In many ways Scandinavian film and television is a global cultural brand, connected with and exporting some of the cultural and social values connected to a liberal and progressive welfare society. This course deals with the social, institutional and cultural background of film and television in Scandinavia and in a broader European and global context.
7.2: A new look at reality: The modern Scandinavian documentary, by Professor Ib Bondebjerg
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From the course by University of Copenhagen
Scandinavian Film and Television
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From the lesson
Documentary and Early TV Drama
Scandinavian cinema has a long history of strong documentary film making. The seventh lesson moves from the early documentary filmmakers to the contemporary – global and digital – scene for Scandinavian documentaries. Television drama is important for the Scandinavian public service broadcasters, but the notions of good television drama have changed remarkably from the early days of television up until today. In the eighth lesson we focus on the main tendencies in these developments from 1960 to 2000.
Meet the Instructors
Eva Novrup RedvallAssociate Professor
Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
[SOUND] In all Scandinavian countries, the production and
distribution of documentaries became more and
more institutionalized from the 1930s and on.
In the 1930s and 1940s, we find an institutional structure of public and
private institution, and commissioning and funding for documentary films,
often with a very specific topic and informational purpose.
In all Scandinavian countries, we also find a publicly supported organization,
a national film bond who responsible for distribution of films to schools,
organizations, etc.
The films made are often rather short up to ten minutes, and
they are often shown in cinema before the main film.
But even though this structure did in fact secure a steady financing
of rather many films with very different topics, the system also put
restrictions on the artistic freedom of documentary filmmakers.
They could not decide themselves what films to make, and then apply for funding.
The funding came with the defined topic and mission.
This lack of artistic freedom was a frequent subject for
debate in the national and international organizations for documentary filmmakers.
But the fundamental system was not changed in Scandinavia until the mid 60s when
new film laws also recognized documentary film as an independent art form.
Despite this, films made in the early period often have a strong creative
dimension despite the commission task and the restrictions, and
occasionally even rather independent artistic documentaries were made.
In Denmark for instance, important directors in this generation,
like Theodor Christensen, Jorgen Roos, Bjarne Henning Jensen,
Ole Palsbo, and Hagen Hasselbalch made films, like C- A Corner of Sealand,
Paper, The Forest, Potatoes, or Shaped by Danish Hands.
Films that despite the mundane subject are told with elegance and visual creativity.
In 1948, the poetic Swedish filmmaker Arne Sucksdorff won an Oscar for
his film, Symphony of a City,
a film in which we follow life in Stockholm from morning til night.
And which beyond doubt, represents a new form of poetic and symbolic documentary
way of visualizing reality, but it is the period after 1960 which
is the most important international watershed for documentary film.
Around 1960 the technology of film making made reality filming much easier.
The cameras before 1960 were heavy and sync-sound recording impossible,
and filming on location and in motion was very complicated.
With the new lighter cameras and sound recording technology,
it suddenly became much easier to document live, reality, and
to hear the voices and sounds of reality on location.
Where documentary film before 1960 was very dominated by a traditional voice
over, narrated informational and educational type of film,
and authoritative kind of documentary based on expert voices.
The new film became more observational and
gave voice to people of an other kind.
The observational documentary had a more open, anthropological approach to reality.
The new documentary wanted to let reality and people speak for themselves.
And also wanted to portray broader aspects of social life,
also the more depressing and problematic.
But with the technological change also came an institutional change,
where documentary film making became part of the public funding for film in general.
Thus releasing documentary film makers
from a direct dependency on specific commissioned tasks.
Documentary filmmakers could now apply more freely for
funding of their films, and thus also pick their topics and form.
With this freedom of expression also came the freedom to develop a more
critical position.
Part of the explanation for this new freedom for documentary film
was also that television was now becoming an important producer of factual programs,
journalism information, and documentary, and
thus taking over some of the tasks earlier performed by film.
