The archaic topography of Norberg, with its myriad of water filled mining shafts zigzagging beneath the surface of the earth, unfolds a narrative of deindustrialization and links it to other decimated mining regions throughout the world. These ghostified sites of abandoned industries became, during the end of the 20th century, a place of resistance and escapism — turning factory floors into dance floors. This timeline of historical events is present in Norberg, Sweden from the miners’ strike in the 1890s to the electronic music festival ‘Norbergfestival’ in the 1990s. New Centuries Are Rare explores these interlaced layers of history — juxtaposing the emblematic story of the rave scene of the late 20th century and the resistance present in the region’s past. The film reflects on the correlation of different forms of refusal through sampling material from three different temporalities — video recordings from early raves in the UK and Scandinavia, documentation and text fragments from the stage play Spelet om Norbergsstrejken from 1977 and footage from an underwater drone recording water filled mining shafts in Norberg. Like a retrofuturistic vessel, moving along the cracks and crannies of a bygone era of uprising, the work speculates around the outcome of deindustrialization and its collective counteractions. As the line from Spelet om Norbergsstrejken recited in the video, “History moved through here, its end no one has seen”, New Centuries Are Rare chronics a past that is to be continued.