Swedish Film Research Articles

Activism and gender equality policy in the Swedish film sector from the second wave to #metoo

This article seeks to unpack variations in feminist film sector activists' articulations of collective grievances and demands for change since the mid-1970s and compare them to how gender equality is articulated as a problem in public policy. Based on an analysis of problem representations found in three instances of women's mobilization – from the second wave to #metoo – the article argues that there seems to be a consensus about the appropriate boundaries of what problems can be targeted by policy. Problem representations found in gender equality policies in the film sector do not verbalize structural inequalities. However, feminist activists interpreted them to support their ariculations of structural problems. Feminist activists problem represntations include testimonies of sexual harassment and violence, articulations of structural inequalities, and the promotion of women's separatism. The article also identifies a discursive dislocation produced by critics to gender equality reforms in conjunction to #metoo. The dislocation is produced by successfully opposing gender equality to artistic freedom and denying the existence of structural gender inequalities.

Entanglements of feminist activism and gender equality policy in the Spanish and Swedish film industries: between convergence and critique

ABSTRACT This article compares entanglements between activist demands and policy in the Spanish and Swedish film industries using a critical frames approach. Considering contextual factors such as domestic discourse on film policy and resistance against gender equality, the comparison is based on deep insider knowledge aiming to deepen the understanding of feminist activism and its relation to policy in the two countries. In both Spain and Sweden, activists have demanded equality in the film sector since the seventies. Today, both countries feature gender equality measures and vivid feminist organizations. Based on current equality policies, reports from the Swedish and Spanish Film Institutes, documents from feminist filmmakers’ associations and interviews with activists, the article shows that feminist activists oscillate between strategically converging their demands to policy and criticizing reforms. Furthermore, policy echoes activists’ arguments but are less informed by ideas about structural inequalities. Activists in both Spain and Sweden stand up for the gender equality measures which have been implemented, but the Spanish activists are more prone to simultaneously voice criticism against the reforms..

Event Segmentation in the Audio Description of Films

To make the content of films available to a visually impaired audience, a sighted translator can provide audio description (AD), a verbal description of visual events. To achieve this goal, the audio describer needs to select what to describe, when to describe it, and how to describe it, as well as to express the information aurally. The efficacy of this communication is critically dependent upon basic cognitive processes of how the sighted audio describer perceives and segments the film’s unfolding chain of events and in what way the visually impaired end users conceive the structure, content, and segmentation of such events in relation to the produced AD. There is, however, virtually no research on this interplay in relation to AD. In this study, we scrutinize live AD of a film from two trained audio describers and examine how events are structured, segmented and construed in their AD. Results demonstrate that the event segmentation experienced from the film is indeed a fundamental part of how AD is structured and construed. It was found that AD at event boundaries was highly sensitive to different spatiotemporal circumstances and this relationship depends on semantic resources for expressing AD. Lay summary In our everyday lives, we naturally organize and remember our experiences as meaningful sequences of events. This happens the same way when we watch movies – we see them as a series of events happening in different places, times, and with changing character dynamics. Now, think about making this cinematic experience accessible to people with visual impairments. This is where a sighted translator, called an audio describer, becomes really important. To make movies understandable for a visually impaired audience, a sighted audio describer describes crucial visual events in the film. Their goal is to create a "narrative equivalence" between the original film and the audio-described version. Thus, the main challenges for audio describers are deciding what information to describe, when to do it, and how to articulate it effectively. In the current case study, we looked at two audio descriptions for the Swedish film "Skumtimmen" (English title: "Echoes from the Dead"). These descriptions were created by trained audio describers. We wanted to see how these narrators organized, broke down, and verbalized the course of events in their audio descriptions. To achieve this, we focused on two important parts of storytelling – changes in time and location – and paid special attention to how often and in what way audio describers verbalized these event boundaries. What we found is that both describers indeed verbalized most event boundaries. This shows that these boundaries are a big part of how audio descriptions are put together. We also learned that the descriptions at these event boundaries were very sensitive to when and where key events unfolded in the story. The way these boundaries were described depended on fundamental cognitive and linguistic resources to talk about space and time. Our findings help us understand how breaking down events in a film is a crucial part of shaping audio descriptions. Plus, our research highlights how important it is to study how events are broken down and verbalized, giving useful insights to improve audio descriptions and train future audio describers. The ultimate goal is to make the experience better for visually impaired viewers, contributing to a more inclusive and enjoyable audiovisual world.

