A Life Without Books Would Have Been Very Poor
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Video, 12 minutes, 2009
Elise, Iréne and four other old women meet every Thursday to read books. Their Study Group has been running since the 1970’s and is organized by the Hosewives Association. During the last few years they have met at 91-year-old Iréne’s house because it is difficult for her to get out. They read the books aloud because some of them have a hard time reading the small letters.
Iréne talks about her love of literature and that she wanted further education when she was young but her journalist father said he couldn’t afford it (even though he could afford her younger brothers’ education). Later on in life, when she retired from work she wanted to move to Uppsala to study at the university. But she never even asked her husband about it – she knew he wouldn’t have approved.
The filmed documentary images are mixed with pictures from the Swedish IKEA-catalogue which shows books both as a social marker and a decoration prop.
Video, 12 minutes, 2009
Elise, Iréne and four other old women meet every Thursday to read books. Their Study Group has been running since the 1970’s and is organized by the Hosewives Association. During the last few years they have met at 91-year-old Iréne’s house because it is difficult for her to get out. They read the books aloud because some of them have a hard time reading the small letters.
Iréne talks about her love of literature and that she wanted further education when she was young but her journalist father said he couldn’t afford it (even though he could afford her younger brothers’ education). Later on in life, when she retired from work she wanted to move to Uppsala to study at the university. But she never even asked her husband about it – she knew he wouldn’t have approved.
The filmed documentary images are mixed with pictures from the Swedish IKEA-catalogue which shows books both as a social marker and a decoration prop.