Filmform (est. 1950) is dedicated to preservation, promotion and worldwide distribution of experimental film and video art. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers, available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.
The explicit body politics in Nelsons popular Take Off is developed further in her highly personal Moons Pool. The film begins with shots of naked bodies in a bath and transgresses into depicting male and female bodies swimming naked underwater. The latter part of the film is almost totally liberated from speech, and has a dreamlike, complex soundtrack consisting of sounds of waves, voices, water and music woven together into a seamless web of sounds.
Gunvor Nelson. Born 1931 in Stockholm. Grew up in Kristinehamn. Lives and works in Stockholm and Kristinehamn. She studied at University College of Art, Craft and Design (1950-51) and at Beckmans College of Design (1952-53), both in Stockholm. Moved to the USA in 1953 and studied at Humboldt State College (1954-57), San Francisco Arts Institute (1957) and Mills College in Oakland (1957-58). She graduated with an MFA in painting. At the Institute she met Robert Nelson whom she married in 1958.
Film debut with Schmeerguntz in 1965, co-made with Dorothy Wiley. Teaching positions at San Francisco State University 1969-70 and San Francisco Art Institute 1970-1992. Moved back to Sweden in 1993. Numerous major awards and grants, most recently the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s Grand Award (2006).
Her films have been screened at major art museums as MOMA in New York, Moderna Museet in Stockholm and cinematheques in Europe and North America. In 2008 Nelson was awarded an artists lifetime income guarantee by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
