Totally Stockholm 1
Cunningham Cunningham Alltid Amber Idomeni TEMPO
FESTIVAL The largest documentary festival in Sweden is back for the 21st time. Tempo this time focuses on Family as its main theme and in total over 100 films will be screened. Festival director Lisa Taube helps us investigate. Words: Peter Steen-Christensen In 1985 the Greek minister of culture conspired with her French counterpart to come up with the idea of designating an annual European Capital of Culture. The aim was to “bring Europeans closer together, by highlighting the richness and diversity of European cultures and raising awareness of their common history and values”. For the chosen few cities that carry the honour, it’s a chance to generate cultural, social and economic benefits. Mainly, it can change the city’s image and raise its international profile. The idea is that the events form a part of a long-term culture-based development strategy for the respective cities. 8 In the late 1990s Stockholm was picked to carry the cultural torch and it had a positive effect on the number of visiting tourists (an 11 percent increase) that particular year, but from the 500 main projects that were initiated and the several thousand events that went ahead, very, very few remain today. But one new project in particular that was initiated for Stockholm’s Capital of Culture year has since grown into a popular mainstay of the city’s cultural calendar – The Tempo Documentary Festival. Moving into its 21st year this March, Tempo will again present creative documentaries from all over the world, ones which would otherwise not reach Swedish audiences. Tempo’s main focus is of course film, but it has established a unique forum for the presentation of documentary work across traditional boundaries – including radio, photography and transmedia as well as more experimental forms of expression. For this year’s instalment, we can look forward to seven days choc-a-bloc with seminars, masterclasses, audio documentaries, transmedia, photo exhibitions, competitions, cocktails and parties. Plus of course, its main draw, over 100 creative documentaries from all over the world.