C. Claire Thomson - Short Films From a Small Nation: Danish Informational Cinema 1935-1965

SHORT FILMS FROM A SMALL NATION

Traditions in World Cinema

General Editors
Linda Badley (Middle Tennessee State University)
R. Barton Palmer (Clemson University)

Founding Editor
Steven Jay Schneider (New York University)

Titles in the series include:

Traditions in World Cinema
Linda Badley, R. Barton Palmer and
Steven Jay Schneider (eds)

Japanese Horror Cinema
Jay McRoy (ed.)

New Punk Cinema
Nicholas Rombes (ed.)

African Filmmaking
Roy Armes

Palestinian Cinema
Nurith Gertz and George Khleifi

Czech and Slovak Cinema
Peter Hames

The New Neapolitan Cinema
Alex Marlow-Mann

American Smart Cinema
Claire Perkins

The International Film Musical
Corey Creekmur and Linda Mokdad (eds)

Italian Neorealist Cinema
Torunn Haaland

Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Europe
Aga Skrodzka

Italian Post-Neorealist Cinema
Luca Barattoni

Spanish Horror Film
Antonio Lzaro-Reboll

Post-beur Cinema
Will Higbee

New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus
Flannery Wilson

International Noir
Homer B. Pettey and R. Barton Palmer (eds)

Films on Ice
Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westersthl Stenport (eds)

Nordic Genre Film
Tommy Gustafsson and Pietari Kp (eds)

Contemporary Japanese Cinema since
Hana-Bi
Adam Bingham

Chinese Martial Arts Cinema 2nd edn
Stephen Teo

Slow Cinema
Tiago de Luca and Nuno Barradas Jorge (eds)

Expressionism in Cinema
Olaf Brill and Gary D. Rhodes (eds)

French Language Road Cinema
Michael Gott

Transnational Film Remakes
Iain Robert Smith and Constantine Verevis (eds)

Coming-of-age Cinema in New Zealand
Alistair Fox

Short Films from a Small Nation
C. Claire Thomson

www.edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/tiwc

SHORT FILMS FROM A
SMALL NATION

Danish Informational Cinema 19351965

C. Claire Thomson

In memory of William and Helen Ritchie

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

C. Claire Thomson, 2018

Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jacksons Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4744 2415 8

The right of C. Claire Thomson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

This book was made possible by two institutions of the Danish state: Det Danske Filminstitut (DFI), and Danmarks Nationalbank. I would like to thank the staff of the DFI unreservedly for welcoming me so warmly to Copenhagen and for sharing their expertise and their passion for film. Many DFI colleagues contributed with invaluable suggestions for films, leads and anecdotes, but without advice and help from Thomas C. Christensen, Birgit Granhj Dam, Lisbeth Richter Larsen and Lars-Martin Srensen, this project quite simply would not have happened.

Danmarks Nationalbank facilitated the project by generously allocating me accommodation in its guest apartments for researchers at Nyhavn 18 in 201314. This was an inspiring place to live and to work, and I would like to thank the residents of Nyhavnia for their warmth and support.

I would also like to thank the School of European Languages, Culture and Society and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UCL for granting me research leave to undertake the primary research for this project.

I am grateful to have had opportunities to test out ideas and case studies in various contexts, including the Danish Film Institute, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Lund, the University of Edinburgh, the Danish Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, the Embassy of Denmark in London and the Anglo-Danish Society, a UCL Lunch Hour Lecture and Bright Club London. I would like to thank colleagues and audiences for their useful comments and the various leads they provided on those occasions. Students of Nordic cinema, European cinema and the module Short Films, Big Ideas at UCL have contributed more than they know with their enthusiasm and engagement. Gillian Leslie and Richard Strachan at Edinburgh University Press have been unfailingly efficient, encouraging and helpful. I would particularly like to thank Pei-Sze Chow, Tiago De Luca, Birgit Granhj Dam, Mette Hjort, Gauti Sigthorsson, Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, Essi Viitanen, an anonymous reviewer and the series editors for their constructive and encouraging comments on the proposal and manuscript, and Sue Dalgleish for efficient and friendly copy-editing. Marc David Jacobs at Edinburgh Film Guild gave very generously of his time and knowledge to help me understand the role of the Edinburgh International Film Festival in the development of Danish documentarism. Peter Schepelern was kind enough to gift me a copy of the hard-to-find but essential book Kortfilmen og staten. Other friends, colleagues and students have asked questions and made suggestions that helped me think through particular aspects of the project and have provided much-appreciated input and encouragement, especially Julie K. Allen, Anna Ulrikke Andersen, Hans-Christian Andersen, Sarah Bell, Stephanie Bird, Ib Bondebjerg, Mads Bunch, Elettra Carbone, Sarah Death, Richard Farmer, Marita Fraser, Janet Garton, Erin Goeres, Lee Grieveson, Jesper Hansen, Thomas Uwe Henderson, Andrew Higson, Mary Hilson, Dominic Hinde of Leith, John Hogan, Gaby Hogan-Brun, Birger and Peta Jensen, Mats Jnsson, Tobias Juel Hj, Henrik Kjeldsholm, Dilwyn Knox, Mart Kuldkepp, Ellen Kythor, Gavin Lang, Clare Lees, Helga Hlagerur Lthersdttir, Carol OSullivan, Will Sayers, Madeleine Schlawitz, Margit Staehr, Emil Stjernholm, Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen, Kirsten Thorup and Casper Tybjerg. Titus Hjelm entrusted me with his home at a crucial moment, and Gauti Sigthorsson brewed more coffee than anyone could reasonably be expected to. Warm thanks go to Asbjrn Nybo for his friendship during my year in Copenhagen, and to my parents, Catherine and Robert Thomson, and my sister, Lizzi, for unstinting moral and practical support, and lots of laughs too.

Watch the films discussed at q-r.to/balKqd.

General editors: Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer

Founding editor: Steven Jay Schneider

Traditions in World Cinema is a series of textbooks and monographs devoted to the analysis of currently popular and previously underexamined or undervalued film movements from around the globe. Also intended for general interest readers, the textbooks in this series offer undergraduate- and graduate-level film students accessible and comprehensive introductions to diverse traditions in world cinema. The monographs open up for advanced academic study more specialised groups of films, including those that require theoretically oriented approaches. Both textbooks and monographs provide thorough examinations of the industrial, cultural, and socio-historical conditions of production and reception.