SUB UMBRA ALARUM LUNA FINISHED

February 13, 2016

  There are many films I could list as having been formative in my teens and 20s. They have all been part of a cocktail of form and content that still lingers on, and now affect my own filmmaking processes. One of the key films all along the way has been Derek Jarman’s In the Shadow of the Sun, shot on super 8 and finished in 1975. A soundtrack was later added by Jarman’s friends Throbbing Gristle (1980). The total impact of seeing this film was both inspiring and overwhelming. With such simple tools (super 8, slow motion, superimpositions, a “psychic” soundtrack of undefinable music) Jarman managed to transmit a completely new kind of narrative. One which spoke in a language of symbols and dreams: a mythological insight into possibilities rather than a fixed and causal display of strange goings-on. A sense of aestheticised reverie takes hold and simply doesn’t let go. A couple of years ago, I felt I wanted to pay tribute to this film that has been...

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The Zen Doodle Coloring book (for adults)

February 8, 2016

  I have never made a secret of my love for New York. Certain places just resonate in ways that are impossible to explain. Impossible, because it’s not a matter of analysing or thinking about the place. Rather, it’s a matter of emotional fascination, voyeuristic satisfaction and energy in quaquaversal motion. Even before coming to New York for the first time, in 1993, I fantasised about the place. Gotham romanticism, 42nd Street, Beat & Jazz 50s, Warhol 60s, tasteless disco 70s and no wave, cocaine-fueled yuppie 80s… ”The first trip blew my mind.” Since then, I keep coming back. I probably have more friends in New York than at home in Sweden, and interest in my work certainly seems greater there (vanity must surely be a part of the resonance!). Strolling down the wide Manhattan avenues or the skyscraper-encased crossing streets, I’m always amazed at the mix between the new and old. Remnants of glory days fiercely remain and defy, threatened by new and...

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Chaos, coma & clueless condescendence

January 25, 2016

  To say that the immigration crisis in Europe is a complex issue is an understatement. With masses of refugees from Syria, Northern Africa and other regions seeking shelter and asylum predominantly in Northern Europe, the countries involved have had to re-evaluate perspectives, ideals and, not least, capacities, and have been forced to come to some pretty (or not so pretty) rude awakenings. My thoughts on reactionary poly-tics and the complex situation in Sweden, where misdirected altruism has recently become a cynically condescending not-so-merry-go-round, have been published by ERIS Magazine right HERE!    

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