Art cinema, film policy and the slaughterhouse of Swedish cinema

Focusing on the introduction of a new government film policy in 2017, this article explores how the audience for Swedish cinema – little-watched art films in particular – is conceptualized in the context of film policy and as a topic of debate within the Swedish film industry. The analysis shows that the new film policy contributes – against its own explicit aims – to reproducing a deep-seated distinction between ‘wide’ and ‘narrow’ films. In addition, Swedish film policy has yet to adapt to the conditions of today’s digital screen culture. As a result, ‘narrow films’ are subject to low audience expectations and a de facto lack of performance accountability. This, the article argues, could be more a blessing than a curse, suggesting a need to rethink the notion of ‘failure’ and to further explore the prospects of ‘failure studies’ in the context of Swedish cinema.

Americanizing the Scandinavian Super Underdog in Eighteen Film Remakes

Americanizing the Scandinavian Super Underdog in Eighteen Film Remakes

Soccer as a National Pastime and its Role in the Lives of Traditional Communities in Cao Hamburger's Coming of Age Film: The Year my Parents Went on Vacation

The Journal of Popular CultureEarly View Original Article Soccer as a National Pastime and its Role in the Lives of Traditional Communities in Cao Hamburger's Coming of Age Film: The Year my Parents Went on Vacation Moshe Machlev, Corresponding Author Moshe Machlev [email protected] [email protected] Search for more papers by this author Moshe Machlev, Corresponding Author Moshe Machlev [email protected] [email protected] Search for more papers by this author First published: 22 June 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.13226Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Works Cited Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 2006. Avildsen, John. Rocky. 1976. Bonzel, Katharina. National Pastimes: Cinema, Sports, and Nation. U of Nebraska P, 2020. Capraro, André Mendes, and Pauline Peixoto Iglesias Vargas. “ Football, National Culture and Politics in Brazil in 1970: O Ano Em Que Meus Pais saíram de férias [The Year my Parents Went on Vacation].” Sport, Film and National Culture, edited by André Mendes Capraro, and Pauline Peixoto Iglesias Vargas, Routledge, 2020, pp. 195– 205. Chadha, Gurinder. Bend it Like Beckham. 2003. Crosson, Seán. “ European Cinema and the Football Film: ‘Play for the People Who've Accepted You’.” Football and Popular Culture, edited by Stephen R. Millar, Martin J. Power, Paul Widdop, Daniel Parnell, and James Carr, Routledge, 2021, pp. 87– 107. Dahlén, Peter. “ Sport and National Culture in Swedish Film.” Sport, Film and National Culture, Routledge, 2020, pp. 94– 111. Dos Santos, Suzy. “The Central Role of Broadcast Television in Brazil's Film Industry: The Economic, Political, and Social Implications of Global Markets and National Concentration.” International Journal of Communication, vol. 3 2009, pp. 695– 712. Glickman, Nora, and Ariana Huberman, editors. Evolving Images: Jewish Latin American Cinema. U of Texas P, 2017. Goldblatt, David. The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football. Penguin UK, 2007. Haas, Astrid. “A Changing Game: Ethnicity, Gender, and Nation in the US American Soccer Film.” Comparative American Studies, vol. 12, no. 4, 2014, pp. 301– 15. Hamburger, Cao. Audio Commentary. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation. City Lights. DVD, 2008. Heise, Tatiana Signorelli. Remaking Brazil: Contested National Identities in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema. U of Wales P, 2012. Jewish Virtual Library. São Paulo, Brazil, <https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/s-x00e3-o-paulo>. Johnson, Randal, and Robert Stam. Brazilian Cinema, Columbia UP, 1995. Levine, David, and Langley King. “Brazil.” Soccer Politics/The Politics of Football. 6 Nov. 2013, <https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/research-projects/politics-and-sport-in-latin-america/brazil/>. Lindstrom, Naomi. “Turf Wars: Contested Space in Three Jewish Latin American Films.” Post Script, vol. 38, no. 2, 2019, pp. 45– 58. Nagib, Lúcia, editor. The New Brazilian Cinema. IB Tauris, 2003. Nagib, Lucia, and Samuel Paiva. “Passages-Travelling in and out of Film through Brazilian Geography.” Rumores, vol. 12, no. 24, 2019, pp. 19– 40. Rocha, Carolina, and Georgia Seminet. Representing History, Class, and Gender in Spain and Latin America: Children and Adolescents in Film. Springer, 2012. Scorsese, Martin, director. Raging Bull. Chartoff-Winkler, 1980. Snider, Colin. “ On this Date in Latin America – August 11, 1937: Brazil's National Student Union (UNE) Is Formed.” America South and North, 11 Aug. 2012, https://americasouthandnorth.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/on-this-date-in-latin-america-august-11-1937-brazils-national-student-union-une-is-formed/. Snider, Colin. “ Get to Know a Brazilian – Emílio Garrastazu.” America South and North, 3 Feb. 2013, https://americasouthandnorth.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/get-to-know-a-brazilian-emilio-garrastazu-medici/. Stam, Robert. “ Beyond Third Cinema: The Aesthetics of Hybridity.” Rethinking Third Cinema, edited by Anthony R. Guneratne and Wimal Dissanayake, Routledge, 2003. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue ReferencesRelatedInformation

