Swedish Experimental Film

The main outcome of the project is an account of Swedish experimental film: A History of Swedish Experimental Film Culture: From Early Animation to Video Art (2010). In collaboration with Filmform archive the project will also establish a database, connected to the GAMA gateway, hosted by the European Union.

The aim of this project has been to research the history of Swedish experimental film, from early animation to the breakthrough of video art. The project has been accomplished in close collaboration with the Filmform Foundation, and the section for audiovisual media at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm.

The most obvious result of the project is the volume “A History of Swedish Experimental Film Culture: From Early Animation to Video Art”, published in 2010, but an important contribution is also the films that have been registered in a database under construction, hosted by Filmform.

It has been possible to connect films to their originators and distribution titles and other filmographic facts have been clarified. Most important is that several films have been found that had been considered as lost.

The history of Swedish experimental film has thus been revised, giving filmmakers such as Reinhold Holtermann, Leo Reis and Bo Jonsson their place. Women's experimental cinema in Sweden has been outlined, with filmmakers such as Eivor Burbeck and Gerd Osten. At the same time, several already well known auteurs like Viking Eggeling, Peter Weiss and Gunvor Nelson have been reframed in a new historiographic context.