Göran Olsson

Archival film maestro Göran Hugo Olsson has assembled—from a vast catalogue of footage in the vaults of Sweden’s national television service SVT—accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as witnessed and represented by Swedish journalists. Stories of the beginning of the Israeli state interwoven with the Palestinian struggle for independence. News coverage with Yasser Arafat and interviews with Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban during a visit to Sweden unseen since first broadcast. From the tenth anniversary of Israel’s founding to the First Intifada, perspectives and encounters with statesmen, civilians, revolutionaries, and intellectuals tell the story from myriad angles of an evolving media landscape, revivifying a history of the ongoing conflict.

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Since 1967, Guy Debord’s critical manifesto ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ has been an essentiel theoretical basis for any attempt to analyse the capitalist society of images that permeates every aspect of life in the Western world. We live in a continuous sensory bombardment of distractions that keep us in the role of passive consumers – a condition that has not exactly improved since the revolutionary 60s. What to do? And how do you film a notoriously complicated theory that attacks the very image itself? Artist Roxy Farhat and filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson (‘Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975’) bring Guy Debord’s ideas into the 21st century. Guy Debord’s own (anti)films are given a modern counterpoint by satirical interventions in a visual work that is not afraid to criticise neither itself nor the cult around Debord and situationism.

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"England 79" - 17 scenes from Great Britain the winter of discontent, 1979.

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The concept, the myth, month: May 1968. Student revolt, May revolt, Paris, Cannes, Båstad, The union house occupation, feminism, Biafra, Vietnam war. Filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson paints a picture of the politically turbulent month by day with the help of the Swedish Television (SVT) archive and Maja Ekelöf's classic book "Rapport från en skurhink".

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Albert and David Maysles' classic GREY GARDENS immortalized the estate of Edith and Little Edie Beale, relatives of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who lived in alarmingly poor conditions. But there is more to the story: it was Lee Radziwill and Peter Beard who first brought the Maysles to the Beales, when the two set out to make a film about Radziwill's childhood. The reels of that first contact were shelved for 45 years. This documentary recovers the lost footage. Anchored in Beard's recollections and artistic vision, we are returned to "that summer" in 1972, a seductive dream world and collage of radically unconventional creative personalities—Warhol, Bacon, Jagger, Capote—practicing the art of living amidst oppressive forces of class expectation and prejudice.

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While southern Europe is crumbling, Angola is the world’s fastest growing economy. In Africa’s rapidly developing cities, urban musicians are creating sounds that have come to define the new generation. Urban music like kuduro, coupé-décalé and azonto have arisen out of social change and have come to define a new African identity shaped by post-colonial consciousness.

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Based on powerful archival material documenting the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, this documentary is accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.

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Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.

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A creative documentary about the song recorded by soul-man Billy Paul in the 70's. But also about the Philly Sound, Philadelphia, racism, cocaine, money and fame in the life and love of a beautiful elderly couple.

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An interview with a murder investigator.

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In 1996, the artist Leila K was nominated for the best album award, for her album "Manic Panic", in the Swedish Grammis Gallan. She ultimately lost the award to Dilba, and didn't take it very well. The day after, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published a story about Leila K peeing on the floor at the award ceremony. Leila K filed a lawsuit against them, and was offered a chance to redeem herself. The documentary also covers how Leila K built her career and stardom, from the beginning with Rob'n'Raz and their world wide mega hit "Got To Get" in 1989, up to her second album of her solo career.

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Theater the New Hip-Hop depicts the life of Sharmarke Elmi. In a world where hip-hop has been the primary creative expression, he challenges himself and his surroundings. Sharmarke starts with stand-up but discovers that theater also can be a way to create stories out of life. With the support of his friends who are artists, poets and writers, he gathers the courage and get up on a theater stage for the first time. The film captures Sharmarke’s struggle to break norms. It is a film about theater, hip-hop and society.

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Archival film maestro Göran Hugo Olsson has assembled—from a vast catalogue of footage in the vaults of Sweden’s national television service SVT—accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as witnessed and represented by Swedish journalists. Stories of the beginning of the Israeli state interwoven with the Palestinian struggle for independence. News coverage with Yasser Arafat and interviews with Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban during a visit to Sweden unseen since first broadcast. From the tenth anniversary of Israel’s founding to the First Intifada, perspectives and encounters with statesmen, civilians, revolutionaries, and intellectuals tell the story from myriad angles of an evolving media landscape, revivifying a history of the ongoing conflict.

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Loran, a filmmaker from the notorious suburb Gottsunda, grapples with the desire to move away but is torn by loyalty to his childhood friends who lead a criminal life. "G" marks Loran's farewell to Gottsunda but completing the film in a changed community tests his sense of belonging and identity.

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Amber belongs to a queer generation which no longer wants society to dictate their identity. The teenagers proudly inhabit a spectrum of fluid identities and master their first loves and losses.

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