Regarding Magasinet Filter’s Defamatory Article

Kärlek Med Förhinder [Love With Obstacles]

On November 19th, 2018, Sweden’s premiere culture journal Magasinet Filter, published a 12-page print feature Kärlek Med Förhinder [Love With Obstacles] about the making of the American documentary film, I’ll Be Gone.

Trouble is, the subjects of the story were sent a different article to fact-check on November 2nd, 2018 than Magasinet Filter sent to the printer thee days later.

This page is a public record of what transpired when the subjects of Kärlek Med Förhinder (including two American filmmakers and a Swedish rockstar) realized they had been defamed by the magazine nearly a year after the piece was published.

Conflict Timeline

Friday sept 20, 2019

American filmmakers Amelia Trask and Sasha Hecht realize a different version of Kärlek Med Förhinder was printed on Monday Nov 5th, 2018 than was sent to them for fact-check on Friday, Nov 2nd, 2018.

Trask and Hecht contact Rasmus Hansen, a secondary subject of the article and Gothenburg-based label owner. Hansen informs Trask and Hecht that he was also not aware of the two articles existence.

Saturday sept 21, 2019

Trask and Hecht contact Henrik Berggren, the other primary subject of the article, and he informs them that he was also not aware of the two articles existence.

Sunday sept 22, 2019

Trask and Hecht post side-by-side comparisons of the two articles on their film’s Instagram account.

Trask and Hecht are contacted by Magasinet Filter staff writer and author of Kärlek Med Förhinder, Oskar Sonn Lindell.

Trask and Hecht prepare a public statement.

Monday sept 23, 2019

Trask and Hecht post a public statement to Magasinet Filter with side-by-side infographic comparing the content of both versions of the story:

On Friday, September 20th, 2019, it came to our attention that the article Kärlek Med Förhinder (published by Magasinet Filter digitally November 19th, 2018 and physically in the December ’18/January ’19 print issue in Sweden) is not the same article that was sent to us (Amelia Trask and Sasha Hecht) and domestically-renowned Swedish musician Henrik Berggren for fact-checking on Friday, November 2nd, 2018. Not only is the published version not structurally reflective of writer Oskar Sonn Lindell’s submitted work, it is factually inaccurate and defamatory in its historical inaccuracies.

The article’s author, Oskar Sonn Lindell, was granted access by us to follow our New York-based production through the making of I’ll Be Gone from our first test shoot in Sweden in fall 2015 until fall 2018, at which point Oskar Sonn Lindell wrote the article. On Friday, November 2nd, 2018, three days before the article went to go to print, a final draft was sent to everyone quoted in the article for fact-checking.

On Sunday, November 4th 2018, the day before the article went to print, Oskar Sonn Lindell informed us that “our publisher deemed some parts of the article unfit to publish, so we had to cut some of them and re-phrase some things.”

Considering Filter’s prestigious journalistic reputation in Sweden, we and the other main subjects had no reason to suspect that the article would be fundamentally altered, and so we did not read the final piece until September 20th, 2019.

Below you will find the printed version side by side with the original final version (translated to English and original Swedish) of Kärlek Med Förhinder as written and submitted by Oskar Sonn Lindell, approved by his editor, and factually substantiated by Filter’s unredacted access to four years worth of our production’s internal materials including emails, memos, contracts, interviews, and recordings of in-person and phone meetings with Ebba Lindqvist (PR), Joel Borg (Woah Dad Live), Pontus Sillrén (United Stage), Klas Lunding (Telegram/Woah Dad), and Anders Larsson (United Stage), among others.

Why would a nationally-acclaimed, award-winning publication like Magasinet Filter change an article from being demonstrably true to demonstrably false the day before it goes to print? Why would you publish statements that are easily disproven by evidence in your possession, thereby opening yourselves up to legal action?

|wednesday sept 25, 2019

Trask emails Mattias Göransson, Magasinet Filter Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, asking for source clarification.

The email is forwarded from Trask’s original communication thread with Göransson from October 24th, 2015 in which Göransson pitches his initial idea for his magazine’s article to Trask and introduces Oskar Sonn Lindell to the American documentary production.

Göransson does not respond.

Thursday sept 26, 2019

Trask follows-up with Göransson.

friday sept 27, 2019

Göransson replies Trask.

Trask replies Göransson.

Göransson does not reply further.

Trask and Hecht then post an example of their internal production documents in the possession of Magasinet Filter. The following transcript is a phone call between Trask, Hecht and a representative of United Stage.

The transcript was posted to @illbegonefilm Instagram with the following public message:

While on-location in Sweden for production in 2016, filmmakers Amelia Trask and Sasha Hecht learned of a #MeToo movement organizing in Sweden. The objective of its organizing members was to inform the Swedish public of alleged sexual abuse committed by members of the domestic Swedish music industry including, but not limited, to Isse Samie of Woah Dad.

Simultaneous to this, Henrik Berggren informed Trask and Hecht that his then-management, United Stage, was considering Woah Dad to release his forthcoming album ‘Wolf’s Heart’ in Scandinavia.

On August 13th, 2016, Trask and Hecht met Berggren’s then-manager and publicist Ebba Lindqvist and presented the necessity of an NDA before disclosing their protected source material. Lindqvist refused.

Shortly thereafter, Lindqvist introduced Trask and Hecht to Untied Stage owner Anders Larsson.

On August 8th, 2016, Larsson traveled from Stockholm to Gothenburg to meet Trask and Hecht. During the meeting Larsson refused to sign NDA but later disclosed similar knowledge of sexual misconduct. Larsson assured filmmakers that his company would protect Berggren. Filmmakers and Larsson agreed to communicate in good faith.

On November 9th, 2016, a United Stage representative called the filmmakers in Brooklyn, NY with the intent to procure information from the foreign journalists in order to strengthen United Stage’s position in then-ongoing record negations of Berggren’s ‘Wolf's Heart’ with the Woah Dad trademark, Telegram Studios Ltd, and Warner Music Scandinavia AB.

Throughout the making of ‘I’ll Be Gone,’ filmmakers Amelia Trask and Sasha Hecht appropriately identified themselves as foreign journalists, clearly articulated their intentions, and maintained ethical and professional boundaries throughout their time in Sweden.

If Mattias Göransson, the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Magasinet Filter, could not reasonably edit a version of Kärlek Med Förhinder, assigned to staff writer Oskar Sonn Lindell by Göransson, why, then, did Göransson publish the article in any form?

Everything is documented.

Please advise.

SUNDAY SEPT 29, 2019

Sasha Hecht publishes a public counter-narrative regarding Magasinet Filter’s Defamatory Article, Kärlek Med Förhinder.

MONDAY SEPT 30, 2019

Göransson emails Trask and identifies Christopher Friman as the responsible Editor-in-Chief of Magasinet Filter for the published version of Kärlek Med Förhinder.

Shortly thereafter, Friman emails Trask and confirms he is the responsible Editor.

Friman also takes responsibility for the historically inaccurate information by exonerating Isse Samie and Klas Lunding.

Trask replies Friman and Göransson.

Friman and Göransson do not reply.

[Conflict on-going while filmmakers and other subjects of article explore legal options]

*Clarifications:

I’ll Be Gone documentary film is in no way affected by the filmmakers’ active conflict with Magasinet Filter.

I’ll Be Gone documentary film is currently showing at festivals and private screenings until distribution is chosen.