The Politics of Nordsploitation - History, Industry, Audiences

List of contents

Acknowledgements

1. The Politics of Nordsploitation
Periodization: Exploitation and Nordic Exploitation
Defining Nordsploitation
Theories of Exploitation
The complexity of Nordsploitation
The structure of the book
References

2. A Pre-1970s History of Nordic Exploitation
Exploitation as art/art as exploitation
Documentary images with exploitative elements
The Absence of Exploitation
Conclusion
References

3. Exploitative Violence and Pornography in the 1970s
Conclusion
References

4. Moral Panic, VHS Censorship, and Counterforces Fan Cultures 1980-1999
The Video Violence Moral Panic in Sweden
Moral Panic within the Hour
A Twenty-Year Long Aftermath
VHS censorship in the bigger picture: extremes and counterforces
Conclusion
References

5. The local and the transnational in Nordic exploitation cinema of the 1980s
The Viking Trilogy: Exploiting cultural history through genre film
Nordic emulations of blockbusters
The Visitors
Visa Mäkinen and exploitation cinema from the margins
Exploitation cinema goes mainstream
Global Exploitation: Artic Heat (aka Born American)
Conclusions
References

6. The Entertainment Violence Factory: Mats Helge Olsson’s Action Films of the 1980s
The Beginnings: Working within the Swedish Film Industry as an Outsider
The Entertainment Violence Factory: The Ninja Mission and the Marketplace for Nordic Exploitation
At Work: Production and Exploitative Themes
Genre aspirations
Olsson’s stars
Conclusion
References

7. The Rise of Transnational Exploitation in the 1990s-2000s
Nordic exploitation in the 1990s: film genres in transition
Going Excessive: Nazi Zombies from Norwegian mountains
The 1990s to 2010s: film cultures in transition
Artistic exploitation
Conclusions
References

8. Fanchising and Crowdfunding: Nordic Nazisploitation in the digital media environment of the 2000s
The Nazi on film
Nordic Nazisploitation: Dead Snow
Comic Nazis: Iron Sky
Carving space for neo-Nazisploitation
Social media and Dead Snow
Balancing ideologies
Ideology strikes back
Conclusion: the Fanchise
References

9. Kung Fu cops and killer bunnies: proximity and distance strategies in Nordic exploitation film, 2000-2019
Contemporary patterns
Policy incentives: the Nordic genre support programmes
Going lo-fi
Flirting with the mainstream
Killer bunnies on the loose
Conclusion
References

10. Conclusion: beyond the art house
References

Index

About the author

Pietari Kääpä is Associate Professor in Media and Communications at University of Warwick, UK. His work combines ecocritical analysis with media industry and policy studies. His books include Ecology and Contemporary Nordic Cinema (2014) and the anthology Transnational Ecocinema: Film Culture in an Age of Environmental Depravation (2013), co-edited with Tommy Gustafsson. He is an editor of Journal of Scandinavian Cinema.Tommy Gustafsson is Professor of Film Studies at Linnaeus University, Sweden. He has published six books, edited three special journal issues as well as some 30 peer-reviewed articles. His work is mainly concentrated on film and television history, both international and Nordic.

Summary

The Politics of Nordsploitation takes a transnational approach to exploring Nordic ‘exploitation’ films in their industrial contexts, viewing them as not only political manifestations of domestic considerations but also to position Nordic film cultures in a global context. Incorporating a wide range of films, from international cult classics like They Call Her One Eye (1974), homegrown martial arts films like The Ninja Mission (1984) to contemporary crowd-sourced fan productions like Iron Sky (2012), this volume examines the remarkable diversity of genre-based, commercially and culturally exploitative film production throughout the Nordic countries – emphasized here through the term ‘Nordsploitation’.

This volume provides a historical exposition of largely ignored marginal films and film cultural patterns. It also outlines how influential these films have been in shaping the development of Nordic cinema. The effects are visible in the films of the new millennium as previously marginalized practices now enter the mainstream. With sharp insights and new research, The Politics of Nordsploitation redefines the concept of ‘exploitation’ and its role in small nation cinemas.

Foreword

This book uncovers an ignored history of influential exploitation practices in Nordic film history

Additional text

This book fills a clear gap in the scholarship, and does so very well. The Politics of Nordsploitation: History, Industry, Audiences examines exploitation in a Nordic context, arguing that, because of local societal, political, and economic norms, the exploitation cinema of these countries ‘both shares and challenges normative modes of exploitation....’ The primary difference has to do with cultural attitudes toward sex, which is viewed as relatively unproblematic in Scandinavia, versus violence, which has been rigorously censored, and this volume consequently excludes sexploitation while focusing on violence and gore as the primary subject of censorship debates in the Nordic region. Distinguishing between two principle modes, local genre production and global exploitation, the book covers a wide range of films and topics, from Mats Helge Olsson’s ‘Entertainment Violence Factory’ of the 1980s to Nordic Nazisploitation, from the Norwegian slasher cycle to transnational genre films, to an era of ‘fanchising’ and crowdfunding that produced hits such as Iron Sky. The Politics of Nordsploitation is therefore an essential volume for Bloomsbury’s Global Exploitation Cinemas series.

Product details

• Authors: Tommy Gustafsson, Gustafsson Tommy, Pietari Kaapa, Pietari Kääpä
• Assisted by: Austin Fisher (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2022
• EAN: 9781501373947
• ISBN: 978-1-5013-7394-7
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: Global Exploitation Cinemas
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Northern Europe, Scandinavia, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / History & Criticism, Cinema Industry, Film Theory & Criticism, Film history, theory or criticism, HISTORY / Europe / Nordic Countries