Jubileumssatsningar / A historical cinema experience of Gothenburg in 360 degrees
2 November 2021

The Cinema Experience

During Christmas City in Gothenburg, the city’s 400th anniversary invites you to a 360-degree cinema experience in Bältespännarparken. The movie is was shown on a circular 8 meter high screen, and the visitors could experience it outside and inside the 30 meter wide installation. The cinema experience was shown nonstop December 3–19 from 5–9:30 pm.

Idea and direction: Pompe Hedengren, Groundfloor Production
Idea and scenography: Erik Gullberg, Groundfloor Production
Historical guide: Kristian Wedel, editor Göteborgs-Posten
Editing: Johan Björnsrud
Music: Lasse Sander
Jubilee song Vi vill leva, vi vill dö i Göteborg: Katarina Hemlin
Sound: Mats Blomberg
3D-modeling: the City Planning Authority, the City of Gothenburg
Technical project management: Lumination
Movie clips: SVT, The House of Emigrants, Volvo Museum, Frontema, Telepicture Marketing, Woah Dad, Gothenburg Studios
Audience hosts: Team Göteborg

The cinema experience in Bältespännarparken is project-led by Göteborg & Co and is a part of Gothenburg’s 400th anniversary and Christmas City.

Photo: Tim Kristensson
A historical cinema experience of Gothenburg in 360 degrees.

Experience the Movie Digitally (In Swedish)

Scene by scene

(SCENE 1)

The Waves

Gothenburg starts and ends by the sea.

(SCENE 2)

17th- and 18th Century City

We float in with the seagulls across the canal and suddenly stand in the gravel on Stora Torget on a messy market day. We smell herring, Spanish oranges, Malaga wine, Dutch coffee and Italian soap. We hear the voices of peasants of Västergötland, Baltic jacks, and Scottish merchants. Our city is here – in meetings between people from near and far. In the middle of the 19th century, this place was named Gustaf Adolfs Torg.

(SCENE 3)

The People of Gothenburg Shaped the City

A selection of personalities of Gothenburg pass revue:
Beata de la Gardie – a Gothenburg lobbyist already in the 1650s.
William Chalmers – the East India Company’s tea expert donated his fortune to a technical education.
Sven Renström – the wood trader who gave the people of Gothenburg a bathhouse.
Frigga Carlberg – the democracy pioneer who led the fight for women’s suffrage.
Dan Broström – the editor king who made Gothenburg part of the big world.
Beda Hallberg – she created Majblomman and helped millions of children.
Kerstin Hesselgren – the first female member of parliament was elected with Gothenburg votes.
Sven Wingqvist – his ball bearings conquered the world.

(SCENE 4)

Factories and Poverty

Suddenly we stand on the floor at a dirty factory. Men, women and children are working in difficult conditions. Industrialism has created fantastic opportunities. But poverty is still widespread in Gothenburg at the beginning of the 20th century.

(SCENE 5)

The Emigration

One way out of poverty is to emigrate. More than a million Swedes leaves Sweden – most of them via Gothenburg. The walk often goes via Sillgatan. Then the emigrants get on the steamboat to England. From there, the ships go to America. For some, things are going well in the new country. Others perish. Some never get further than Sillgatan in Gothenburg.

(SCENE 6)

Fish

During the great herring periods, fortunes are created from the silver from the sea. In the continent’s big cities, the street lamps are lit with Swedish herring as fuel. For the old Gothenburg merchants, the smell of fish was above all the smell of money. For the poor, it was hard work.

(SCENE 7)

The Ships

During the first decades of the 20th century, Gothenburg became one of the world’s largest shipbuilding cities. You can – as Evert Taube writes – “walk on Swedish keels around the world.” The launches are great spectacles. The three major shipyards Götaverken, Lindholmen and Eriksberg are Gothenburg’s pride. But in the 1970s, the shipbuilding crisis hit Gothenburg with full force.

(SCENE 8)

The Industry

On Easter Day 1907, the engineer Sven Wingquist gets a flash of genius. He invents the self-regulating double-row ball bearing. Just a few years later, the Swedish ball bearing factory, SKF, has factories all over the world.

(SCENE 9)

The Gothenburg Car

In 1927, Volvo cars began to be manufactured at Hisingen. The PV models are world leaders in safety. The Gothenburg seat belts save lives.

(SCENE 10)

The Gothenburg Humor

With Sten-Åke Cederhök, the warm Gothenburg humor gets its Swedish breakthrough on television. But Gothenburg humor’s puns and jovial appearance have long roots. As early as the 19th century, Gothenburg jokes were told.

(SCENE 11)

The Sport City

The cradle of Swedish football is in Gothenburg. Periodically, Gothenburg is the obvious capital of football. But Gothenburg’s sports history is so much more than Blåvitt. With Ingemar Johansson, Gothenburg gets a heavyweight world champion in boxing. New generations pass on the traditions. Today, the long jumper Khaddi Sagnia is one of the brightest Gothenburg stars.

(SCENE 12)

The People of Gothenburg

Here we are! Gothenburg has always been motley, simmering and cosmopolitan. It is the steep mixes and diversity that make us people of Gothenburg.

(SCENE 13)

The Event City

The event city of Gothenburg dates back to the 19th century. Once upon a time there were markets, steamboats or artillery exercises on Heden. Now Gothenburg is the city of sports parties and big concerts. Gothenburg resident Håkan Hellström holds Ullevi’s audience record.

(SCENE 14)

Then, Now and In the Future

We glide via the new Hisingsbron out to sea and there the story begins again.
Gothenburg begins and ends by the sea.

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