

Genre: Dance, Art
Running Time: 64 minutes
Format: Video, BW, DCP
Country of Production: Sweden Language: Swedish
Subtitles: English
Completion Date: 2025
Directed By: Douglas Rosenberg Produced By: Andreas Nordblom Production Company: Hjärta Nikki
SYNOPSIS: The Sea is a black-and-white feature film directed by Douglas Rosenberg, filmed entirely on location along the Baltic Sea. Drawing inspiration from the evocative landscapes of Ingmar Bergman’s Fårö Island, the film explores aging and the intimate relationships between men in their later years. Featuring a cast of predominantly untrained performers from the Fårö area, The Sea reflects on camaraderie and the ways life’s experiences leave their marks on our bodies, expressed through movement and the passage of time.
The Sea
A film by
Douglas Rosenberg
A poetic exploration of aging, intimacy and camaraderie,
set against the evocative backdrop of the Baltic Sea
COMING TO FESTIVALS IN 2025
Douglas Rosenberg’s (b.1956) work in video and video installation has been shown both in the United States and internationally in museums, galleries, on public television and in festivals around the world.
Douglas Rosenberg has received numerous grants and awards including, an NEA Dance/Film/Video grant, (with choreographer June Watanabe), an NEA/Southeast Media Fellowship, two Zellerbach Foundation grants, a Painted Bride Art Center New Forms Grant, (co-recipient with Li Chiao-Ping), a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, an IZZIE award for his work with Ellen Bromberg and John Henry on “Singing Myself A Lullaby” and a Fellowship from The Project on Death in America for another project with Ms. Bromberg.
Recent shows include, Dance on Camera Festival, New York, Video Festival Riccionne Teatro Televisione, Riccione, Italy, The Contemporary Art Museum in Buenos Aires, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY, Mostra de Vídeo Dansa de Barcelona, Spain. He was the Director of the American Dance Festival’s video archival program for over a decade and continues to direct ADF’s Dancing for the Camera Festival.

DIRECTORS NOTES: “The topic of male intimacy and intimacy in general has been a focus in my work for a number of years. Most recently it manifested in a series of projects focused on interactions between men, through movement, performance, dialog, writing and other means of examining male intimacy and the way in which such relationships disembody or dematerialize over time.
I was thinking about cultures in which male intimacy is normative; a kind of gender specific bonding that often takes the form of wrestling or rough-housing. Such intimacy is seen in sports and in younger boys, and often returns late in life after men are once again freed of social constraints regarding intimate behavior such as public touching and a softening of aggressive tendencies. The “third age” of men, coming as it does after their work-life is over, is sometimes accompanied by a kind of existential sense of aloneness that begins to inhabit the life-force of aging men.
This is timely work for me as an artist in the later stages of a life-long and rigorous exploration of performance art and its various manifestations. The Sea, is about both finding and creating a particular kind of temporary community for the sake of creating a poetic and empathetic work of art.
Using movement and the landscape as an emotional palette, this film is particularly
inspired by films that Bergman made in the landscape of Fårö.”




CREDITS:
THE SEA
A FILM BY DOUGLAS ROSENBERG
Cast:
Jarck Benschop
David Dorfman
Rolf Engström
Lars Eskilsson
Bengt Hesselberg
Henrik Krogh
Mikael Larsson
Olof Nellgård
Lars Osterman
Lasse Pettersson
Douglas Rosenberg
Lasse Siggelin
Björn Thudén
Benno Voorham
Paul Wu
Producer: Andreas Nordblom
Director: Douglas Rosenberg
Director of photography: Paul Wu
Sound engineer: Björn van Weiden
Choreography:
Benno Voorham
David Dorfman
Douglas Rosenberg
And
The Performers
Sound mixing: Björn van Weiden
Editor: Paul Wu
Grade: Jessica Lindgren-Wu
Production Coordinator: Elsa Nilsson
Runner: Viktor Klintbom
Craft: Yu-Syuan Tsai
Still Photographer: Jessica Lindgren-Wu
Storyboard artist: Kate Forer
Production company: Hjärta Nikki
The Sea/Havet was written by Douglas Rosenberg,
translated by Karin Brygger and performed by Björn Thudén
Uti vår hage performed by Björn Thudén
Original music created by:
David Dorfman, Accordion
Mikael Larsson, Bagpipe
Additional music:
”Veil”
Composed by Philip Jeck
“Heimkehr”
Composed by Harald Weiss and performed by the Nornoss Quartet
Used with permission
The director wishes to thank:
Paul Wu, Andreas Nordblom, Benno Voorham, David Dorfman
Thanks to:
Film på Gotland
Tor Karlsson
Inger Söderdahl
Marcus Grufstedt
Richard Mattson
Lasse Weinebrandt
Lotta Bogren & Kafé Smultronstället
Jamie and Jennie Rae & Kajp Catering
Cristina Bernhardsson Ribeiro & Bergmancenter Fårö
This film was created in the city of Visby and shot
at locations on the Baltic sea island of Fårö, Sweden
The filmmakers would like to thank the entire cast of The Sea
for their generosity and commitment to this project.
No animals were harmed in the making of this film.
This work was supported in part by a grant
from the William F. Vilas Trust Estate
and by the Creative Arts Award from
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s
Division of the Arts.