A Good Day for Doris

The Göteborg Film Festival (January 26 through February 6) has long been recognized as the most ground-breaking festival in Sweden, and there was ample justification for its reputation this year in the impressive line-up of both Nordic and international films. As the festival is the annual industry meeting place for directors, actors, producers and distributors, it's an excellent place to stir things up and to try to steer them in the right direction. Last year, festival director Jannike Åhlund took aim at the Swedish entry in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar category, As It Is in Heaven (2005) directed by Kay Pollak. After so much discussion of gender equality, she asked, how could a script from 2005 create "a New Age Jesus" who does not report a case of spousal abuse? In addition, film critics and filmmakers attacked the state system of film financing in Sweden in which only a handful of women receive funding for features. The Swedish Film Institute shortly thereafter amended the state film agreement to include "a gender directive." Within three years, 40 percent of the scripts slated to become "national" films "should" be written by women.

Authentic scripts for women's roles and gender equality for film financing are the greatest demands women have been making of the Swedish film industry. A national chapter of Women in Film and Television actively works to help achieve these goals. At this year's festival in Göteborg, a special seminar was held to discuss how to increase the participation of women in filmmaking, with the inauguration of Sweden's first cinema manifesto. This eye-catching initiative comes from Doris Film, a group of Göteborg-based filmmakers who have written their own Doris Manifesto for filmmaking without any "shoulds": all films must be written by women, all films must have at least one female leading part, all original music must be composed by women, and women must fill all the major artistic and decision-making roles. To achieve this, Doris presently holds a script competition in which three films a year are chosen for financing. The latest winners were presented at the seminar and the filmmakers and scriptwriters invited on stage: Shoot Me, from Anna Hylander; Susanne Goes Single, Lena Hanno Clyne; and Mon 3, Lena Koppel.

"There is one problem with the Doris Manifesto", said Swedish filmmaker Miko Lazic (Made In Yugoslavia, 2005). "They should be making features, not shorts!" Well enough. But Doris, named for Doris Day, by the way, is working in the right direction.

Particularly good news this year for Swedish women in film: director Lena Einhorn took home the most prestigious award for Swedish film, the Guldbagge (Gold Bug), the Swedish equivalent of the Oscars, for best film and best screenplay. Nina's Journey is about her mother's survival in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII, a film brilliantly interwoven with interviews with her mother, Nina, documentary footage and recreations of the events. Shot entirely on DV, it has the look of a finely crafted film and never loses momentum. Einhorn also won a newly established award, the Mai Zetterling Award, named for one of Sweden's most renowned actors who made a career in Hollywood and later became a director whose films were screened at Cannes and Venice (Loving Couples, Wargame, Night Games). Zetterling, a pioneer for Swedish women working in film, helped start the first organization of women working in film.

The Göteborg Festival also acknowledges international women in the film world. One of the festival's master classes was given by the British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto, who focuses on the conditions of women around the world. She presented her latest doc on women working in a court for the disadvantaged in Cameroon, Sisters In Law, an award-winner at Cannes in 2005, and a special retrospective of Longinotto's work was featured.

Posted by dwhudson at February 25, 2006 6:51 AM