Peter von Bagh

Born Aug 29, 1943 · Helsinki, Finland

Kari Peter Conrad von Bagh (August 29, 1943 – September 17, 2014) was a Finnish film historian and director. Von Bagh worked as the head of the Finnish Film Archive, editor-in-chief of Filmihullu magazine and co-founder and director of the Midnight Sun Film Festival. From 2001, he was the artistic director of the film festival Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. Von Bagh was a member of the jury in the competition category of 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Films directed by Bagh have been screened at prestigious international forums, including retrospectives of his filmography at the 2012 Rotterdam International Film Festival, the 2012 Festival Internacional de Cine Independente in Buenos Aires, and the Tromsø International Film Festival in 2013. Bagh's wrote approximately 40 non-fiction books, mostly on cinema, and some 60 films for both the cinemas and television include his internationally successful films Helsinki, Forever (2008) and Sodankylä, Forever (2010–2011), a documentary series of the first twenty-five years of the Midnight Sun Film Festival.