Based on a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council, this book analyses 40 years of post-war independent immigrant filmmaking in Sweden. John Sundholm and Lars Gustaf Andersson consider the creativity that lies in the state of exile, offering analyses of over 50 rarely seen immigrant films that would otherwise remain invisible and...

In tandem with a postnational imaginary which is nurtured by the ever-present promise of deterritorialized mobility and burgeoning migratory fluxes, walls and fences separating nation-states multiply. This is a burning issue: even though nation states at the centre of the global order increasingly present themselves as postnational, calls for tighter border security undermine utopian notions of both a borderless New Europe and the USA as the Promised Land. This collection investigates the urgent issue of borderscapes and the cinematic imaginary by bringing together a range of new approaches in the field of film and media studies, crossing over into sociology, migration studies and artistic research. The contributions focus on the interrelated motifs of borderscapes as they are represented and used in transnational cinematographies, from Palestine to Sweden, Spain, Finland, Italy, Iran, Iraq, France, the UK and US, and as constituting premises of cinematic production. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Transnational Cinemas journal.

At a time when migration is mostly discussed in terms of “conflict” and “crisis”, it is decidedly important to acknowledge the discursive traditions, narrative patterns, and conceptual categories that continue to inform how migration is represented, analyzed and theorized in contemporary Europe. This volume focuses on the potential of artistic and critical practices to challenge hegemonic framings of migration and embrace the ambivalence inherent in migration as a conflictual, often violent, yet also liberating uprooting. By placing special emphasis on “peripheral” perspectives and subject positions, the volume provides new insights into topics such as belonging and exclusion, the “migrant crisis”, and memory. By bringing into dialogue creative practices and academic discourses, it explores how new modes of seeing and theorizing may emerge through experiences and representations of migration. Situated within the field of literary and cultural studies, it complements historical and social analyses in the emerging interdisciplinary field of migration studies.

This book explores 2010s Hong Kong film industry, focusing on its (presumably) independent sector. Although frequently mentioned in global film industry studies, the term ‘independent film’ does not always carry a clear meaning. Starting with this point, this book studies closely Hong Kong’s new indie cinema of the 2010s from political, economic, social, cultural, and film industrial perspectives, arguing that this indie cinema was vital to the long-term sustainability of the city’s film industry.

Migration, Mobility and Sojourning in Cross-cultural Films: Interculturing Cinema draws on existing scholarship on global movements and intercultural communication in cinema to analyze six cross-cultural films. Ishani Mukherjee and Maggie Griffith Williams locate key themes that tie into the complexity and implications of global movements, including migrants’ experiences of culture-shock, cultural assimilation and/or integration, cultural identities in transition, social mobility and movements, and the short-term intercultural impact that sojourners experience in unfamiliar cultural space. Mukherjee and Williams explore how intercultural communication functions in the storytelling and in the formation of character relationships in these films, arguing that the depictions of migration, mobility, and the resulting intercultural communications are complex and stressful moments of conflict that lead to mixed results. Scholars of film studies, communication, migrant studies, sociology, and cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.

This unique collection focuses on the work of legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Written in the wake of the centenary of Bergman’s birth in 2018, the volume aims to combine new approaches to Bergman’s films and writings with more traditional analyses. Established themes such as Bergman’s interest in philosophy and psychology are addressed, but also less familiar topics, notably his relationship with Hollywood and his elaborate use of film music and autobiographical writing that characterised his later work. There are new analyses of aspects of Bergman’s most famous films, including Smiles of a Summer Night and Fanny and Alexander, but also insightful readings of lesser-known works, such as Saraband and Sawdust and Tinsel.

The Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries Since 1975 brings the series of cultural histories of the avant-garde in the Nordic countries up to the present. It discusses revisions and continuations of historical practices since 1975.