Liaison 2: Scandinavia: Film and History in Scandinavia

Film and History in Scandinavia | Salmi Hannu Salmi University of Turku hansalmi@utu.fi LIAISON 2: SCANDINAVIA Film and History in Scandinavia In Scandinavia, there is a long tradition ofusing filmic evidence in historical studies. Already during the 1970s, historians at the University of Copenhagen concentrated on the problems of film sources. Historians like Karsten Fledelius and Niels Skyum-Nielsen were, however, exceptional cases in the profession, and it has taken a long time for cinema to find a position in our historians' array ofinformants. Today, both film scholars and historians across the globe are strongly involved in film history. This goes for Scandinavia, too. Finnish Academy has already since 1995 funded a research project focussing on the social connection of Finnish cinema from the 1940s to the 1970s. This project, representing a co-effort ofhistorians and film scholars, produced its first book in the spring of 1998 under the title Kaikki muuttuu ... Elokuvakulttuurin jiilleenrakentaminen Suomessa 1950-luvulta 1970-luvulle (Everything Changes ... The Reconstructing ofFilm Culture in Finland from 1950s to 1970s), written by Mervi Pantti (University ofTurku) and published by the Finnish Society for Cinema Studies. The book deals with the reorganization of Finnish cinema after the collapse of the studio system as well as the new politicization offilm culture during the 1960s and early 1970s. Another member ofthe project, Jari Sedergren (University of Helsinki) will publish his study on political film censorship in Finland between 1939-1947 next year. In Finland, domestic film history has been one of the central fields ofinterest among film scholars, especially at the University ofTurku. The same can be seen to have happened in Sweden at the University of Stockholm, and even in a more extensive way. The professor of film studies in Stockholm, Jan Olsson, has himselfwritten many books on film history, especially on Swedish silent era. Several dissertations on Swedish film history have been completed under his guidance, e.g. Bo Florin's Den nationella Stilen: studier i den svenska filmens guldülder (The National Style: Studies in the Golden Era ofSwedish Cinema, 1997) and Bengt Bengtsson's Ungdom i farà: ungdomsproblem i svensk speifilm 1942-62 (Youngsters in Danger: theJuvenile Problem in Swedish Feature Film 1942-62, 1998). The most recent example of Swedish film history is Mats Bjoerkin's book Amerikanism, bolsjevism and korta kjolor. Filmen och desspublik i Sverige under 1920-talet (Americanism, Bolshevism , and Short Skirts. Cinema and Its Audience in Sweden during the 1920s), an in-depth analysis ofhow political and gender issues reflected on the instituting processes of film industry in Sweden. Although there has been extensive activity around film history among film scholars, the same does not seem to be the case among Swedish historians. To encourage the use of film material in historical studies, the Department of History at the University ofStockholm is organizing a symposium under the title "Historia och film" (History and Film) on 27-28 November 1998. Guest lecturers have been invited from four nordic countries, Anne Jerslev from Denmark, Hannu Salmi from Finland, Gunnar Iversen from Norway, and Madeleine Kleberg from Sweden. Anne Jerslev is lecturing on feminist film theory and the cinematic construction ofgender; Hannu Salmi will speak on the question ofwhat is a fact in film history; Gunnar Iversen on travel descriptions as an audiovisual genre; and Madeleine Kleberg on the images ofwelfare state in TV documents ofthe 1970s. In addition to the keynote lectures, the symposium aims to be a forum for discussion on individual projects. There will be over 20 papers in parallel workshops, mainly held by Swedish history students. The young generation is energetically taking film into its heuristic arsenal. The symposium is actually aiming at establishing a network that could support those historians who wish to take a filmic look on history. To get more details on the conference, please contact Eva Blomberg at the University of Stockholm (e-mail: Eva.Blomberg@historia.su.se). Anyone who intends to focus on nordic film history, of course, needs some tools. There has been an urgent need for an up-to-date English text book on nordic cinemas. This is now available: Routledge has published a general outlook on Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish cinema...