Friday, March 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
"Schmeerguntz Year 1966 Country U.S. Language English Runtime 15 min. 16mm B&W This was the film that set everything in motion. Schmeerguntz, coined after Gunvor Nelson’s father’s nonsense word for “sandwich” (smörgås in Swedish), is a hilarious, grotesque and grave attack on the public ideal of the American housewife. Critic Ernest Callenbach wrote in excitement that “A society which hides its animal functions beneath a shiny public surface deserves to have such films as Schmeerguntz shown everywhere.”—Professor John Sundholm, Stockholm University Director: Gunvor Nelson, Dorothy Wiley. Screening 2 of 5 My Name is Oona Year 1969 Country U.S. Language English and Swedish Runtime 10 min. 16mm B&W My Name is Oona was Nelson’s final breakthrough on the American avant-garde film scene. 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 rhythmical structure that accompanies the visual structure of the film that plunges into the experience of a child where both bliss and fear reign. As so often in Nelson’s oeuvre, there is a female subtext too: it is male voices that execute their authority upon Oona, whereas as a girl she is still equal to boys of her own age.—Professor John Sundholm, Stockholm University. Director: Gunvor Nelson. Screening 3 of 5 Fog Pumas Year 1967 Country U.S. Language English Runtime 25 min 16mm B&W Color Fog Pumas is the second film that Gunvor Nelson and Dorothy Wiley shot together. It received one of the grand prizes at the Knokke Experimental Film Festival, EXPRMTL, in 1967-68. The film is a hilarious, liberating exploration of absurd imagery and situations in which Nelson and Wiley also make fun of some classical avant-garde film techniques. It is an empowering film, made in the spirit of exploring the potentialities of filmmaking and insisting upon having fun while doing it.—Professor John Sundholm, Stockholm University Director: Gunvor Nelson. Screening 4 of 5 Moons Pool Year 1973 Country U.S. Runtime 15 min. Digital Color Moons Pool marks a new path in Gunvor Nelson’s filmmaking in which she develops her interest in creating a weave of movements and superimpositions. 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 bathtub. Another transition occurs to a pool with male and female naked bodies swimming underwater. The latter part of the film is almost totally liberated from speech, and has a dreamlike, complex soundtrack consisting of sounds of waves, voices, water and music woven together into a seamless web of sounds.—Professor John Sundholm, Stockholm University Director: Gunvor Nelson. Screening 5 of 5 Snowdrift a.k.a. Snowstorm Year 2001 Country U.S. Runtime 9 min. Digital Color 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.—Professor John Sundholm, Stockholm University Director: Gunvor Nelson."