Gunvor Nelson

On the Fence (2017)

Nelson's most recent work deals with topics of migration, demarcation, and borders. ...

Kristina's Harbor Revisited (2010)

New Evidence (2006)

Shadows of people inhabit a wintry road, casting darkness over the tracks. What happens when this substance is washed away by fleeting reflections and blended into new matter, color and forms? And sound: feet tramping endlessly round, round like hands on a ...

Trace Elements (2003)

Another feature of the new digital (and visually inferior) medium is that sound plays a much more prominent role than in most of her films. Trace Elements, Nelson's latest work, is another "sound video", despite the fact the camera is more active this time ...

Snowdrift (2001)

Movement begins and ends with snowflakes, fleeting, floating, whirling and dancing in constant restlessness. Sudden changes in direction, composition, background, density, color and contrast interrupt the perpetual flow. ...

Tree-Line (1998)

Gunvor Nelson's first video work. ...

Before Need Redressed (1994)

After doing Before Need, Gunvor Nelson and Dorothy Wiley embarked on a new creative process. They revisited the film, reworked it and reassembled it creating a shorter new version, called Before Need Redressed. A way to express how the passing time, reflec ...

Kristina's Harbor (1993)

Gunvor Nelson's two-part film was recorded in Kristinehamn where she grew up and will return to live. KRISTINA'S HARBOR is an impressionistic depiction of daily life in this small Swedish city, suggesting how it has or has not changed in relation to its hi ...

Old Digs (1992)

"OLD DIGS is an inner journey through the sights and sounds of Kristinehamn as reflected in its central river. ...

Time Being (1991)

Gunvor Nelson stares intently at her mother Carin, a woman whose body has been devastated by the challenges of her last days on this earth. In three astute shots, Nelson looks with honesty rather than awe at a woman whose spirit has somehow flown away but ...

Natural Features (1990)

"In NATURAL FEATURES Nelson mingles hundreds of still images with 3-D objects and "real" images photographed through glass layerings into a free-associative and playfully bizarre form of animation. ...

Field Study #2 (1988)

A collage film with sequences of live action with animation using cut-outs, found footage and pouring sands. A dark delicacy lingers. Superimpositions of dark pourings are perceived through the film. Suddenly a bright colour runs across the picture and del ...

Light Years Expanding (1988)

Light Years Expanding is a further elaboration of Light Years, Nelson's journey into the Swedish landscape in which she is blending animation with live-action. Whereas movement was one of the prime characteristics of Light Years, Light Years Expanding revo ...

Light Years (1987)

A collage film and a journey through the Swedish landscape, traversing stellar distances in units of 5878 trillion miles. It is a film acutely in the present reflecting our temporal existence ... continuous and imperfect. ...

Red Shift (1986)

This magnus opus is a domestic symphony from a woman's point of view, the portrait of a grandmother, mother and child and their home. The women and their personal objects are mostly seen alone or relating to one another (except for touching scenes of the g ...

Frame Line (1984)

Frame Line is a collage film in black and white. Glimpses (both visual and audial) of Stockholm, people, gestures, flags and the Swedish national anthem appear through drawings, paintings and cut-outs. It is a film with an eerie flow between the ugly and t ...

Trollstenen (1976)

Laced with memories and dreams from the past, the film is a multi-layered personal documentary of the life of filmmaker Gunvor Nelson's parents and family in Sweden. ...

Moon's Pool (1973)

The film that is mostly shot underwater, in a pool, begins with footage of water and a close-up of Nelson from which we move to her body immersed in water in a bath-tub from which yet another transition occurs to a pool with male and female naked bodies sw ...

One and the Same (1973)

A self-portrait by two women filmmakers in celebration of their friendship and filmmaking. ...

Take Off (1972)

Ellion Ness, a thoroughly professional stripper, goes through her paces, bares her body, and then, astonishingly and literally, transcends it. While the film makes a forceful political statement on the image of woman and the true meaning of stripping, the ...

Five Artists: BillBobBillBillBob (1971)

A feature-length documentary directed by Dorothy Wiley and Gunvor Nelson about five working San Francisco artists: William T. Wiley, Robert Hudson, William Allan, William Geis and Robert Nelson-- A profile of five friends and their creative processes. ...

My Name Is Oona (1969)

Experimental film with Gunvor Nelson's daughter Oona. The sound consists of Nelson's daughter, Oona, repeating the names of the days of the week and of her saying "my name is Oona". The latter is edited into an expressive rythmical structure that accompani ...

Kirsa Nicholina (1969)

Kirsa Nicholina records the birth of a child at home by the Lamaze method. The father assists in the birth, while a physician guides him. At the moment of birth, the mother reaches down and grasps the hand of the emerging child and guides it out of her bod ...

Fog Pumas (1967)

A lyrical, surreal film populated by an assortment of human beings, creatures, places and events. ...

Schmeerguntz (1965)

A hilarious, grotesque and grave attack on the public ideal of the American housewife. ...

Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor (2018)

From 2015 to 2017, Lynne Sachs visited with Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer and Gunvor Nelson, three multi-faceted artists who have embraced the moving image throughout their lives. ...

Red Shift (1986)

This magnus opus is a domestic symphony from a woman's point of view, the portrait of a grandmother, mother and child and their home. The women and their personal objects are mostly seen alone or relating to one another (except for touching scenes of the g ...

Five Artists: BillBobBillBillBob (1971)

A feature-length documentary directed by Dorothy Wiley and Gunvor Nelson about five working San Francisco artists: William T. Wiley, Robert Hudson, William Allan, William Geis and Robert Nelson-- A profile of five friends and their creative processes. ...