THE FILMs PROBING, TENDER PORTRAITS OF LOVE ADDICTS ARE INTERCUT WITH SILENT MOMENTS, TABLEAUS OF ACHING SOLITUDE STRAIGHT OUT OF EDWARD HOPPER - rachel resnick, author of love junkie   –
I APPLAUD THE FILM FOR DELVING INTO A SUBJECT THAT IS SO MISUNDERSTOOD BUT NEEDING TO BE BROUGHT TO PUBLIC AWARENESS - jill vermere, lead clinical therapist on sex rehab with dr drew on VH1   –
YOU LAUGH AND CRY THROUGH STORIES OF THIS HUMAN CONDITION AND FROM TIME TO TIME RECOGNIZE MORE OF YOURSELF THAN YOU WOULD ACTUALLY LIKE TO - information, danish newspaper   –
THE INSPIRED BLEND OF DOCUMENTARY AND PERFORMED NARRATIVE REFLECTS THE BLURRY LINE BETWEEN REALITY AND FANTASY THAT AFFLICTS SUFFERERS - rachel resnick, author of love junkie   –
IT IS NOT ACTUALLY ABOUT BEING ADDICTED TO LOVE, IT IS ABOUT BEING ADDICTED TO A FANTASY YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH - pia mellody, author and senior clinical advisor at the meadows   –
GROENKJAERs BOLDLY POETIC FILM DRIVES A STAKE THROUGH PRINCE CHARMINGs HEART. SHE EXPLORES THE FAIRYTALE VERSION OF LOVE WHICH IMPRISONS SO MANY WOMEN (AND MEN), THEN BLOWS IT TO SHREDS - rachel resnick, author of love junkie   –
PERNILLE ROSE GROENKJAER GIVES US A GORGEOUS AND POIGNANT LOOK INTO THE LONELY WORLD OF LOVE ADDICTION IN HER STUNNING, MASTERFUL FILM, LOVE ADDICT - alex katehakis, founder and clinical director at center for healthy sex   –
THIS SOBERING AND UNGLAMOROUS ACCOUNT IS THE FIRST OF ITS KIND AT A TIME WHEN THIS PROBLEM IS MORE WIDESPREAD THAN EVER - alex katehakis, founder and clinical director at center for healthy sex   –
FIVE STARS - ekko magazine   –
DIRECTOR: PERNILLE ROSE GRØNKJÆR

Documentary filmmaker Pernille Rose Grønkjær was born in 1973 in Denmark. She graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 1997 and has earned many awards and much acclaim for her work in documentary film and television over the past 15 years. Her international feature length documentary THE MONASTERY — Mr. Vig and the Nun opened at the worlds most acknowledged documentary festival The International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) and won the festival’s prestigious 1st price; the Joris Ivens Award. The film had its North American premiere at The Sundance Film Festival. It has won 11 awards the world over, including The Cinema Eye Award in New York, Grand Jury Award and Emerging Artist Award at the Full Frame Festival (US), the Grand Prix at the Chicago Film Festival (US), the Audience Award at Moscow Film Festival, the Bodil Award in Denmark and was nominated for a European Film Award in 2007 and for the Spirit Awards (US) in 2008. The film has played in more than sixty film festivals the world over, from Sydney to Toronto to Yamagata, Japan. The film played in theatres in New York and the press wrote ”Fantastic!” and ”Beautiful mesmerizing wonder.” THE MONASTERY — Mr. Vig and the NuN has become an important milestone in the strong international brand that Danish documentary is today. With this film Grønkjær established herself as a storyteller with a universal language and a cinematic vision.
Her latest international feature documentary LOVE ADDICT: stories of dreams, obsession and longing opened to great reviews in her home country. The press wrote “You laugh and cry through stories of this peculiar human condition and from time to time you recognize more of yourself than you would actually like to...”
LOVE ADDICT will have its world premiere at IDFA November 2011.
PRODUCER: SIGRID DYEKJÆR

Sigrid Dyekjær (1969) studied dramaturgy at Aarhus University in Denmark, while also working as a production manager and producer on several advertisements with Young & Rubicam. In 2000, she became co-owner of Tju-Bang Film, whose productions include: Mechanical Love, THE MONASTERY – Mr. Vig and the Nun, Everything is Relative, My grandfathers Murderer, and many more. When Tju-Bang Film was sold to SF Film in 2008, Sigrid moved on and in 2009 became co-owner of the production company Danish Documentary Production, with Phie Ambo, Eva Mulvad, Pernille Rose Grønkjær and Mikala Krogh.

Sigrid has produced over 20 documentary films. She is currently producing documentary films such as The Good Life by Eva Mulvad, Love Addict by Pernille Rose Grønkjær and Free the Mind by Phie Ambo at Danish Documentary Production.

Sigrid is a teacher at the National Danish Film School and holds master classes all over the world in the development of documentary films, as well a member of selection committees at different forums around the world, like Amsterdam Film Festival.
    
   
SYNOPSIS
How does it feel to be addicted to love?
To rush from zero to velcro at first sight?

