Part II Making Filmmakers Models and Values
Introduction Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist Taking an interest in film, whether as a cinephile or professional scholar, is often a matter of bringing into sharp focus the unique contributions of individual film practitioners who have traditionally been celebrated, or, in cases of prior neglect or recent emergence, are seen as deserving recognition. Embedded in the standard meanings of cinephile and film scholar is the idea of achieving a fine grained understanding of the distinctiveness of a given filmmaker s style or approach. What is valued is the hard won knowledge and deep insight that are needed to articulate what makes a film by a Ruben Östlund, an Aki Kaurismäki, or a Carl Th. Dreyer a film by just that director, the ability to identify and explain the cinematic deviations from a creative path with clear contours and definition, those moments when the filmmaker s distinctive approach gives way to something more diffuse and muddled, or something more generic. Being able accurately to identify, and, just as importantly, make sense of the transitions and dynamics between an emerging individual style, a fully established style, banal self imitation, and even the loss of an individual style are important aspects of film appreciation. In the case of Susanne Bier, for example, we are likely to be looking for a narrative that explicates the continuities between films like The One and Only (Den eneste ene, 1999), Brothers (Brødre, 2004), After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet, 2006), In a Better World (Hævnen, 2010), and Love is All You Need (Den skaldede frisør, 2012) all typically seen as Bier s most Bier like films as well as the problematic nature of the director s English language efforts Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) and Serena (2014) both widely regarded as discordant notes in an oeuvre that is otherwise defined by artistically convincing, pragmatically effective, and timely strategies. A full account of the achievements of a given film practitioner of an awardwinning director, editor, or cinematographer often needs to encompass not only the collaborative or collectivist nature of specific instances of filmmaking, but also the enabling or impeding constraints that define the relevant contexts of production. A Companion to Nordic Cinema, First Edition. Edited by Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist. 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
102 Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist Filmmaking, after all, is a process that typically involves some sort of teamwork, varying degrees of responsibility and control, and a whole range of institutional factors related, for example, to the priorities of production companies and funding agencies. In seeking to clarify the nature of a filmmaker s contributions, it can also be important to look beyond the temporal framework established by the oeuvre itself. Causal explanations for the salient features of that oeuvre may in some cases legitimately be sought in biographical histories pre dating its existence. In the case of Lars von Trier, for example, it is hard to ignore the impact of a parenting style that insisted on the autonomy of the child, and of maternal artistic ambitions that were to be vicariously realized by the next generation (Schepelern 2000). The institutional becoming and being of filmmakers have, until recently, received little focused or systematic attention. Yet, the genesis of filmmakers is of critical importance, for filmmakers to do not step onto the filmmaking stage ready made, but emerge onto it, through processes involving complicated dynamics between institutional shaping and the specificities including talent, ethos, gender, and ethnicity of the individuals in question. The neglect of the role played by the institutional making of filmmakers is less acute now than it once was, as a result of interventions by Duncan Petrie and Rod Stoneman (2014), Eva Novrup Redvall (2010), Heidi Philipsen (forthcoming and 2004), and Mette Hjort (2013[a],[b]), all of whom point to the decisive impact that philosophies of film pedagogy, modes of film training, and types of institutional culture can have, not only on individual film practitioners, but, through them, on an entire film milieu or film industry. In some instances, the effects of specific film pedagogies extend well beyond national borders. This is clearly true for the National Film School of Denmark (Den Danske Filmskole), which attracts aspiring filmmakers from across the Nordic region and also serves as a clear reference point for the development of institutions devoted to film training, the new film school in Lillehammer, Norway, being a case in point. As Heidi Philipsen (forthcoming) remarks, the much younger National Film School of Norway (Den Norske Filmskolen), established in 1997 and vigorously renewed under the leadership of the Danish film school alumnus, Thomas Stenderup, from 2009 onwards, now draws heavily on the rule based thinking that informs film pedagogy at the Danish school. In this section of the Companion a case is made for what might be called an institutional account of the genesis of the Nordic filmmaker, the aim being to call attention to the roles that various sites devoted to the making of film practitioners play in shaping filmmakers values, commitments, and approaches to filmmaking. These sites admit of considerable variety, for they may be short lived or stable, formal or informal, state initiated or established through the private sector, just as they may target learners on a full time or part time basis, or adults as compared with children and young people, to mention but some of the possible differences. Astrid Söderbergh Widding s chapter captures some of this diversity by exploring the founding moments and defining characteristics of institutions with explicit mission statements relating to the training of filmmakers from the 1960s onwards (these founding moments are as follows: Sweden 1963; Denmark 1966; Iceland 1992; Norway 1997; Finland 2010). Given the prolific nature of filmmaking in parts of the Nordic region
