The jury’s comment:

Intimate, pensive portrayals show people in their homes apparently doing nothing – as in a silent, collective protest. We see women from different generations and backgrounds, but who they are and how they live is left to our imagination. Their hands and faces tell us that they have done things earlier in their lives. The film raises urgent questions about women’s time and employment, the traditional passively-coded woman and her often under- or unpaid and invisible labour, not least at home. And yet, they are doing something: Without added gestures or facades, they relax, contemplate, dream. They just aren’t being what is considered useful. Can you be productive without doing work that fits into the capitalist matrix?

The film sets off with compelling questions about actions that insist on disobedience against “work”, both conceptually and formally: after watching inactive women for a few minutes, the viewer experiences an expectant itch for something to happen – for the women to get up and “do” something. But nothing happens – perhaps lethargy is the most political act of resistance, and what would happen if women collectively were to “do nothing”?

Ina Porselius (b. 1989) has her roots in Gotland and lives and works in Gothenburg. She has an MFA from Kunsthøgskolen in Oslo (2017–2019), an MA in cinematic processes from the Valand Academy, Gothenburg (2015–2016), and a BFA from Kunsthøgskolen in Bergen (2012–2015).

Porselius’s works have been shown in Sweden, including at Galleri Box, Konstepidemin and The Gothenburg Film Festival in Gothenburg, Gotlands Konstmuseum and the Bergman Week on Gotland, Delfi (KANAL) in Malmö, and in Norway at Studio17, Stavanger, Destiny’s Atelier, Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus, Olso, and Entré Cinema/Bergen Filmklubb in Bergen. She was recently the featured artist in Tidskriften Provins.

Ina Porselius has received numerous accolades, including a nomination for the New Doc prize of the Tempo Documentary Festival, Visningsrommet’s exhibition award and the international selection for the Gothenburg Film Festival. She has also received grants from Iaspis, Sweden, and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Norway.

The jury consisted of Meira Ahmemulic, contemporary art consultant at the Arts Development Administration of Region Västra Götaland, Caroline Gustafsson, curator at Borås Art Museum, and Amila Puzic, curator at Röda Sten, Gothenburg. The award includes a presentation of the winning entry at Borås Art Museum the following year.

Frame is an annual short film festival, competition and forum for filmmakers and film lovers in Western Sweden, and is organised by Region Västra Götaland.

Images: Ina Porselius, Women doing nothing, 2022 (film stills)