The Danish documentarist Nils Vest was raised in a bourgeois environment in Sweden. When he and his family moved to Denmark in the 1950s he went to boarding school at Herlufsholm and later got a degree in engineering. However, he did not follow the suggested path, and instead he became a film director with an education from the film school in Copenhagen in 1970. His first films were about local, but transcending subjects: the liberalized porn market, the free community of Christiania, etc. He also moved to Christiania with partner Britta Lillesøe and became part of the theatre group Solvognen. He also acted on television. Nils Vest is still an active member of the Christiania community, but career-wise it was filmmaking that had his interest in the long run. His later work has included historical documentaries and additional films about Christiania and Copenhagen.