Introduction 103 prior to the 1960s, it is clear that the scope of any discussion designed to produce a robust institutional account of the making of Nordic filmmakers must be capacious enough to include the practices of those filmmaking companies that produced filmmakers through processes of induction into a corporate culture. Focusing on non fiction filmmaking in Sweden from 1920 to 1960, Mats Jönsson s chapter is crucial in this regard. Jönsson s analysis not only demonstrates the extent to which the ontology of the non fiction filmmaker was suffused with corporate practices during the period in question, but also pinpoints the close connections between those practices and state priorities, more specifically, the construction of the Swedish welfare state. The most recent decades have brought additional diversity, and, indeed, institutional density, to the Nordic sector dedicated to film training, capacity building, and talent development, with aspiring and early career filmmakers now able to choose from among an array of options and pathways. Relevant in this regard are initiatives such as the alternative, student driven film school, Super16. Established by filmmakers Carsten Myllerup, Linda Krogsøe Holmberg, and Jens Mikkelsen in 1999, in the wake of (serial) rejections from the National Film School of Denmark, Super16 is a clear instance of an alternative, bottom up approach to institution building, and one that effectively expands the institutional arena for film training, capacity building, and talent development. Super16 s core values center on self governance, selffinancing, and partnerships with the Danish film industry, especially Nordisk Film. The institutional stability achieved by Super16 is closely related to the support that it found in industry. More specifically, the student governed, student driven, and partly student financed course of structured, practice and project based film training was generally viewed as providing welcome opportunities for practitioners already working in the industry to enhance their skills, and as giving the industry itself more of a say with regard to the development of filmmakers skills (Færch 2012, 15). Another notable, and very recent, example of diversification is the Swedish Film Institute s pathbreaking initiatives, under the leadership of CEO Anna Serner, to achieve gender parity among films receiving SFI funding, which constitute the vast majority of Swedish films. In 2015, Serner created a buzz at the Cannes Film Festival when she announced that funded films by female directors had doubled in Sweden from 26 percent in 2011 to 50 percent in 2014. In addition, 55 percent of funded films were scripted by women, and 65 percent were produced by women (Byrnes 2015). During this same period, a number of first feature films by female directors from Sweden, such as Lisa Aschan s She Monkeys (Apflickorna, 2011), Gabriela Pichler s Eat Sleep Die (Äta Söva Dö, 2012), and Sanna Lenken s My Skinny Sister (Min Lilla Syster, 2015), have garnered international acclaim and festival awards. At a time when Hollywood film practitioners were wringing their hands over a lack of diversity among Oscar nominees, Sweden has shown that advocating diversity in film production can result in high-quality filmmaking. An important feature of current developments in the Nordic region is transnational engagement and it is thus crucial to evoke not only the full spectrum of the types of training on offer, but also the ways in which partnerships between the Nordic region and other parts of the world are being forged through film training, capacity building,
104 Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist and talent development. Mette Hjort s chapter makes reference to partnerships involving Danish institutions, on the one hand, and organizations and practitioners in Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and the Middle East, on the other. Having sketched the contours of a larger context of transnational engagement, Hjort goes on to focus on the values and goals driving talent development at Cph:Dox - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival s Dox:Lab. A Cross cultural Program for Selected Filmmakers, Dox:Lab matches filmmakers from Europe with filmmakers from other world regions, culturally hybrid co direction based on transnational partnerships having been identified by the organizers as an especially effective means of meeting some of the current needs of Nordic talent development. With a combined scope spanning almost a century, the three chapters provide insight into the changing circumstances of the genesis of filmmakers in the Nordic region. The differences and similarities that emerge are anything but trivial, for in the play of divergence and convergence we find the possibility of choice and expanded opportunities, both indicators of a well developed transnational film ecology, but also reflections of policies and strategies related to the survival of small national cinemas in the Nordic region. The chapters also offer insight into the values that have shaped the Nordic societies during key phases of their development, the preferred ways of making filmmakers having helped to bolster, diffuse, and socially embed some of the axiological choices and commitments in question. References Byrnes, Paul. 2015. How Sweden Hit its 50:50 Gender Target for Film Production in Record Time. The Sydney Morning Herald, May 24. Accessed January 31, 2016. http:// www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/how-sweden-hit-its-5050-gender-targetfor-film-production-in-record-time-20150519-gh489a.html. Færch, Sissel. 2012. Fra vækstlagets muld Et casestudie af filmuddannelsen Super16s organisationsform og position i det danske filmmiljø (A Case Study of Super16 s Organizational Form and Position in the Danish Film Milieu), Master s thesis. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen. Hjort, Mette, ed. 2013[a]. The Education of the Filmmaker in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Hjort, Mette, ed. 2013[b]. The Education of the Filmmaker in Europe, Australia, and Asia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Petrie, Duncan, and Rod Stoneman. 2014. Educating Film makers: Past, Present and Future. Bristol: Intellect. Philipsen, Heidi. 2004. Dansk films nye bølge, afsæt og aftryk fra Den Danske Filmskole (The New Wave of Danish Film Influences and Imprints from the National Film School of Denmark), PhD dissertation. Odense: University of Southern Denmark. Philipsen, Heidi. Forthcoming. A Rule based Film learning Pedagogy: Analysis of Two Nordic Film Schools. Redvall, Eva Novrup. 2010. Teaching Screenwriting in a Time of Storytelling Blindness: The Meeting of the Auteur and the Screenwriting Tradition in Danish Film making. Journal of Screenwriting 1: 57 79. Schepelern, Peter. 2000. Lars von Triers film, Tvang og befrielse. Copenhagen: Rosinante.