Authorship, activism and creative struggles: Peter Watkins’ The Journey revisited

Abstract

Based on research in the archive of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society in Stockholm, this article sheds light on the complex production history behind Peter Watkins’ fourteen-and-a-half-hour documentary Resan (The Journey) (1987). Set in a dozen countries around the world, the film presents a complex web of thematic tropes about global peace, consistently highlighting the connection between the local, national and international. The way in which the film subverts documentary form – in terms of both scope and aesthetic strategies – raises questions concerning the institutional conditions within which it was made. Although Watkins’ authorial position between avant-garde and documentary film culture has been investigated in-depth, particularly from a textual point of view, little attention has been afforded the creative struggles permeating the production and circulation history behind this epic documentary. Bridging the gap between the scholarly fields of media activism, useful cinema and documentary film, this study zooms in on the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, Scandinavia’s largest peace movement, and their fundraising drive for this film. In doing so, the article provides new information about the negotations that shaped the relationship between Watkins, the activists and the organization that made this film possible.