Forskningsprojekt

The Cultural Practice of Immigrant Filmmaking
(Swedish Research Council, 2013-2015)
Researchers: John Sundholm, Karlstad University, Lars Gustaf Andersson, Lund University.

Immigration to Sweden increased during the 1970s, and many of them were forced into exile. Some of them already were established filmmakers, others were amateurs, albeit with an interest in film. What united them was that they were all strangers in Sweden and that they tried to find their way in a new cultural situation. Some of them found their way to cultural democratic initiatives such as the Stockholm Film Workshop, whereas others founding their own organizations such as Kaleidoscope or Tensta film association. However, this phenomenon was not something entirely new. Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s and 1940s had forced people to emigrate, for example, Peter Weiss, who became a leading figure among one of Sweden’s first film workshops, “Arbetsgruppen för film”, The Independent Film Group.

By studying how immigrant filmmakers were producing and distributing film at production sites such as The Independent Film Group, The Stockholm Film Workshop, Kaleidoscope and Tensta film association, it is our aim with the research project “The Cultural Practice of Immigrant Filmmaking”, to analyze the conditions and the practices of immigrant filmmaking. In addition, a significant number of films will be tracked down, archived and digitized for future research use. 
Another aim with the project is to develop emergent theories of minor cinemas and to develop an approach in which film theory is not intended to serve as a hypothesis about an object, but as a means of establishing a language for a phenomenon, as in this case, in order to deepen the understanding of immigrant’s filmmaking, but also to highlight individual filmmakers and films.

 

The Cultural Policy of Minor Cinemas: The Stockholm Film Workshop 1973-2001
(Swedish Research Council, 2010-2012)
Researchers: John Sundholm, Karlstad University, Lars Gustaf Andersson, Lund University.

Inspired by the film workshops around Europe, the Stockholm Film Workshop was established as an informal organization where anyone could apply for technical assistance and financial assistance to make a film or complete already filmed material. The Film Workshop opened in 1973 and closed in 2001. More than 400 films were completed during this period.
The production at the workshop encompassed different genres and styles: animation, documentaries, fiction, experimental etc. The majority of the filmmakers were amateurs or semi-professional. The workshop was important in particular for women filmmakers and immigrants. 
The research project, “The Cultural Policy of Minor Cinemas: The Stockholm Film Workshop 1973-2001”, is both a study of minor cinema practice and of cultural policy of film. It encompasses also major archival research, the collecting and archiving as well as digitalization of films.


Publications:

  • Andersson and Sundholm: ”The Cultural Policies of Minor Cinema Practices: The Swedish Film Workshop during its First Years”, Studies in European Cinema 8: 3 (2011), 183-194.
  • Andersson and Sundholm: "Film Workshops as Polyvocal Public Spheres: Minor Cinemas in Sweden", Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 19: 2 (2010), 66-81.
  • Andersson and Sundholm: ”Amateur and Avant-garde: Minor Cinemas and Public Sphere in 1950s Sweden”, Studies in European Cinema 5:3 (2008). Ss. 207-218.


Forthcoming:

  • Hellre fri än filmare. Filmverkstan och de mindre filmkulturernas kulturpolitik, Lund: Nordic Academic Press.