The Finnish Cinema Colony in North America, 1938−1941

Abstract

This chapter addresses how Finnish films were exported and travelled to the United States and Canada between 1938-1941. Although resources were scarce and Finnish films were mainly targeted to domestic audiences, there existed vibrant niche markets for Finnish films among Finnish immigrants, in particularly during the late 1930s and the early 1940s. The chapter explores the distribution and exhibition practices within these diasporic communities, and discusses the significance of the North American niche markets both for the Finnish film industry and for Finnish immigrants. After this promising start was ruptured by the Second World War, the postwar circulation of Finnish films had only a marginal economic influence. Yet Finnish films of this era offered important means for the Finnish diasporic colonies and communities to sustain and negotiate national identities.