In my PhD project “Norwegian Cinema at War, 1940-45”, cinema theaters are seen as venues for various types of conflicts between Norwegian and German actors during World War II. Cinema was the fulcrum of collaboration and resistance in fields such as film policy, censorship and propaganda, popular actions in a time of war (strikes, boycotts and demonstrations), finance, local self-government, national self-assertion and German-Norwegian co-existence. The cinema was also a social meeting place where Norwegians and Germans met. The project will examine the relationship between Reichskommissariat and the National Film Directorate, and the relationship between NS-controlled ministries. And were the cinemas nazified?
On the photo above we see the three most prominent Norwegians who were in charge of the reorganization (“nyordningen”) of film and cinema in Norway from 1940 to 1942. From left: dr. Gulbrand Lunde, Minister of Propaganda from September 1940 to his death in October 1942, Vidkun Quisling, and Leif Sinding, director of The National Film Directorate (Statens filmdirektorat) from 1940 to 1942.
More about my PhD project:
I like it very much 😀