Lars Westman


Lars Westman is a Swedish film maker and cartoonist.

Life and work

He studied art at University of Stockholm 1963; art and advertising at Beckmans Reklamskola Stockholm 1964; and Swedish Television Producer-school 1969
He has four children and nine grandchildren. He has worked for ten years as a typographer, and has been involved in filmmaking for nearly 50 years, primarily for Scandinavian television. Broadcast more than 280 films in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, US, satellite by Art and Discovery Channel. Three films for cinema in Scandinavia. Prizes in Canada, Germany, Bulgaria, Sweden, Brazil. Gained lifelong-stipendium for filmmakers in
Sweden by the Swedish Cultural Ministry. Bo Widerbergs prize for the total
production given by SVT, Swedish Filminstitute, Swedish Filmlaboratories, Swedish
Filmmakers Union.

Filmmaking

One of the projects, a series entitled AROUND THE WORLD took him to 42 countries. He
has lived in West Africa and made 20 films about struggle and culture in Africa. He
has depicted what the life of a seven-year-old boy can be like if he is born with a
serious skin disease in VICTOR, A TRIUMPH. Together with
midwife Signe Jansson he made a film, often shown in maternity wards, whose aim is
to make our start in life easier: Birth. He has filmed underwater births in the
Soviet Union, several programs on drought and starvation in Africa during the 1970s,
several films about child development I CAN, I TRY, I DEAR TO. A film about
calligraphy and the role of art in China FROM THE OLD COMES THE NEW. Followed
striking mineworkers in 1969-70 in COMRADES, OUR ENEMIES ARE WELLORGANIZED.
Portrayed a radioactive accident in Brazil I HAVE CECIUM IN MY BLOOD AND I AM SCARED.
As well the effect of Chernobyl accident in Scandinavia LAPS, MOUNTAIN AND REINDEER.
He filmed his mother's life and death during 20 years, FACING DEATH. The building of
the longest bridge in Europe between Sweden and Denmark WALKING ON WATER in six
years for cinema and television.
Films about art and poetry THE POETGENERAL, AMADO BAHIA, PICTURES UNDER THE SURFACE,
WHAT IS THE DRAGON DOING IN SWEDEN?, FROM THE OLD COMES THE NEW. About the MSTs
struggle for earth in Brasil OCUPAR, RESISTIR, PRODUZIR.
At present Lars Westman is filming the roots of Shulamusic in Bahia, a second film
about MST, following up the radioactive accident in Goiania and a film about love for
Scandinavian television, THE LOVE FILM.

Works

Filmography (selected)