Towards an archival study of screenplay versions: the role of screenwriting research for adaptation studies

Archival holdings help us to better understand the collaborative process involved in screenplay development. This article mobilizes archival findings around the screenwriting process in order to contribute to recent debates within adaptation studies (Hutcheon, Bryant, Elliott, Elleström, Bruhn/Gjelsvik/Frisvold Hanssen, Stam, Rossholm). Setting out to bridge the gap between screenwriting studies and adaptation studies, this article argues that the study of screenplay versions, drafts and letters foregrounds the often overlooked artistic process involved in developing film adaptations. This article presents the case of the film adaption of Åsa-Hanna, based on the novel of the Swedish writer, journalist, suffragette, eco-critic and peace activist Elin Wägner (1882-1949) and the screenplay versions by Barbro Alving (1909-1987). It studies different script versions and ephemera at the manuscript collection at the Swedish Film Institute (Stockholm) as well as Wägner’s notebooks, drafts and letters at KvinnSam (Göteborg). The aim of this article is twofold: first, to contribute to adaptation studies by highlighting the role of the screenplay and the process of screenwriting in the process of transmediation. Second, to stress the importance of the industrial context of film production and distribution for adaptation studies.

Lund Film Society and Interwar Cultural Propaganda

During the interwar period, there was a surge in cultural diplomacy efforts in Europe. This article investigates the role of cultural diplomacy within the Swedish film society movement, focusing particularly on Lund Film Society’s travels abroad during the 1930s: to Nazi-Germany in 1935 and in 1938 respectively, as well as to the Soviet Union in 1936. Through international exchange, Lund Film Society did not only get access to artistic and politically radical films but also an increased insight into in the international film industry. The article shows that the trips fulfilled several important functions for Lund Film Society. The film society was theoretically oriented and the possibilities of exploring the film medium practically were limited. During these journeys abroad, the film society managed to gain insight into how modern film studios worked in several different countries. At the same time, interest in cultural exchange was mutual, and the international film connections were purposefully exploited by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as a form of cultural-political propaganda.

