A revelation: Addressing feminist agency in Norwegian film history

Abstract

This article examines how gender balance in the Norwegian film sector has been narrativized, and as such is a historiographical challenge to a tendency to delineate the presence of women film directors at key dates as markers of equality. To suggest alternative trajectories, this article adopts a methodology of constellation, putting into dialogue the little-known women’s film and television network Women’s Film Forum (1982–89) and Women in Film and Television Norway (2005–present) as well as the production practices of director-writers Vibeke Løkkeberg, whose career began in the 1970s, and Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, whose first feature film premiered in 2021. Through these constellations, we explore ways to acknowledge the strategies and agencies of individual filmmakers and grassroots organizations that have addressed gender inequalities in the film and TV sectors for more than four decades and to re-frame the present moment beyond official film policies.