Jørgen Leth

Jørgen Leth (born 14 June 1937 in Aarhus, Denmark) is a multifaceted Danish poet, filmmaker, author and cultural commentator whose career spans more than six decades. He first emerged as a literary voice in the early 1960s, publishing his debut poetry collection Gult lys in 1962 after studying literature and anthropology in Aarhus and Copenhagen, and quickly became known for his sharp cultural criticism in leading Danish newspapers between 1959 and 1968. Leth’s fascination with the work of Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski sparked a lifelong interest in ethnographic observation, which he translated into a groundbreaking experimental documentary style that blends poetic rhythm with visual analysis. His early films, such as Stopforbud (1963) and the internationally celebrated short The Perfect Human (1968), display a surreal yet meticulously observed approach to everyday life, a technique later revisited in Lars von Trier’s The Five Obstructions (2003). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Leth turned his camera toward sport, producing myth‑like portraits of athletes in works like Stars and Watercarriers (1973) and the cycling masterpiece A Sunday in Hell (1977), which cemented his reputation as a visionary chronicler of physical performance. In addition to directing, he served as a creative consultant and board chairman for the Danish Film Institute, taught at the Danish National Film School as well as universities in Oslo, UCLA, Berkeley and Harvard, and acted as Denmark’s honorary consul in Haiti from 1999. His voice became familiar to Danish television audiences when he commentated on the Tour de France for TV 2 from 1988‑2005 and again after 2009, bringing an intellectual and lyrical perspective to live sports broadcasting. Leth’s personal life has been marked by both artistic triumph and controversy; his 2005 memoir Det uperfekte menneske provoked a national scandal over explicit sexual revelations, ultimately leading to his dismissal from TV 2, but also to the creation of the contentious film Erotic Man (2010). He has been married three times and fathered four children, including filmmaker Asger Leth, and has spent much of his later life divided between Denmark and Haiti, where he lives part‑time and continues to write, exhibit art and reflect on the human condition.