All the usual international TV organizations, including Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish TV (which refused to help in any way during the school course), refused to show ‘The Freethinker’. Like much of the rest of my work, it now sits unseen. I tried to interest Swedish schools in the project, and wrote to SEVENTY gymnasiums and high schools (including media schools) throughout the country to ask if they would like to use this Swedish student-produced film - ONE replied. Once again, this lack of interest has little to do with the project itself, but is coupled with resistance - or disinterest - within the contemporary education system to initiate critical thinking among students - especially with regard to the mass audiovisual media. I had hoped that the Swedish university system - or at least Strindberg scholars - would show an interest in the project, and use it. But once again I came up against the deadly wall of academia. ‘The Freethinker’ was screened at an International Strindberg Symposium in Moscow in 1996, and the comportment of most of the academics towards the film had to be seen to be believed! At a reception the day after the screening, most of the participants literally turned their backs when the students and I appeared, and behaved as if we did not exist. Most of these people apparently hated the film, and later one of them carefully explained that the scholars were not concerned with what the people (‘amateurs’) in the film had to say. This elitism - a complete lack of interest in the filmic achievement and work of Swedish Folk High School students - was extremely disturbing. The academics had clearly expected a series of cleverly written intellectual propositions on Strindberg - and were dismayed to find a film consisting of ideas and statements by various ‘unknowns’. They did not seem to grasp the irony of their intolerant reaction to ‘The Freethinker’ - especially given how marginalized August Strindberg was during most of his life in Sweden! The success of The Freethinker as a student production is arguably unparalleled in the history of the cinema; certainly it is beyond the level of anything ever dreamed of in the Swedish education system. High on the list of achievements in this film is the acting by a mixed amateur and professional cast, most of whom came from Stockholm and several neighbouring towns. Notable are performances by Anders Mattsson and Lena Settervall (both non-professionals) as August Strindberg and Siri von Essen. In the years since it was produced, The Freethinker remains boycotted by most of the Scandinavian educational institutions which could have shown it to their students - including the Dramatic Institute and the Swedish Film Institute in Stockholm. The various Scandinavian Ministeries of Education have also shown no interest in the film. It may be that The Freethinker is being deliberately avoided simply because it threatens those responsible for the mainly conservative strands of media education in Scandinavia, all of which continue to teach the Monoform and a totally non-critical utilization of the mass audiovisual media to the overwhelming majority of their students. Fear and resistance on the part of many of the professionals in media education means that The Freethinker remains unused, its potential for raising a critical debate among students completely untapped, and its achievement by a group of students shamefully unacknowledged. However, I still believe that The Freethinker has a very important role to play in the public media debate which must develop in the near future, in order to bring ideas - and a challenge - to the audiovisual crisis described here. This video project could make a marvellous pedagogical study, especially for students of media, history, and literature.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 15:08:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015