Mats Hjelm has been awarded Filmform’s special prize for his elaborate documentary video works, which deals with important issues with great thoughtfulness. Hjelm began working with pictorial art in the 90’s and today he focuses mainly on video. Crucial to Hjelm’s production is the trilogy “White Flight” (1997), “Man to Man” (2000) and “Kap Atlantis” (2002).
In the trilogy Hjelm uses his own filmed material as well as his father’s s, the documentary filmmaker Lars Hjelm, who filmed the racial riots in Detroit 1968. Decisive political events in history and condensed lyrical pictures combined with biographical images testify of power structures and simultaneously function as a confrontation and reconciliation with the often absent father. In a non-chronological, cyclical collage form, the different dimensions create a complex and unified structure. A few examples are:
“Deliverance” (2005), exhibited at The Museum of National Antiquities and Father’s Day at the Shrine of the Black Madonna (2006), recently exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art and also included in Filmform s distribution project “Hit the North”.
Filmform’s special prize has been awarded to artists and filmmakers since 1995. The prize goes to a person who has distinguished his/her self in the field of art and video. Previous prize winners are: Antonie Frank, Gunvor Nelson, Olle Hedman, Magnus Wallin, Ann-Sofi Sidén, Petra Lindholm, Kjartan Slettemark and Cecilia Lundqvist.
This years special price is presented at 7pm.