8 December, 2010 11:11

Debut during Fårö All Night

”My political commitment is solely focused on Fårö. Ever since my childhood days, I have felt rootless. Wherever I’ve been. It is only since I came to Fårö in 1960 that I have felt at home in the world. This is where I have my roots,where I feel right at home. When I have finished my activities, I shall refrain from the world for good and just become an old local man – any old local man.” (Ingmar Bergman in an interview 1979, during his German ”exile”.)

The Bergman Center on Fårö participated for the first time in the annual and very popular event Fårö All Night – during which some 44 different activities on the island were on offer to the visitors, busily driving from on to another. This particular day, September 18, was the day preceding the national elections in Sweden. Escaping persistent rain, many visitors found their way to the old school where the Bergman Center had arranged screenings, exhibits and a bus tour.

Since it is 50 years since Ingmar Bergman first came to Fårö, we had put together a photo exhibit documenting the seven films Ingmar Bergman shot on the island: Through A Glass Darkly (1961), Persona (1965), The Shame (1968), A Passion (1969), Scenes From A Marriage (1973) and the two Fårö Documents (1969 + 1979).

Both of the Fårö Documents screened in the digital cinema in the Center – formerly the physical education hall – and they drew a full house.

During the afternoon some 50 visitors took a bus tour to some of the locales of the films Bergman shot on Fårö. Later that same night, Smiles of a Summer Night at the diminutive Sudersand Cinema offered a contrasting escape from the icy rain.

In cooperation with the Bergman Estate, Bergman’s personal cinema at Dämba was open during Fårö All Night. Here, Stig Björkman’s film Images From the Playground, screened to an exclusive audience of 14 at a time.
To us, Fårö All Night, was somewhat of a showcase of what is to meet the future visitor of the Bergman Center. We were also happy to share the facilities in the school during the event with the Fårö Association for Local Culture.