Foundation seeks funds for Bergman centre

The Bergman foundation on the Baltic Sea island of Fårö has applied to the Swedish government for 500,000 kronor ($65,700) to establish a resource centre in honour of the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman.

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"A Bergman centre on Fårö - more of a pedagogical knowledge and resource centre than a traditional museum - is a national concern of the utmost importance," the Bergman Centre Foundation writes in its application to the ministry of culture.

The foundation argues that Ingmar Bergman, who died in July 2007 aged 89, holds a unique position within Swedish and international film and points out that Alfred Nobel and Astrid Lindgren have museums, and ABBA's is in the pipeline, so it is time to honour the long-term Farö resident.

"We want to develop the Bergman Centre to a visitor and meeting centre in the spirit of Ingmar Bergman. We furthermore hope to also promote tourism and adult education on Fårö and Gotland," the foundation writes.

The foundation hopes that it will be able to use the disused school on Fårö to house the centre and states that it has received assurances from Gotland municipality for financial support on the condition that running costs can be guaranteed during the first few years of operation.

The foundation has thus applied to the government for 500,000 kronor in order to realize their ambitions.

Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala in central Sweden on July 14th 1918. His film career began in 1941 and he remained active for more than six decades directing over sixty films and documentaries, and over 170 plays.

Most of Bergman's films were set in Swedish landscapes and typically dealt with existential questions of mortality, insanity, loneliness, and religious faith. Some of his more well-known feature films include The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) (1961) and Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) (1983), all of which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Bergman lived most of his life after the early 1960s on the remote island of Fårö and several of his films are made there. His home on the south-east coast was sold to a Norwegian businessman, Hans Gude Gudesen, for an undisclosed sum in October 2009.