PRODUCTIONS / ART EXHIBITIONS
FILM PRODUCTIONS
Fabiana
Vinjett 2023,
Dir / Prod: Johanna St Michaels/Kristina Meiton
Premiere at Gothenburg Film Festival
Fabiana, or Birgitta Andreén, has had her women's clothing store since 1969 on Nordenskiöldsgatan in the heart of Gothenburg. She has a loyal clientele of ladies who purchase her clothes. On the shop window, you can see the month's specials on handwritten notes. Fabiana possesses a wit and jokes with her customers. She operates her old cash register, accepts only cash, and provides handwritten receipts. She is well-powdered, with red lipstick and very large glasses. In the film, we meet ladies coming and going in the store. They engage in small talk in the charming Gothenburg dialect and discuss the upcoming film festival. Among the handwritten notes, Fabiana puts up a new one: "Dress like a movie star, it's festival time!" This becomes a humorous and colorful title sequence featuring ladies with a lot of flair.
In spring, the Gothenburg Film Festival, in collaboration with the Gothenburg 400th Anniversary, announced a competition where the winner would have the opportunity to design the most viewed and discussed film at the Gothenburg Film Festival: "vinjett"film. Now, the winner has been chosen. Vinjettfilm for the year 2023 will be "Fabiana," directed by Johanna St Michaels and Kristina Meiton.
Vinjettfilm is the one shown before each film screening, and during the Gothenburg Film Festival, it is displayed nearly a thousand times. For several years, it has been a free artistic assignment given by the festival to an established filmmaker or artist. In connection with Gothenburg's 400th-anniversary celebration next year, the festival chose to create a competition where anyone could be the creator of the title sequence film. To compete, a film idea on the theme of Gothenburg was required since the city will be the focus of the film festival next year in honor of the 400th anniversary. And there were plenty of ideas. The selection jury had a challenging task of narrowing down all the fantastic and imaginative contributions to six nominees. Now, the audience and the jury have spoken, and the title sequence film for 2023 will be "Fabiana" by Johanna St Michaels and Kristina Meiton.
THE BLONDE PANTHER
Documentary 2020, 15 min,Premiere GIFF
Dir/Prod:Johanna St Michaels
Ann Sehlstedt is a Swedish dancer in an international flamenco band. She loves the ancient music of the Gitanos, but find the matcho-culture deeply problematic. She is also aware that some people find it inappropriate that she, a Swedish woman, dances flamenco. The documentary approaches the challenges, rewards and difficulties that arise for Ann as she follows her passion for somebody else´s culture.
THE INERTIA VARIATIONS
Documentary 2017,85 min,Premiere CPH:Dox
Dir/Prod:Johanna St Michaels
Matt Johnson of the English band THE THE, has remained silent as a singer / songwriter for years. Now he attempts to challenge contemporary politics through his own 12 hour live radio broadcast. But sudden grief and a request to write a new song reveal old demons of inertia and bereavement.
Watch Trailer Here
PENTHOUSE NORTH
Documentary 2014,87 min Premiere Hotdocs,
Dir/Prod:Johanna St Micheals
Watch Trailer Here
JOCKEY
Documentary 2015,52 min,
Dir/Prod:Johanna St Michaels
We follow the two young girls Amelie Hurdelbrink and Fanny Olsson during one week at the race track Täby Galopp, pursuing their dreams to become professional jockeys. It is a tough environment where the one who comes in second in a race is the first loser, but also a world filled with horses, friends and hard work.
Watch Trailer Here
TRAVRIKET
Documentary 2007,58 min,Premier SVT
Dir:Johanna St Michaels
A film about hope and luck around a little race track in Värmland, Sweden. The trainer Nils–Ola and his daughter Rebecca are at a crossroads. Should they continue or wind down their stable? Nils-Ola has not, after years of daily grinding, managed to get a star horse. Should Rebecca continue? Or should she finally move on? Premiere on Swedish Television, 2007
BEST WISHES, BERNARD
Documentary 2004,30 min
Dir:Johanna St Michaels
An old man sick with cancer asks a young filmmaker to document his death.
”Best Wishes, Bernhard” is a macabre portrait of a peculiar man who has a very unsentimental relationship toward living and dying. He expresses deep loathing for caring, mourning, sympathy and other human values.
Awards: Swedish Film Institute’s prize ”Dokumentärfilms Premien” in 2003.
Nominated to the Kodak Prize, Shadow Film Festival, Amsterdam 2004
Watch Trailer Here
A SMÖRGASBORD OF SIN
Documentary 2015, 14 min
Dir/Prod:Johanna St Michaels
The burlesque scene tickles the fancy of the “vanilla” mainstream while also appealing to feminists who see it as a safe haven for their sexuality. All kinds of body types are welcome. The scene challenges our views on sexual stereotypes, norms and sexuality.
At Stockholm’s Burlesque Festival, we meet Nick the Dick, who is participating in The Tassle and Twirl Championship for the first time; Aurora, a feminist; and Thorbjörn, who likes dressing up to challenge male stereotypes.
Watch Clip Here
GOING LIVE
Documentary 2008,14 min,Premiere SVT
Dir:Johanna St Michaels
We live through celebrities. We watch them day and night from our bedrooms and offices. Is it to get a bit of glamour or is it to have somebody to share our everyday life with?
Going, a champion horse, can always be seen through a web camera. After a relatively poor last season he is now going to compete in the first big international race of the year. Is he going to live up to the press from the media? And most of all to his fans expectations? It is said all of Sweden is keeping its fingers crossed for him.