>> [FOREIGN]
>> We can illustrate this development by
going deeper into the works of the Danish director, Henning Carlsen.
And the Swedish direction, Stefan Jarl, and
the Norwegian director, Knut Erik Jensen.
They all belonged to the new post-1960 generation of more independent and
socially engaged documentary film directors, and they all made key
documentaries about life and social groups in the Scandinavian welfare state.
Henning Carlsen is also known internationally
as a fiction film director, but throughout his career
he has contributed significantly to the documentary film tradition.
His trilogy, Old People from 1960, Family Pictures from 1964, and Young,
from 1965 was inspired by the French cinema verite movement.
Which wanted to introduce a more anthropological study of everyday life
based on observation of people, their own stories, but
also with a reflexive dimension.
The reflexive dimension is visible in the film through sequences.
For instance, in the film Young, where Henning Carlsen presents his vision for
the film in a dialogue with the young people portrayed in the film.
The way the film is made becomes a part of the film.
The trilogy as a whole is a social, and also very poetic and
creative story of life in the 1960s.
The old people about to retire, their present and past life,
their dreams, hopes and fears.
They younger generation about to enter education, work, and
love, and family, and families from different social groups.
The trilogy is a mapping of lifeforms and social norms and structures in Denmark
in the 1960s, and it is a new documentary which is not preaching or
showing reality from a more authoritative point of view.
It is a montage of voices and
slices of life stories that give us a more direct image of reality.
Henning Carlsen's documentary trilogy deals with different social groups
in Denmark.
Stefan Jarl's trilogy, the Mods trilogy from 1968 to 1993,
is a portrait of a subculture with the young,
rebellious 68 generation called the Mods.
Jarl's trilogy is based on the same documentary strategy
as Henning Carlsen's, but his portrait of this generation and
particular youth culture is a dark, tragic story of decay and death.
It is a film about the darker side of the Scandinavian welfare state.
About a young generation who lost track of life in drugs and alcohol.
The trilogy is about a quite unique
thing in the sense that it follows the same group of young people over 25 years.
In the first part, They Call Us Misfits from 1968, we follow
a group of young ones living their Bohemian subcultural life in Stockholm.
We get very close to them in all aspects of their life,
including their sexual life.
But we follow, especially two of them, Kenneth "Kenta" Gustafsson, and
Gustav 'Stoffe' Svensson.
Where the first film showed sign of vitality, visions, and hopes for
life, different from what they see as a bourgeois style of life.
The second film with the ironic title, A Respectable Life from 1969 is
characterized by heavy drug use, life at the bottom of society, and early death.
At the end of the film Stoffe dies of an overdose, so Kenta is
the only of the two main characters alive throughout the trilogy.
In the third part of the trilogy, Jarl uses elements from the first film inserted
in the second, so past and present are merged in what is now a color film.
But he also uses heavy symbolic montage of images contrasting the rich and
the normal life in Stockholm, and the extremely problematic life of
the outcasts, those that the welfare state cannot apparently reach.
In the last part of the trilogy, from Misfits to Yuppies from 1993,
this dimension and contrast is moved
into the families of the former mods to kids who are now taking over.
They carry a heavy social and psychological burden, but
the film shows that they are much better in coping with the reality of the 1990s,
than their parents were in dealing with the 1960s and 70s.
[MUSIC]
The Norwegian director, Knut Erik Jensen in 2001 had an amazing Scandinavian and
international success with the film Cool and Crazy.
This film about a male choir in Berlevag, in Finnmark,
in Northern Norway was seen by 1.2 million Norwegians in cinema.
The film is partly an homage to the people at the local society of Finnmark,
the part of Norway often in focus in Jensen's films.
For instance, a large television documentary series,
Finnmark Between East and West from 1986.
But Cool and Crazy is also a portrait of the place with a community spirit and
sense of solidarity between very different people.
Something which can be seen as a counter image to a time
with competition and strong individualism.
Thank you for your attention.
[MUSIC]
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