EXCITING NEWS: New Film About Danes in the USA

A Danish journalist and his American wife are making a documentary about Danes in the United States. The film explores the challenges immigrants face, as they learn to exist between old and new worlds, between the past and the future.

Kim and Rosy Aronson have been laying the foundation for this film since 2011, when Kim first launched Danes.TV, the first and only film-focused website devoted entirely to the Danish experience in America. Now the pair has begun production on a full-length documentary film, called “To Be or Not To Be… (an American)”.

This film was catalyzed by the Danish Parliament’s recent decision (December, 2014) to allow for dual citizenship. This new law will impact all Danes abroad, its largest group living in the U.S.A.

“Now for the first time in over a hundred years, tens of thousands of Danes in the U.S. are considering whether to become American citizens,” says Kim Aronson, who has been living in Berkeley, California with his wife Rosy, an artist and writer, since 1999.

Wrestling with his own decision to apply for American citizenship, Kim embarks on a soul-searching journey to connect with other members of the Danish tribe who are also searching for happiness, identity and cultural belonging in a country far away from home.

This film seeks answers to questions like:

* Why on earth would the ‘happiest people in the world’ choose to become American citizens?

* Does carrying an American passport mean abandoning one’s friends, family and country?

* Does being an American citizen add to or subtract from one’s Danish identity?

* Does having dual citizenship dilute or expand one’s sense of belonging?

* Does one need to be a citizen to identify with a country and its culture — Danish or American?

* What are some of the unknown consequences and responsibilities that come with being an American citizen?

* Does having American citizenship mean that you are an American?, and…

* Why does such a seemingly simple decision feel like such a big deal?!

“To Be or Not To Be… (an American)” is the first full-length documentary film to tell the story of modern Danes and their life in the U.S. Danes that move to the U.S. today experience an entirely different, multicultural society than the one experienced by the early Danish immigrants who came to the U.S. 100 years ago. Still, these modern immigrants have one thing in common with their ancestors; a deep desire to maintain their Danish culture, customs and connection.

“Like so many of the immigrants living in Denmark experience, we Danes in the U.S. feel torn between our ‘old’ culture and our new American life. We want to find ways to keep our Danish identity, culture and traditions alive and intact, while integrating ourselves into the society we’ re actually living in,” explains Kim Aronson.

“With our film, I hope we can tell the story of modern Danes living in the U.S., as well as to inspire Danes in Denmark to receive their own immigrants with the kind of respect and acceptance many of us have experienced here,” he continues.

Today there are over 100,000 first generation Danish immigrants living in the U.S. and approximately 1,500,000 Danish-Americans who can trace their ancestral roots directly back to Denmark.

The Danish law on dual citizenship will go into effect on September 1st, 2015. The Aronsons began a new Kickstarter Campaign to help fund the film on March 16th, 2015 and the Kickstarter campaign runs until April 22, 2015. They intend to complete the film by April, 2016. The film will be a full-length documentary (90 minutes), and will appeal to both Danes living abroad, and Danes in Denmark.

For more information, please contact Kim Aronson at telephone: USA: 510-872-0775, E-mail: Kim@KimAronson.com or see the website: www.Danskere.us

You can also visit the Danskere.us FACEBOOK group at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/danskere.us/

Please also support the film through the new Kickstarter campaign: http://tinyurl.com/kickstarter-danskere

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