TELEVISION 6 min
DESERT ISLAND 6 min Prize in Mamaia
THE BOX 5 min Prize in Mamaia
DOTS 20 min
BAKA BAKA LITEN KAKA 4 min 8 mm color
Animated black and white 16 mm films 1959-65
THE BRIDGEOPENER 40 min black and white 16 mm 1963
About Biafra and the Atom bomb in the small country Sweden.
TO NOT SPEAK ABOUT TARZAN 40 min black and white 16 mm 1966
Monkeys and human beings at the zoo.
THE TRUTH ABOUT BÅSTAD 48 min black and white 16 mm 1968 Quality Prize Swedish
Filminstitute
About a demonstration against apartheid
VIET ROCK 48 min black and white 16 mm 1967 Quality Prize Swedish Filminstitute
The work on a theater in Stockholm about Vietnam War.
WHAT DID THE CHINESE SAY?
Together with Sven Wernström 20 min black and white 16 mm 1963 First Prize Swedish
Television.
A Cartoonists life.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? NOWHERE.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? NOTHING. 28 min black and white 16 mm1965.
A child's daily life. Fiction/documentary.
THE SCHOOL AT THE SEA
Together with Sven Wewrnström 28 min black and white 16 mm1966
Playa Giron, Cuba.
THE SCHOOL IN THE MOUNTAIN
Together with Sven Wernström 28 min black and white 16 mm 1966
Sierra Maestra Alphabetisation in Cuba.
HABLA FIDEL
Together with Sven Wernström 28 min black and white 16 mm 1966
Fidel speaks to one million Cubans
at The Revolution Square Havana, Cuba.
MAZORRA 58 min black and white 16 mm 1968
Mental Hospital outside Havana, Cuba.
THE LINE
Workers situation on L M Ericssons fabric in Sweden. 1969. Black and white 16 mm,
28 min.
SECUR?
SECURITAS and ABAB, two companies working with security in Sweden. 58 min 16 mm
color, 1970.
COMRADES, THE ENEMY IS WELLORGANIZED
Together with Lena Ewert 93 min. black and white 16 mmm/35 mm
First Prize in Porretta, Italy and Quality Prize Swedish Filminstitute.
About a strike in a mine in the north of Sweden.
30 YEARS HAS GONE COMRADES
Together with Fredrik Gertten, Uld Södergren.
Following up the strike 30 years later 1980 58 min video color
TACKÅSEN IS FORGOTTEN
Together with Mats Beckman 38 min black and white VIDEO1971
Migration to the cities.
LAVER
Together with Mats Beckman 38 min black and white VIDEO 1971
A mine forgotten.
ITS CHRISTMAS AGAIN. 20 min black and white 16 mm1971
A lonely mans Christmas.
YOUNG AND WILD
Together with Birgitta Bergmark 58 min black and white and color 16 mm and VIDEO 1972
Car-born youngsters.
BISHOP HILL 20 min color 16 mm 1974
Swedish emigrants in USA.
CHILDREN'S WORK
In the glass industries in Sweden. 16 mm black and white 28 min 1974
DRYNESS, FAMINE, OPRESSIONE
Together with Björn Kumm, Gudrun Schyman 48 min color 16 mm 1974
The Tuareg situation in Sahel, seven years without rain. Mali, Niger.
TANGOSI
Together with Björn Kumm, Gudrun Schyman 28 min color 16 mm 1974
Portrait of a Tuareg woman in a starvation camp. Niger, Tchad.
JOSIAH WATERSELLER
Together with Björn Kumm, Gudrun Schyman 28 min color 16 mm 1974
Portrait of a man selling water in a slum area in Nima Accra Ghana.
CACAO
Together with Björn Kumm, Gudrun Schyman 28 min color 16 mm 1974
Portrait of a girl working with cacao, Ghana
MARIAMA
Together with Björn Kumm, Gudrun Schyman 28 min color 16 mm 1977
portrait of a girl in slum area Gambia
CORA 55 min color 16 mm 1977
Music film about the Griot Historyteller. Gambia
FULA 55 min color 16 mm 1977
Fula tribes music in Gambia.
FOOD AS A WEAPON 48 min color 16 mm 1977
Senegal's biggest farmer and supermarket owner, alebanes family uses the drought
situation to enlarge his company.
RESISTENS, BALANG BAA NYANJI 48 min color 16 mm 1981
A Coup D'état in Senegambia.
THE RAPE OF NIMBA
Together with Alf Westman 58 min color 16 mm 1980
Portrait of a black supervisor in the Swedish owned mine Lamco, Liberia.
IMAGES OF AFRICA
Together with Dan Schyman 5 - 12 min color Betacam 1996
13 short films about dance, music, magic, theater, rituals, writings, songs
and contemporary art for a Congress in Denmark.
Ivory Coast, Benin, Ghana, Mozambique, South Africa.
PICTURES UNDER THE SURFACE 48 min color Betacam 1997
A CROQUI-LESSON 28 min color Betacam 1978
During ten years collected material on the process of making art
with famous Swedish concretist Lennart Rodhe.
WHAT IS THE DRAGON DOING IN SWEDEN?
Together with Lars Berglund 58 min color Betacam1987
A Chinese Calligrapher living and teaching in Stockholm, Sweden.
OUT FROM THE OLD COMES THE NEW.
Together with Pierre Björklund, Lars Berglund 58 min color Betacam 1987
Chinese calligraphy and painting artist make art in front of the camera.
WHAT WE SOW WE HARVESTS. 48 min color 16 mm 1987
Uranium mining in Sweden.
ALERT! 58 min color 16 mm 1988
After Harrisburg nuclear accident, the security plans around the nuclear plant
Barsebäck in Sweden and Denmark.
LAPS, MOUNTAINS, REINDEER. 28 min color 16 mm 1988
The effects on Sweden by the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
THE BIRTH
Together with Gudrun Schyman.
My son's birth 1979. 58 min color 16 mm. 58 min.
I TRY, I CAN, I DEAR,
Five films 28 min color video
about the first year's progress to learn to sit, walk, eat, talk of my son's life, 1980.
DAYCARE CENTER
One year about children's contradictions, color video 90 min. 1983.
AROUND THE WORLD
Together with Janne Forsell 1989-1997 42 films 28 min color Betcam
Poetic documentaries about food, music, art, religion, streets and roads, cities and
villages in
GREECE, EGYPT, INDIA, PAKISTAN, MONGOLIA, VIET NAM, THAILAND, CHINA, BALI,SINGAPORE, HONG KONG, SWEDEN DALARNA, AUSTRALIA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, BORNEO, VANUATU,HAWAII, USA, ALASKA, SOUTH DAKOTA, MEXICO, BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, PERU, CHILE, CUBA, TRINIDAD, CAMEROUN, BURKINA FASO, MADAGASCAR,TANZANIA,FRANCE, ITALY, PORTUGAL, SCOTLAND, SPAIN, ALBANIA, BULGARIA, ROMANIA, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA.
URUGUAI-MALMOE
Together with Fredrik Gertten 55 min color Betacam 1998
Emigrants life in Sweden and Uruguay.
SAMBAFOOTBALL
Together with Fredrik Ekelund 55 min color DVCam 1998
The history of Brazilian football and how to save street children's lives.
WALKING ON WATER
Together with Fredrik Gertten 93 min color DVCam/35 mm 2000
Building of a bridge Sweden-Denmark during sex years.
THE POETRYGENERAL
Together with Fredrik Gertten 55 min color DVCam 2002
portrait of the poetry festival in Malmoe, Sweden and the manager of the festival
Lasse Söderberg.
SILHOUETTE, AN AFRICAN JOURNEY
Together with Fredrik Gertten 48 min color DVCam 2002
A Swedish dance company in Tanzania.
RUA PAPA URBANO/ SAO PAULO II 26 min color DVCam 2003
A woman living in slum area in Salvador, Bahia. Honorary Prize in Cine Eco Festival
Portugal.
LULA, WE WANT LAND
and
AS LONG AS HUNGER EXIST
Together with Lennart Kjörling 50 min color 2006-2008
The MST struggle for bread and earth in Brasil.
CESIUM IN MY BLOOD
Together with Zenildo Barretto 55 min color 2007
Following up of the Goiania radioactive accident 1987
DO YOU LOVE ME?
Together with Niels-Pagh Andersen, Thomas Stenderup 55 min color 2006
My love relations in my life.
GARRINCHA AND HOT DOGS
Together with Fredrik Ekelund 55 min color 2007
Football player Garrincha's Swedish son take up the roots.
AMA DO JORGE
The Brazilian writer Jorge Amado's work and life and death. 50 min video 2000.
ELEGY
A tribute to violinista Nicanor Teixeira's music in Rio de Janeiro 2009 color video
59 min.

Own work