Naturfilm (nature film) consist of three image based essays that reflect on the relation between mankind and nature in Swedish classical nature documentaries, and also on modernityâs negotiation of the separation of nature and human culture by large. The essays include reflections on landscape, natural resources, species and gender relations, indigenous cultures and media materiality. The essays combine images and voice-over, more specifically a series of drawings of still images from existing film footage combined with fragmentary reflections on the images as media inscription and representation. The essays are media transformations of existing Swedish documentary films from the peak of the classical era, namely from the late 1930s until the early 1950s. In an ecological context, this period represents what is labeled âthe great accelerationâ, an increased exploitation of natural resources, and to some extent an intensified separation of nature and human activities.
NATURFILM
Elisa Rossholm has a Ph.D. in Art History at Stockholm University with the dissertation âWaiting for the main character: identity and identification in Swedish cartoon 1870â1900â. During 2017-2020 she worked as a curator for three exhibitions at NorrtĂ€lje Art Gallery and conducted the research project The Wordless Novel. The work has so far resulted in an essay in the journal OEI and a chapter in the scientific book Eros. Rossholm is a cartoonist and creator of three graphic novels: âI Belong Nowhereâ (Optimal Press 2011), âI stretched out my hand to eternityâ (Optimal Press 2012) and âThe Lambs of Le Mansâ (Epix, 2017). She is currently working on a fourth graphic novel with a planned release in 2021.
Anna Sofia Rossholm is an associate professor in Cinema Studies at Stockholm University. Rossholm has published two books and numerous articles on intermedial and transcultural relations in cinema, primarily in European Cinema. Her most recent book examines the creative writing of Ingmar Bergman's filmmaking (Ingmar Bergman och den lekfulla skriften, 2017). Her current research project examines the representation of nature in Swedish Cinema from an eco-critical perspective, with a particular emphasis on the northern mountain region as âwildernessâ in classical Swedish Cinema.
Visit the exposition in the database Research Catalogue.