Women’s agency in the Swedish film industry: Annoying little buggers and passionate team players

The article is based on transcripts of interviews with twenty women directors in the Swedish film industry conducted in 2018 and 2019, focusing on narratives from women working under varying conditions and in several genres who have actively chosen various strategies to manage their work situation. We contextualize their actions and choices to unpack how their work and efforts fit into an industry still dominated by men and influenced by a culture of masculinity idealizing the male genius. In the first section, we discuss how the women experienced their first encounters with the industry and what strategies they developed at this stage. In the second section, we discuss women’s deliberations about how to make work on the set manageable and productive. In the final section, we investigate various strategies related to work opportunities and the possibilities for women to realize their visions and their passion for making films.

Opposition to gender quotas in Sweden and Spain: Debates about gender equality in the film industry

This article analyses how gender quotas in film policy are debated in the Spanish and Swedish film industries. By analysing public records, media material and interviews with industry stakeholders, four categories of arguments are found: (1) Arguments for quotas, articulating the problems women face in the industry; (2) Arguments against quotas related to the specificities of the industry; (3) Arguments for and against quotas which refer to women's shortcomings, and; (4) Arguments problematising quotas by feminists who want more transformative reforms. While policies are designed differently and have different conceptualisations of gender, arguments discussing quotas are similar in both countries. Gender equality policies in both countries seem unable to change the male norm in the industry. Arguments put forth by opponents tend to point to women's lack of talent and how quotas will jeopardise the industry, whereas feminist arguments problematising quotas point at the limitations of the reforms to seriously question structural inequalities.

The Politics of Nordsploitation: History, Industry, Audiences

The Politics of Nordsploitation: History, Industry, Audiences

The precariousness of Jewish visibility: Surviving antisemitism in Swedish cinema

The article examines Jewish ‘self-images’ in Swedish post-war film. Before World War II, antisemitic caricatures were prevalent in Swedish film and visual culture. Following the Holocaust, Jews as such were virtually erased from Swedish screens. Written by and starring Marie-Louise Ekman, Hallo Baby () was a rare exception, the first Swedish post-war film to explore Swedish-Jewish identity. The 2002 comedy Livet i 8 bitar (Bit by Bit) (Metzger) remains the last of only a handful of films to fit said description. Significantly, both films draw heavily on established antisemitic tropes in their figurations of ‘Jewishness’. Through historically contextualized readings of the two films, including their reception, the article thus shows how the tradition of antisemitic caricature that prevailed until World War II has continued to condition Jewish self-representation in the post-war era.

Text/Author/Audience: Audience Reception of Ingmar Bergman and His Films

In an effort to expand the traditional focus on film texts within film studies, case studies within New Film History have increasingly drawn attention to the structures and processes that determine film as medium and as social institution. Building on this, New Cinema History (NCH) focuses more radically on cinema as a social and cultural institution and its importance in everyday life. The central claim of this article is that this move away from film texts and authors has obscured their relevance of audience experiences within NCH. Using the case of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman and the reception of his films in two countries, this article aims to re-integrate the text and auteur into historical reception studies. That is, this article aims to initiate a productive discussion on a more comprehensive approach towards audience experience in NCH and film studies in general.

Saamowie i ich kultura codzienna w filmie i reportażu z pierwszej połowy XX wieku – rekonstrukcja tożsamości w tekstach kultury

The Saami people are indigenous people and ethnic minorities living in Sápmi, which encompasses the northern areas of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. At the beginning of the twentieth century, interest in Saami began to grow among Swedish researchers, journalists, writers, and film-makers (Jordahl 2014). The aim of this article is to compare the depiction of the attributes of Sami identity as reconstructed in cultural texts from the first half of the twentieth century. The main subject of the analysis is the Swedish feature film Midnattssolens son (The Son of the Midnight Sun) directed by Rolf Husberg and Thor L. Brooks from 1939 and the non-fiction book by the Swedish journalist Ester Blenda Nordström Kåtornas folk (People of the Cots) from 1916.

