Nordic Film Series

Above is a close-up of slough sedge (Carex obnupta) foliage in Oregon's West Cascades.

The five-week Summer Term 2024 Nordic Film Series

 begins on Friday, August 2nd, and continues through

Friday, August 30th.

Poster will be attached below, once it's completed.

PLEASE SEE THE OTHER ATTACHMENTS AT THE 

BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR INFORMATION

ABOUT PAST FILM SERIES

The attachments currently at the bottom of the page include:  A) a poster showing the five films shown this past Spring Term 2024: B) a poster showing the ten films that were shown this past Winter Term 2024; C) a poster showing the five films that were shown in the Fall Term 2023 series; D) a poster showing the five films that were shown during Summer Term 2023; and E) details about the history of the series.

A Brief History of the Nordic Film Series

Many years ago, I lived and worked in northern Sweden where I developed a fondness for the Swedish landscape, culture, language, and people.  But it wasn't until fall 2005 that I found a way that I could really share my love of Sweden with the Eugene-Springfield community.

I'd begun teaching at the University of Oregon earlier that year and found that most lecture rooms were provided with projection equipment for showing both videotapes (remember those?) and DVDs on The Big Screen.  Although I'd never owned a television and knew very little about film and absolutely nothing about video projectors, the idea of hosting a film series was hatched.  I knew that I could rent the movies very inexpensively from local video stores, so my costs for doing the series would be very low.  And I decided that each evening, I would discuss a different aspect of Sweden—geography, history, food, language, etc.—before showing the film, and afterward have a brief discussion about the film itself.

After doing a little research, I found a number of Swedish films at a local video store called Flics and Pics (no longer in business) as well as a few at the Yamada Language Center on campus.  It was tough to come up with the requisite ten films that first year, but I did.  Then, I reserved a lecture room in McKenzie Hall on Friday evenings for winter term 2006, and the series was underway.

With very little advertising, the Swedish Film Series drew 25-40 or more people to each film.  By the second year of the series, as word spread and interest grew, we were already outgrowing the McKenzie Hall room.  In 2007, we moved to 177 Lawrence in the Architecture Building--where the series occasionally drew crowds of nearly 200 people.

I thought at the beginning that I would host this series for only five years.  But toward the end of the fifth year, I decided to offer just one more year of films—a "bonus" year that would include films from all five of the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden).  Thus began the Nordic Film Series which took place for the first time during winter term of 2011, and now looks as if it will continue indefinitely.

Finally, in 2012, I began offering a special five-week summer series, as well as the ten-week winter one.  It, too, appears as if it will continue indefinitely.

A list of all the films shown through Winter Term 2024 is attached below (as "Swedish and Nordic Film Series History")—as are posters for the most recent film series as well as the current one.

The series is offered under the aegis of the University of Oregon's Department of Landscape Architecture as an on-going lecture series entitled The Nordic Landscape in Contemporary Film.  The films are shown in 115 Lawrence Hall and each film is preceded by a 30-minute lecture that addresses aspects of the Nordic landscape, sensu lato, seen in the film that follows.

(This page updated 28 June 2024.)