Using a framework of Fourth Cinema, first constructed by Māori filmmaker Barry Barclay, this thesis explores the (historical) identity politics of the Sámi and employs an eco-critical approach to...Show moreUsing a framework of Fourth Cinema, first constructed by Māori filmmaker Barry Barclay, this thesis explores the (historical) identity politics of the Sámi and employs an eco-critical approach to trace a bridge to climate politics. Fourth Cinema is a movement which empowers Indigenous people to take back control of their narrative and invites its audiences to envision an alternative to the Ecological Exotic Other constructed by Western colonial accounts. Whereas the roots of Fourth Cinema were first theorized in the 90s to strengthen Indigenous identity politics, it is now unquestionably intertwined with climate politics in the case of the Sámi. The cultural identity of the Sámi is so closely tied to their land that the increased threat of global warming is a direct assault on their social distinctiveness. Time and again the Sámi are at the forefront of climate change in the North. Consequently, Fourth Cinema meets ecocinema in the effort by Indigenous peoples to transmit their ways of knowing to a larger audience. Fourth Cinema is a space where the Sámi have the authority to voice their outlooks on environmental issues from the perspective of their values and traditional ways of knowing. At the core of this thesis is a study into the dialogue between ecocriticism and Fourth Cinema in Sámi film. The thesis’s focal hypothesis is that an eco-critical study of Sámi Fourth Cinema offers alternative outlooks to contemporary Nordic climate discussions and crises while simultaneously empowering cultural sovereignty to Sámi communities oppressed by colonial mechanisms of Othering.Show less
In this thesis I asked the question: how can Merleau-Ponty’s political work reveal essentialism in feminist thought and thereby contribute to feminist philosophy?
