced to flee Afghanistan while also struggling with his sexuality. The film is a fascinating and poignant work that fuses documentary, animation, and archival footage over very distinct segments that shift between Amir’s present as he recounts his story to a friend and the recreation of Amir’s past experiences.