SCREENING THE NORTH: FILM AND TV-SERIES IN SCANDINAVIA AND NORDEN

This course provides students from a variety of academic backgrounds with insight into contemporary Nordic film and TV series in a globalized framework. The interdisciplinary course relates close readings of audiovisual material to a larger socio-political and media-aesthetic context marked among others by the welfare state and issues of gender equality, migration, environmental concerns and decolonization. Apart from internationally renowned Scandinavian film directors (among others Susanne Bier, Lukas Moodysson, Joachim Trier, Lars von Trier and Ruben Östlund), the Nordic screen milieu has in recent years been very successful in producing transnational TV series that have travelled globally (among others series marketed as “Nordic Noir” such as Forbrydelsen (The Killing; DK) or Broen (The Bridge; DK/S). The most recent addition are web-based series such as the highly successful SKAM (N). The Nordic public service broadcasters play a significant role when it comes to the region's popular television drama series. Recently a range of new players and streaming services such as HBO Nordic or Viaplay have entered the stage and produce “originals” from the region. Another recent development reflected by the course is the strengthened voice of contemporary film from Greenland and Sápmi that has so far not necessarily been marketed or seen as “Nordic”, but circulates as “Indigenous cinema”. This growing body of films helps to explore and expand the notion of “Norden”, and to understand better the region's ethnic diversity as reflected by contemporary audiovisual media. The course responds to contemporary shifts in Nordic self-imagining and closely examine the ways in which audiovisual screened material mediates notions of imagined communities at local, national, and regional levels. Students are presented with a variety of audiovisual material, including documentaries, feature films, TV series, web-based series, and short films.