
Directing
Thomas Østbye
Known for
Directing
Credits
21 titles
Thomas A. Østbye is a distinctive voice among Norwegian directors. He’s known to combine artistic reflections on the documentary genre with contemporary political dilemmas. He made his mark with formally challenging documentaries like Imagining Emanuel, HUMAN, and In your dreams, which received a dozen art and film awards, bought by the Arts Council Norway, and screened at venues ranging from the National Broadcasting to the Museum of Modern Art NY. Østbye also makes art installations, photography, interactive film, and runs the production company PlymSerafin.
Known for
NRCivil Disobedience takes you along when three generations of activists from Extinction Rebellion and Just Stopp Oil change their tactics from actions against jet fuel to roadblocks and “attacks” on famous artworks and sports events. This observational documentary invites you behind the scenes of direct actions, and emotional and strategic reconsiderations. It gives you insight into the motivation of the actions as activists are prosecuted and taken to court. When the police move in, the filmmaker himself is arrested while cameras are rolling. An intense and empathic depiction of the here-and-now of the activists, the film also offers a larger perspective: What drives ordinary people into using civil disobedience and taking on the state and corporate powers to fight the climate emergency?
Civil Disobedience
2023
NREmanuel's identity is unknown, and his life has been put on hold for eight years. He claims to be from Liberia, but the Norwegian authorities believes he's from Ghana. He can't be returned to a country he's not registered in.
Imagining Emanuel
2011
NRThe country is locked down during the corona pandemic and a lonely woman fantasizes about a brand new neighbor she has not yet met.
Ein nabo
2020
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Sivil Ulydighet
2023
Two ladies in a room: A casting agent and an actress. This hybrid documentary deals with empathy, acting and authenticity. Marie starts: When I enter into a role, I imagining that every individual has a core, with the same potential emotional life.
Take #2
2012
NRThings is an attempt to approach the world without filling it up with preconceived ideas and purposes. An attempt to film things, without reducing them into mere means to build a story or statement. Things is on one hand a series of seemingly objective recordings without subject or superstructure, on the other hand it is Østbye’s most intimate and personal work, with no official theme or story to hide behind.
Ting
2017
Behind the camera
NRCivil Disobedience takes you along when three generations of activists from Extinction Rebellion and Just Stopp Oil change their tactics from actions against jet fuel to roadblocks and “attacks” on famous artworks and sports events. This observational documentary invites you behind the scenes of direct actions, and emotional and strategic reconsiderations. It gives you insight into the motivation of the actions as activists are prosecuted and taken to court. When the police move in, the filmmaker himself is arrested while cameras are rolling. An intense and empathic depiction of the here-and-now of the activists, the film also offers a larger perspective: What drives ordinary people into using civil disobedience and taking on the state and corporate powers to fight the climate emergency?
Civil Disobedience
2023
NRCivil Disobedience takes you along when three generations of activists from Extinction Rebellion and Just Stopp Oil change their tactics from actions against jet fuel to roadblocks and “attacks” on famous artworks and sports events. This observational documentary invites you behind the scenes of direct actions, and emotional and strategic reconsiderations. It gives you insight into the motivation of the actions as activists are prosecuted and taken to court. When the police move in, the filmmaker himself is arrested while cameras are rolling. An intense and empathic depiction of the here-and-now of the activists, the film also offers a larger perspective: What drives ordinary people into using civil disobedience and taking on the state and corporate powers to fight the climate emergency?
Civil Disobedience
2023
NREmanuel's identity is unknown, and his life has been put on hold for eight years. He claims to be from Liberia, but the Norwegian authorities believes he's from Ghana. He can't be returned to a country he's not registered in.
Imagining Emanuel
2011
NREmanuel's identity is unknown, and his life has been put on hold for eight years. He claims to be from Liberia, but the Norwegian authorities believes he's from Ghana. He can't be returned to a country he's not registered in.
Imagining Emanuel
2011
NREmanuel's identity is unknown, and his life has been put on hold for eight years. He claims to be from Liberia, but the Norwegian authorities believes he's from Ghana. He can't be returned to a country he's not registered in.
Imagining Emanuel
2011
NRThe country is locked down during the corona pandemic and a lonely woman fantasizes about a brand new neighbor she has not yet met.
Ein nabo
2020
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Sivil Ulydighet
2023
Two ladies in a room: A casting agent and an actress. This hybrid documentary deals with empathy, acting and authenticity. Marie starts: When I enter into a role, I imagining that every individual has a core, with the same potential emotional life.
Take #2
2012
NRThings is an attempt to approach the world without filling it up with preconceived ideas and purposes. An attempt to film things, without reducing them into mere means to build a story or statement. Things is on one hand a series of seemingly objective recordings without subject or superstructure, on the other hand it is Østbye’s most intimate and personal work, with no official theme or story to hide behind.
Ting
2017
NRDirect Cinema study of the first Norwegian Climate Lawsuit and the hard hitting Supreme Court ruling. In this case environmental organizations sued the Norwegian state over petroleum licensing in the Barents sea.
The Play of Everyman
2021
NRDirect Cinema study of the first Norwegian Climate Lawsuit and the hard hitting Supreme Court ruling. In this case environmental organizations sued the Norwegian state over petroleum licensing in the Barents sea.
The Play of Everyman
2021
6 Conceptions of Freedom is a study of Alexander Kiellands plass in Oslo, looking at the social and physical frames of imagination. Its a documentary that explores loneliness and powerlessness in our ideal of freedom. Is freedom a question of uncertainty or happiness, action or condition?
6 Conceptions of Freedom
2006
6 Conceptions of Freedom is a study of Alexander Kiellands plass in Oslo, looking at the social and physical frames of imagination. Its a documentary that explores loneliness and powerlessness in our ideal of freedom. Is freedom a question of uncertainty or happiness, action or condition?
6 Conceptions of Freedom
2006
6 Conceptions of Freedom is a study of Alexander Kiellands plass in Oslo, looking at the social and physical frames of imagination. Its a documentary that explores loneliness and powerlessness in our ideal of freedom. Is freedom a question of uncertainty or happiness, action or condition?
6 Conceptions of Freedom
2006
NRIn 'Out of Norway' Emanuel (from Imagining Emanuel 2011) is refused to travel from Norway back to Liberia. So now he must flee again - in the other direction! Follow his video diary, and you will see that it is not as simple as it seems.
Out of Norway
2014
NRIn 'Out of Norway' Emanuel (from Imagining Emanuel 2011) is refused to travel from Norway back to Liberia. So now he must flee again - in the other direction! Follow his video diary, and you will see that it is not as simple as it seems.
Out of Norway
2014
NRIn 'Out of Norway' Emanuel (from Imagining Emanuel 2011) is refused to travel from Norway back to Liberia. So now he must flee again - in the other direction! Follow his video diary, and you will see that it is not as simple as it seems.
Out of Norway
2014
Documenting a phone call to the "Norwegian directorate of immigration", this film is about a group of asylum seekers that have been six years in Norway without basic human rights.
In Your Dreams
2005
Documenting a phone call to the "Norwegian directorate of immigration", this film is about a group of asylum seekers that have been six years in Norway without basic human rights.
In Your Dreams
2005
NRThe documentary film HUMAN study what’s human – out of context. Without familiar purposes and surroundings, the film plays our labeling instinct against the factual meeting with another person. How close can we get to another human before it gets inhuman, – or maybe too human?
Human
2009
NRThe documentary film HUMAN study what’s human – out of context. Without familiar purposes and surroundings, the film plays our labeling instinct against the factual meeting with another person. How close can we get to another human before it gets inhuman, – or maybe too human?
Human
2009
