American-Scandinavian Foundation invites you to a virtual conversation between filmmaker Lo Dagerman and author Mark Greene on “Masculinity and Culture”, moderated by Benjamin Mier-Cruz on March 9.
Immediately following WWII, a young Swedish journalist, Stig Dagerman, is sent into war-torn Europe. He writes a path-breaking travelogue from the ruins of Germany, and is in 1947 dispatched to Paris. French manhood had been humiliated by the Nazi occupation, and it’s now being restored through false narratives and myth-making about manly courage. Inspired by people he meets, Dagerman pens the play Marty’s Shadow, about a young man who becomes a victim of rampant toxic masculinity.
In 2017, Stig Dagerman’s play opened at the August Strindberg Repertory Theater in New York. In her documentary The Making of a Man, filmmaker Lo Dagerman traces her father’s journey in France in the 1940s and interviews the director and cast of the New York production, discovering that the young actor playing the lead in Marty’s Shadow has his own very personal insight into toxic masculinity. Rather than being dated, the play very much resonates in the current United States.
Lo Dagerman will be joined by Mark Greene, whose book The Little #MeToo Book for Men (ThinkPlay Partners, 2018) was written as part of a movement to help change how contemporary culture conditions boys and men. Exploring how man box culture contributes directly to economic and sexual violence against women, the book has been hailed as “nothing short of a blueprint for men’s liberation.” During their conversation, Dagerman and Greene will discuss the predicament of boys and young men in the culture that shapes them. What values drive male socialization today? What is dominance-based male box culture? What is toxic masculinity and how can men withstand pressure to conform? What is the role of women in promoting toxic ideals? Why are male stereotypes still so strong?
Screening in coordination with today’s discussion, The Making of a Man will be available as Virtual Cinema from Scandinavia House. Details and ticketing info will be added closer to the date; please check back to this page to learn more and purchase.
This event will take place as a Zoom webinar; registration is required at the link above. A Q&A will follow the discussion; questions can be shared in the chat or sent in advance to info@amscan.org.
About the speakers
Lo Dagerman (director, producer) is a writer, translator, film-maker, producer who is dedicated to bringing the oeuvre of Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) to new audiences. An immigrant to the United States with two American sons, she is the daughter of Swedish cultural legends: writer Stig Dagerman and actress Anita Björk. Lo worked as a screenwriter and producer with director Dan Levy Dagerman on Our Need for Consolation (2012) featuring Stellan Skarsgård and Marty’s Shadow (2019) starring Jimi Stanton. The Making of a Man (2019) is her directorial debut.
Keynote speaker and author Mark Greene writes and consults on relational practices, diversity and inclusion, and masculinity for organizations world wide. Greene coaches and consults on the challenges we face as men raised in man box culture. He is the author of Remaking Manhood and The Little #MeToo Book for Men. He is co-author with Dr. Saliha Bava of The Relational Book for Parenting. As a Senior Editor for the Good Men Project, Greene has spent over a decade deconstructing our binary-riddled dialogues around manhood and masculinity. He is uniquely positioned to help men, individually and in organizations, create a healthier more connecting vision of masculine culture and identity. He can be found on most social media platforms @RemakingManhood.
About the moderator
Benjamin Mier-Cruz is Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with research examining Nordic writers and filmmakers of color and intersectional representations of gender, sexuality, and race. He is currently working on a book project exploring contemporary representations of non-whiteness in Swedish documentary films and visual culture.
Benjamin is also a translator. Among his many accomplishments is his translation of Stig Dagerman’s A Moth to a Flame (Penguin UK, 2019).