Through seven personal stories comes a tale of the longing for life´s ultimate aphrodisiac:

Love.

Addicts trapped in a fantasy, riding high on the white horse of eternal, passionate love.

Love Addict is a film about the all-consuming obsession to obtain and arrest the love of others. The give and take between trust and neglect, dreams and delusions, pleasure and pain, sanity and insanity and the inescapable fact that in the end we all just want to love and be loved in return.
DANISH DOCUMENTARY
Not your typical boys´ club, Danish Documentary is one of the world´s leading production companies in producing creative documentary films for the big screen and television. The company was founded and is co-owned by four celebrated Danish documentary directors, Phie Ambo, Pernille Rose Grønkjær, Eva Mulvad and Mikala Krogh, together with internationally acclaimed film producer Sigrid Dyekjær. All four directors are famous for their cinematic take on reality, and their films have been screened worldwide in both cinema theatres and on television. Their back catalogue include a series of internationally appraised documentary films winning numerous prestigious prizes all over the world, among many others IDFA´s Joris Ivens Award, Sundance and CPH:DOX. www.danishdocumentary.com
Eliza
is the actress in the video dairy playing a young woman lost in an obsessive infatuation, stalking a guy barely aware of her existence. Dreaming up immaculate love, obsessing over every detail and longing for the perfect partner to make this fantasy a reality with, is a role that fit Eliza.

"Working on this film has been a dream come true for me because I was able to really dig deep in my acting and incorporate a lot of life experience into it."


www.elizamadeline.com
Christian
is 41 years old and lives in Concord near San Francisco. Once every wink, comment or email from a woman spun his fantasy of: "She is the one!" Christian is a signed and touring heavy metal guitarist for Futures End. He has an 8 year old and a 20 year old, both boys.

He says about his love addiction:

"It is like doing drugs. You wanna be high so you do drugs. Well, I want to be high so I fall in love."
Tracy S.
is a business owner, teacher and mother of two, and writes her own blog on love addiction at www.thelovelyaddict.com. In the documentary she is interviewed seated next to an ex–lover while she recalls in devastating detail how her mind would machine over their dysfunctional relationship. On her site Tracy reviews the documentary; excerpt below:

"The film is creative, aesthetic, and intense, with a fairy-tale-like, evanescence threaded throughout. The fairytale scenes are a reminder that we all grew up believing that one day we would find our Prince Charming or Princess. But the main gist of the documentary is our tales of woe all of which most definitely kept me on the edge of my seat."
Jennifer
works at a very successful bank as an accountant. She lives in Buffalo, NY and has three children and one grandchild. Jennifer talks about the deep loneliness that love addiction creates:

"I don´t have someone that really loves me, so I am going to find something that kind of resembles it."
Tracy C.
is an accounting manager at a high profile bank. She lives in Buffalo, NY and is mother of three children. Tracy has been dating McKell, a young, unemployed man without means, on and off for a year.

She says:

"My friend tells me that I take men that are in need and turn them into my projects. I try to work on another person´s life when really I am the one who needs help."
Adelaide
is an actress, singer, writer and solo show performer, living in New York. She has performed in numerous theatrical productions, musicals, cabarets and films, including Woody Allen´s "Husbands and Wives". She has had love addicted experiences where she totally looses herself.

"I actually am a functioning adult other than those episodes where I have stopped functioning. You know, I have a pretty full life. I manage to take care of myself and pay my bills."
Pia Mellody
Senior Clinical Advisor for The Meadows and Clinical Consultant for Mellody House and Dakota, is known and respected as a preeminent authority, lecturer and educator in the fields of addictions and relationships. She is the author of Facing Codependence, Facing Love Addiction and her latest book, The Intimacy Factor.

"I found it to be one of the best films on the pathological dynamics of love addiction, it was amazing"

www.piamellody.com
www.themeadows.org
Jill Vermeire
Lead clinical therapist on "Celebrity Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew" on VH–1. Since then there have been regular appearances on many shows such as Oprah, Loveline, Extra, Access Hollywood, Nightline, NBC, and Headline News.

"This documentary is an honest and raw look at what Love Addiction is. The depiction of the pain, agony, and insanity that Love Addicts experience is felt throughout the film. I applaud the film for delving into a subject that´s so misunderstood but needing to be brought to public awareness."

www.mytherapistjill.com
Tony Stiker
A psychotherapist in New York who works with men and women and couples who want to figure out how to put down self-defeating behaviors and coping mechanisms.
Susan Peabody
Co-founder of Love Addicts Anonymous, author of the book Addiction to Love, Overcoming Obsession and Dependency in Relationships and has been a relationship counselor for over 25 years. A self-professed love addict, Peabody has identified a range of love addict archetypes, giving them names such as Torch Bearers, Saboteurs and Seductive Withholders.

Alex Katehakis
Founder and clinical director of the Center for Healthy Sex, Los Angeles, and author of Erotic Intelligence: Igniting Hot, Healthy Sex While in Recovery From Sex Addiction.