Formation and development of nature as a cinematic image

Human and his relationship with nature have interested scientists and artists at all times. «Nature» has become one of the most important concepts in modern science and it is difficult to separate it from concepts such as society, culture, spirit, human being. As a consequence of the continuous development of science and technology in the twentieth century, there was a process of mastering nature by human. To date, you can find various works of art, where nature is considered as the main component of art. However, given the worldview, geographical features of each nation, it is impossible to give a single definition of the concept of nature. Therefore, in order to understand the meaning, the way of applying the image of nature in cinematography, it is necessary to analyze the advantage, omissions and give a scientific definition. Obviously, in order to understand how the image of nature in world cinema influenced the language of cinema, it is necessary first of all to focus on the prerequisites for the emergence of the image of nature. First of all, it can be noted that the concept of nature in the popular worldview and philosophy depend on the environment. In this article, based on materials written about the image of nature in the history of cinema, we will focus in detail on the features of nature management in Eastern and Western cinema. In cinema, nature has come to the fore as a mirror of the human soul, feelings, as well as a great heritage that needs to be protected. The image of nature originally appeared in Swedish films, and then in French avant-garde paintings. Then he developed in the directions of poetic realism, Italian neorealism. In order to identify differences in the connection between the manifestations of nature and the image of the hero in the cinematography of Western Europe and East Asia, the author analyzes the films by cinematographers of the world.

“For the support of artistically superior films”: The State Film Prize Committee and the formative years of a quality-directed Swedish film policy 1960–1963

“For the support of artistically superior films”: The State Film Prize Committee and the formative years of a quality-directed Swedish film policy 1960–1963

“On and off screen: Women's work in the screen industries”

“On and off screen: Women's work in the screen industries”

Involuntary Dogme restrictions: Orca and COVID-19 screen culture

The Swedish film Orca (2020) was both conceived and produced during COVID-19. As such, it is also about the pandemic and its own becoming. Making use of the proliferation of current screen cultures, including the split screen, writer and director Josephine Bornebusch invigorates old-fashioned ensemble acting while also putting current mediality on display.

‘Battleship Femininity’ deconstructed: Unmasking the myth of Eva Dahlbeck and Ingmar Bergman

The Swedish film star Eva Dahlbeck (1920–2008) is now remembered mainly for her contributions to Ingmar Bergman’s comedies in the 1950s. The epithet ‘Pansarskeppet kvinnligheten’ (‘Battleship Femininity’), allegedly given to her by the director, has integrated her stardom into the myth-making process driven by Bergman and the press. This can erroneously give him sole credit for Dahlbeck’s fame despite her already established star status. To reconsider such an auteurist misconception, this article examines Dahlbeck’s stardom from 1946 to 1956, drawing on Richard Dyer’s seminal theorization of a film star as a media construction. By analysing Dahlbeck’s star image and its relationship to three characters she plays in Bergman’s films, the article situates these films in the dynamics formed by diverse media texts and elucidates their historical and cultural context while also providing a case study of film stardom in post-war Sweden.

Ecological Aesthetics of Intimate Otherness in Swedish Trans Cinema

This article is an exploration of trans and non-binary representation in independent Swedish film productions. Two award-winning films, Pojktanten (She Male Snails, 2012) and Nånting måste gå sönder (Something Must Break, 2014), created by director Ester Martin Bergsmark (in collaboration with author Eli Levén), will be in focus and discussed through their ecological aesthetics that build on what I call intimate otherness. The two films represent not only a significant debut moment for Swedish trans cinema, but also offer a radical engagement with nature and the unnatural. While Bergsmark’s films incite a vivid aestheticisation of environmental pollution, ranging from items of garbage in the forest to untidyrooms, unwashed clothes, and dirty bathing water, the films’ ecological aesthetics, as I argue, imagine an enchanted space in which the trans body emerges as livable. Historically reduced to an “unnatural” and “contaminated” embodiment, trans bodies in the films form an intimate otherness with non-human objects and landscapes at the urban peripheries, at the margins of normativity and productivity. The films’ ecological aesthetics shift gender non-conformity from “unnatural” into a possibility. These aesthetics, I suggest, unfold into a gender-dissident´ landscape of rebellious and poetic, intimate otherness.