ABSTRACT
When a Swedish group of filmmakers established the alternative non-profit organization FilmCentrum in 1968, with the aim of establishing direct communication between filmmakers and society, they initiated a number of international collaborations, including a study trip to the National Film Board of Canada/Office national du film (NFB/ONF). This resulted in the deployment of Challenge for Change strategies in two 1970s projects. Focusing on FilmCentrum’s co-founder, Stefania Börje, and her engagement in the NFB-inspired projects, the chapter identifies the previously overlooked film cultural accomplishments of Börje, and also demonstrates that FilmCentrum, rather than working in opposition to the welfare state, regarded itself as an integrated part of the welfare state, by which it could secure financial backing from state agencies whose objectives were to use information campaigns to spur social attitude changes in Swedish society. By comparing a Swedish governmental information policy that used cultural workers as proxy information creators to the instrumentalizing communication model developed in Canada under the CFC banner, the contributions of FilmCentrum are situated in a transnational perspective.
