documentary

I’ll Be Gone

Type: Documentary | Run time: 98 min | Language: English, Swedish

Director: Amelia Trask | Producer: Sasha Hecht

Project Background

I’ll Be Gone was initially conceived in the fall of 2014 when Brooklyn-based filmmakers Amelia Trask (Director/Writer/Editor) and Sasha Hecht (Producer/Writer/Editor) first heard the story of Broder Daniel from Rasmus Hansén (owner of Luxury Records) and Gustav Andersson (then-member of Makthaverskan). Trask and Hecht began developing the concept for I’ll Be Gone, and in March of 2015 made contact with the film’s primary subject, Henrik Berggren (former frontman of Broder Daniel). At the time, Berggren had been diagnosed with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome a few years earlier and was living in isolation on the outskirts of his hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. The filmmakers began conducting weekly phone interviews with Berggren and in October of 2015, the filmmakers traveled to Gothenburg for a 3-day test shoot with Berggren.

The following June of 2016, Trask and Hecht relocated to Sweden for three months and completed the first production of I’ll Be Gone in September 2016. The duo returned to Sweden in February of 2017 and wrapped production on March 3, 2017. Shortly thereafter, the filmmakers became embroiled in a licensing dispute with Berggren’s then-management and label, which was not resolved until May 2017 and resulted in the loss of the production’s financiers and executive team.

In July 2017, Associate Producer Tobias Bauer (member of Agent blå) relocated to Brooklyn for a month to assist in the processing of the film’s footage and logistical infrastructure. Following Bauer’s departure, Trask and Hecht began teaching themselves film editing software and edited the film in a make-sift editing suite at home. In July 2018 Trask and Hecht completed the pictured-lock cut of I’ll Be Gone.

Still in need of financing for post-production, Trask and Hecht launched a Kickstarter campaign in October of 2018. The campaign failed to raise the funds, however, a few days before the end of the campaign, an investor signed on to finance post-production. The film was finished at Cut & Measure in Red Hook, Brooklyn on January 15th, 2019.

Two weeks later, Trask and Hecht returned to Sweden and premiered I’ll Be Gone at Göteborg International Film Festival on January 29th, 2019 to a sold-out crowd at the historic Draken Theater. Following the premiere, the filmmakers were honored at an afterparty at Auktionsverket Kulturarena with a performance by Agent Blå and a gallery showing of Martin Norberg’s photography which spanned the entirety of Broder Daniel’s career as well as behind-the-scenes of the production of I’ll Be Gone.

On September 14th, 2019 I'll Be Gone saw its US premiere at Basilica Soundscape in Hudson, NY. Two weeks later the film had its New York City premiere at Ludlow House on October 3rd, 2019.

A few days prior to the Ludlow House screening, Trask and Hecht discovered that a Swedish culture journal with whom they had been collaborating to expose domestic corruption had compromised all of the filmmakers’ Swedish sources. In response, Trask and Hecht launched illbegonefilm.com.

I’ll Be Gone is currently being re-written and re-edited, and will resume screening in 2021.