ABOUT DINA
Documentary 2010, 14 min
Dir:Johanna St Michaels
There was a rumour in Hollywood that the legendary commercial agent Dina had stolen money from her models, used it for her own plastic surgery and eventually ended up in jail. In the film About Dina the ex model and now director Johanna St Michaels returns to Hollywood to look up her old agent to see what happened to her. They change places in front of the camera, Dina starts to tell her story and a complex portrait of a woman is revealed.
Watch Clip Here
SNAP SHOTS FROM REALITY
Documentary 2005,9 min
Dir. Johanna St Michaels
I met Jackie through a common friend. Two weeks earlier, she had been diagnosed with uterine cancer and now wanted her body documented before treatment. I wanted to photograph Jackie to show how fragile life is and how quickly everything can change.
Awards: Special Mention, Nordisk Panorama, Bergen 2005,
Nominated to Best International Short- Birdeye View Film festival, ICA, London 2007
Watch Trailer Here
ART EXHIBITIONS
Body as Playground, Body as Battleground: Sexuality and the female gaze
Konstepidemin's Gallary 18/1-2/2 2020
The films included in Body as Playground, Body as Battleground are a selection of films, which depict a variety of approaches and interpretations of sexuality and the body through the eyes of female filmmakers. It is not a historical or herstorical survey but unsurprisingly reveals, despite passing trends, how human sexuality is essentially timeless in that bodies themselves do not change, yet relationships to sexuality do. Extending from the time of the sixties ‘sexual revolution’ to the current decade these films illustrate how an array of aspects of sexuality are represented in different forms and cinematic styles.
The exhibition is produced against the backdrop of an accelerating visual culture, increased overlap of private and public spheres in digital media, MeToo, a reactionary view of sexuality that is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere and a total access to pornographic material through smartphones etc.
Films by:
Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Barbara Rubin, Carolee Scheneeman, Barbara Hammer, Maria Beatty, MM Serra, Beth B, Alan Smithee, Gunvor Nelson, Johanna St Michaels, Elin Magnusson, Sara Kaaman, Ester Martin Bergsmark, Nelli Roselli, Åsa Sandzén, Pella Kågerman, Tora Mårtens, Wolfe Madam, Ingrid Ryberg, Universal Pussy, Joanna Rytel, Marit Östberg, Jennifer Rainsford, Adrienne Teicher, Mia Engberg.
The exhibition & program is curated by Johanna St Michaels, Tessa Hughes-Freeland and the International group at Konstepidemin
Images curtisy Tessa Hughes-Freeland's films
THE RADIO CINEOLA- THE INERTIA VARIATIONS
EXHIBITION SUMMERHALL,EDINBOURGH 2017
EIFF 2017 will host a unique version of the exhibition that is being presented around the world to compliment The Inertia Variations. The creative team behind this breathtaking installation is comprised of musician Matt Johnson, filmmaker Johanna St Michaels, prize-winning architect Jacob Sahlqvist, lighting designer Kate Wilkins, and poet John Tottenham. Visitors will find themselves entering a space in which St Michaels’ film is conceptually transformed into a thought-provoking interactive multi-media experience with Johnson’s iconic Radio Cineola mast at its centre.
THE RADIO CINEOLA - THE INERTIA VARIATIONS
EXHIBITION RÖDA STEN, GOTHENBURG 2014
’Radio Cineola - The Inertia Variations’ is an Anglo-Swedish collaboration inspired by the poem ‘The Inertia Variations’ by John Tottenham.
The installation features narration, soundscapes and music from Matt Johnson (aka THE THE) and visual art by film director Johanna St Michaels. The sculpture is by architect Jacob Sahlqvist and sculpture illuminations are designed by lighting designer Kate Wilkins and is the symbol of ‘Radio Cineola’, an imaginary shortwave radio station and inspired by shortwave broadcasts from the mid 20th century.
HOME SWEET HOME
FILM/PERFORMANCE/EXHIBITION ALMEDALEN 2013-14
KRISTINA FRANK&JOHANNA ST MICHAELS
What does ”home” mean for you?
No one believes that I am homeless and want to be! A stable address is overrated. I do what I want, but at the same time, as I turn away from the idea of a home, the question that gnaws at me is why it comes naturally for others but not for me? Says Artist Kristina Frank. As she makes an artistic and political statement against the housing crisis in Sweden during Politician's Week in Almedalen in 2013
The film was shown at Visby Konstmuseum 2014 and at
Konstepidemins Gallery
TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SELF
ASPECTS OF SELF PERFORMANCE 2015
About beauty as commodity, bodily maturity and female sexuality. Johanna St Michaels worked as a model for 14 years. She takes us on a time trip in monologue form, where we get to see the consequences of beauty from another angle In the workshop we show parts of Johannas Film production. In conversations with the audience she analyzes her motives and how it has affected her artistry.
THE ISLAND AMID THE WORLDS 2011
ART FILM
DIR: Johanna St Michaels
Premiere Gothenburg International Filmfestival
A deserted military base lies on two small islands outside the metropolis. Its purpose was to defend the city and the base was the most modern of its kind. Nature has now taken over and has wound itself around the human structures and created living sculptures. The ruins whisper of a time not so long ago about superpower battles and the simple soldier’s anxiety. A work about construction verses nature, inside verses outside. A play with stills, video and sound design.
BLUE WOMEN 2003
PHOTOGRAPHER:Johanna St Michaels
Photo Exhibition