"Pernille Rose Grønkjær gives us a gorgeous and poignant look into the lonely world of love addiction in her stunning, masterful film, ´Love Addict.´ This sobering and unglamorous account is the first of it´s kind at a time when this problem is more widespread than ever."

www.thecenterforhealthysex.com
Dr. Howard Samuels
A leading drug and alcohol addiction expert and is the founder and current CEO of The Hills Treatment Center. He has been clean and sober for 26 years from heroin and cocaine addiction. Dr. Samuels is seen as a leading expert in the treatment industry and his opinions and interviews have been broadcast on CNN, Good Morning America, NBC, HLN, Huffington Post, Fox News, and many more.
Wendy Merril
Author of Falling Into Manholes, The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl where she is the protagonist in the witty, skewed, rueful misadventures of an in-recovery-from-everything bad/good girl as she searches for love, sex, sanity ...and herself. Wendy says about her experience with love addiction:

"All of these different men and situations were all about finding out who I was because I really did not know. I could become whoever I thought they wanted me to be. I just wanted to be wanted beyond all reason!"

www.fallingintomanholes.com
Rachel Resnick
Author of Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick and Love Junkie, a memoir of her days finding love in all the wrong places. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper she says:

"I feel this culture is in love with love, and not the healthy version. Don´t you? Everywhere we turn, there are presentations of love addiction in movies, books, magazines. And it´s presented as passion. As what you should want and expect. This is crippling, and misleading, and I think, dangerous."

www.rachelresnick.com
Cast

eliza
Christian
tracy s.
jennifer
tracy c.
adelaide

Pia mellody
Jill Vermeire
Tony Stiker
susan peabody
alex katehakis
dr howard samuels
wendy merril
rachel resnick
THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY
What haven´t we done in the name of love? Throughout history we have fought, conquered, killed and been killed in the name of love. We´ve written songs, poems and books in an attempt to capture this ultimate feeling.

What if this love takes over your life? When every decision, every thought and every single second solely depends on another person´s actions? And what if this love is just a figment of your imagination?

According to a recent article in Psychology Today the top 7 hardest addictions to quit are, in descending order; cocaine, alcohol, valium, heroine, cigarettes and potato chips. At number 1, the hardest addiction to quit is love, the addiction to love.

As a love addict, being charged by love is an absolute necessity for daily survival like liquor for the alcoholic and drugs for the junkie. As with all addictions, love addiction involves issues of increasing tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, and an intangible feeling that something central is missing from existence without it. Those afflicted with love addiction are constantly seeking the blast of ´feel good´ brain chemicals associated with falling in love the amazing time when you are truly love-struck and can think of little else. The love addict does anything to achieve this fix, even if it means building a fantasy around the person they are addicted to, creating an illusion of what the love could be and ignoring how the relationship really is unfolding.

A love addict is trapped in a vicious circle – a repeated pattern from fix to fix, from one partner to the next. If the ´fix´ doesn´t happen in this relationship, the search is immediately on to find a new one that will unleash the rush of pleasure again. A love addict is never really able to attain a real connection with another person as the fix has greater value. The search for love therefore ends up a very lonely process and a quest destined to fail.

A love addict must overcome a chronic preoccupation with romance, intrigue and fantasy. A wealth of knowledge, shared experience and therapeutic treatment is widely available to heal and recover from the disorder. The first step is to admit you might have a problem.
 
CREDITS
Director and Cinematographer: Pernille Rose Grønkjær Film Editor:Pernille Bech Christensen Sound design:Eddie Simonsen Composer:Johan Söderqvist, Patrik Andrén Director of Photography:Michael Pessah Line Producer US:Nina Leidersdorff Creative Consultant:Jens Arentzen Co-producer, Sverige:Margarete Jangard Producer:Sigrid Dyekjær Produced by:Danish Documentary Production Excecutive Producers: Pernille Rose Grønkjær, Sigrid Dyekjær, Mikala Krogh, Phie Ambo, Eva Mulvad In co-production with:WG film, Sweden Producer Margarete Jangård with the support ofDanish Film Institute Film Commissioner Michael Haslund-Christensen and Klara Grunning-Harris, Swedish Film Institute Film Commissioner Suzanne Glansborg, TV2 Denmark, Irene Strøyer Co-produced with ZDF / Arte, Susanne Mertens, VPRO, Barbara Truyen In association with NRK Tore Tomter, SVT, Axel Arnö, YLE ,Nordisk Film & TV Fond, By Documentary film consultant Karolina Lidin, DBS, Against Gravity, Arthur Lippert, CBC, ORF, MEDIA PROGRAMME OF THE EUROPEAN UNIONSales and distribution:DR IS by Kim Christiansen, www.loveaddictmovie.com Web: www.lickmypixel.comCopyright: Danish Documentary Production
 
contact

Production Company:
DANISH DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION
c/o Duckling, Sankt Annæ Plads 10b,
1250 Copenhagen, Denmark
www.danishdocumentary.com

Sales Agent:
DR INTERNATIONAL SALES
Kim Christiansen,
Phone: +45 3520 3040,
Mobile: +45 2854 2299
Emil Holms Kanal 20,
0999 Copenhagen, Denmark