The Cultural Practice of Immigrant Filmmaking

Minor Immigrant Cinemas in Sweden 19501990

By (author) Lars Gustaf Andersson, John Sundholm Foreword by David E. James

Publication date:

12 June 2019

Publisher

Intellect Books

Dimensions:

230x170mm
7x9"

ISBN-13: 9781783209866

Based on a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council, this book analyses 40 years of post-war independent immigrant filmmaking in Sweden. John Sundholm and Lars Gustaf Andersson consider the creativity that lies in the state of exile, offering analyses of over 50 rarely seen immigrant films that would otherwise remain invisible and unarchived. They shed light on the complex web of personal, economic and cultural circumstances around migrant filmmaking, and discuss associations that became important sites of self-organization for exiled filmmakers: The Independent Film Group, The Stockholm Film Workshop, Cineco, Kaleidoscope and Tensta Film Association.

Using an innovative combination of key film theory, The Cultural Practice of Immigrant Filmmaking studies immigrant filmmaking in a transnational context, exploring how immigrant filmmakers use film to find a place in a new cultural situation.

The e-book of this work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Open Access PDF of this title is available from OAPEN, at this link - The Cultural Practice of Immigrant Filmmaking.

Introduction: The Cultural Practice of Immigrant Filmmaking

Film and Theory

Minor cinemas, the public sphere and the production of locality

Migration and diaspora: Notes on recent research

Outline of the book

Chapter 1: Migrants’ Minor Cinemas: Beyond Accented and Exilic Cinema

Accented cinema

Minor cinema

Beyond textual models of the accented and exilic

Chapter 2: Conditions of Production: Immigrant’s Associations and Workshops in Sweden

Immigration and culture in post-war Sweden

Establishing experimental film culture: The Independent Film Group

Immigrant film as cultural policy: The Stockholm Film Workshop

The momentary agency: Cineco (Cinecooperativo)

To be or not to be a filmmaker: Kaledioscope

Do it yourself: The Tensta Film Association

The production of film, the production of experience and the public

Chapter 3: From Avant-garde to Communion: Ten Films by Immigrant Filmmakers in Sweden

Fabulations in the minor key

Study 1 (Awakening) by Peter Weiss (1952)

Alone by the Tensta Film Association (1974)

Do You Want to Join Me, Martha? by the Tensta Film Association (1980)

Interference by Maureen Paley (1977)

The Earthman by Muammer Özer (1980)

The Mirage by Guillermo Álvarez/Cineco (1981)

The Sea is Far Away by Reza Bagher (1983)

The Promise by Menelaos Carayannis (1984)

The Waiting by Myriam Braniff (1989)

Five Minutes for the Souls of America by César Galindo (1992)

Projecting a public, creating a context

Chapter 4: The Cultural Practice of Minor Immigrant Cinema Archiving

The archival life of cinema

The archival trajectories of the immigrant films

The Stockholm Film Workshop and immigrant filmmaking

Performing accidental archives

Dispostif in the making, palimpsests of minor histories and the politics of recognition

Conclusion: Immigrant Filmmaking as Minor Cinema Practice

‘This fascinating and painstakingly researched book unearths the rich history of immigrant filmmaking and film workshops in Sweden, interrogating the concept of minor cinema and the tenets of film historiography. Offering ten case studies, Andersson and Sundholm examine the films as one element in a complex process and practice encompassing filmmaker associations, film policy, audiences and archives.’