Search
DKP’s film archive contains 24 films of shorter or longer duration, all on 16 mm from 1938 to around 1955.
By Stine Korst (First published in Årsskrift 1996, ABA 1997)
In November 1991, I was lucky enough to record a fantastic interview with the then 89-year-old Børge Houmann, former editor-in-chief of Land & Folk, active in the Communist Party and much more. The interview is part of a portrait film about Martin Andersen Nexø, whom Houmann got to know in 1922 and later maintained a friendship and to some extent a political community with until Nexø’s death in 1954. But even after Nexø’s death, Houmann maintained a great interest in Nexø and has collected many of Nexø’s articles and letters in book form, and not least he wrote the invaluable large three-volume work Marlin Andersen Nexø and his contemporaries.
It was also Børge Houmann who made me aware that DKP had recorded 16mm film somewhere along the way, probably from 1938 onwards. Houmann remembered some clips where Nexø and Aksel Larsen drove in a carriage! The films were donated to the ABA archives and had to be kept there. I was thrilled! Because the main character in my film has been dead for a long time, it’s important that he appears in the film as much as possible – and preferably in ‘live’ pictures.
I made an appointment with Hans Uwe Petersen to review the films. At the time, ABA was located in the old premises in Rejsbygade in Folkets Hus, and the archive corresponded to my best imaginings of an archive. Packed shelves from floor to ceiling with labyrinthine corridors in between, with live people who knew exactly where each of these precious but confusing pieces of information could be retrieved. The films were deepest in the back basement, and here I sat for many hours at an old 16 mm editing table and watched the films through. It was an experience.
DKP’s film archive contains 24 films of shorter or longer duration, all on 16 mm from 1938 to around 1955. The oldest are of course in black and white, while some of the younger recordings are in color. All are without sound, but some of the films have explanatory signs in between. Some of the films are identical – i.e. some are the original footage, while others are edited versions of the same.
What they all have in common is that they are in a pretty poor condition. Movies are like us humans, they shrink and become porous when they get old. It takes a longer chemical process to get them ‘straightened out’ again if they are to be transferred to video. in the archive, there are 3-4 pieces in this pitiful condition that are definitely worth saving for posterity. This should probably be done as soon as possible, but unfortunately it is also a relatively expensive process, so I hope that the ABA can manage to get someone to pay for this work. It’s important that such fine documentation is preserved for posterity.
This year I have re-watched the films and used a few clips here and there for the film about Nexø. In return, I have transferred five of the old films to video. They are now on a video master and on regular VHS and are thus preserved for posterity for hopefully many years to come. They are all black and white, a couple of them are quite short (Street agitation vote K, and the 16th Congress), the film of a May Day demonstration lasts 6 minutes, and then there are two long films, both with signage, which last 10 and 13 minutes. They both date from 1938 – one from DKP’s national conference in June in Fyns Forum with the entire central committee gathered, good pictures of Aksel Larsen, Nexø and many, many more. The other is from a large DKU meeting in Aalborg, also with Aksel Larsen, Ib Nørlund, Frode Toft and many others. This is where Aksel Larsen and Nexø ride in a carriage.
The film about Nexø – which is also a piece of historical documentation – will premiere around April 1997. I have been very grateful for the great help I have been able to get from ABA – and also from ABA’s fantastic image archive.
ABA’s stock of films in DKP’s archive contains the following reels:
- The V. World Youth Festival
- Various clips
- Election agitation: “Vote for Frode Toft”
- Street agitation: Vote K. Aksel Larsen speaks
- 1. May (long procession)
- DKP’s 15th Congress (3 reels)
- DKP’s 16th Congress
- Festival in Berlin DDR
- Unedited clips, DKU
- Pictures from the liberation days
- Old military photos, bombing raids
- Youth party, gyrnnastic show
- Private summer vacation movie
- DKU demonstration
- Martin Nielsen, unedited footage
- Youth rally Aalborg 1938
- DKU Aalborg
- National Party Conference in Odense 1938
- National Party Conference 1938, 2nd part
- National Party Conference 1938, 3rd part
- National Party Conference 1938, 4th part
- DKP in the 1950s
- DKP, May Day demonstration
In addition to these film reels that Stine Korst has reviewed, a few – more recent – reels and videotapes about DKP have since been added.
It is possible to watch the video copies of five of the films mentioned in the article.
Others also read
THE STAUNING OF ALL OF DENMARK
Thorvald Stauning was a beacon in Danish politics and is the longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century
WITH THE LAW OR WITHOUT
In 1871, the living conditions for the few industrial workers in Denmark at the time were appalling. But when the labor..
THE BATTLE FOR TIME
Working 48 hours a week. It sounds like a lot for a Danish worker in 2019. But 100 years earlier, it was just..
