Talent development and capacity building in small nations : on the twinning of filmmakers

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema

Publication Date

6-1-2016

Volume

6

Issue

2

First Page

81

Last Page

100

Publisher

Intellect Ltd.

Keywords

Capacity building, Co-authorship, Multiculturalism, Partnership of equals, Public values, Twinning

Abstract

In a small-nation film and media ecology, cogent thinking about capacity building is of critical importance. In the context of Danish documentary filmmaking, twinning has emerged as a promising model. Twinning engages Danish filmmakers with a world beyond Denmark, thereby counteracting certain parochialisms. At the same time, this model ties in with the Danish state’s development goals in the cultural domain, including the aim of fostering dialogue and understanding between Denmark and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region). This article evokes the landscape of twinning, as developed by Danish institutions, and provides a rationale for taking the phenomenon of transnationally paired practitioners seriously. More specifically, twinning is seen as a means of realizing public values through filmmaking. A specific instance of twinning involving collaboration between a Danish and a Lebanese filmmaker is discussed in detail, the aim being to identify the conditions under which the relevant type of co-authorship can be said to succeed. The emphasis in this regard is on the ways in which a partnership of equals emerges in the process of making the documentary En Araber kommer til byen (An Arab Comes to Town) (Larsen and Ghossein, 2008).

DOI

10.1386/jsca.6.2.81_1

Print ISSN

20427891

E-ISSN

20427905

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2016 Intellect Ltd Article. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Hjort, M. (2016). Talent development and capacity building in small nations: On the twinning of filmmakers. Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 6(2), 81-100. doi: 10.1386/jsca.6.2.81_1

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