Meet TTS Alumnus Nathan Grossman, Class of 2022-23
This month we are spotlighting Nathan Grossman, a Swedish filmmaker who pursued a Master of Arts degree at Columbia University, specializing in Science Journalism in 2022-23. We checked in with him to hear about what he’s up to these days and how his time as a Thanks To Scandinavia scholar impacted him.
What are you up to these days?
I’m currently launching my latest documentary, Amazomania. The film revisits a lost archive footage from a 1996 expedition that attempted to make contact with the Korubo people, who were then living in voluntary isolation in Brazil. The film looks at the encounter again from today’s perspective — including questions of documentary ethics, authorship, and who gets to tell whose story. Amazomania premiered this year in Copenhagen at CPH:DOX and has since been touring festivals from New Zealand to Croatia, racking up several wonderful awards, including one from FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics).
How did your experience as a Thanks To Scandinavia scholar shape your career and perspective?
Thanks To Scandinavia supported my year studying Science Journalism at Columbia University. I went there because, as a documentary filmmaker, I often work with subjects that require an understanding of complicated scientific and social contexts. Having a year to go into subjects in depth — rather than learning them quickly for a specific production — made me more thoughtful as a journalist. That approach was also relevant making Amazomania, which required years of research and navigating ethical dilemmas.
Looking back, is there any specific aspect or memory from your time as a Thanks To Scandinavia scholar that stands out to you?
What stands out is the freedom I had at Columbia to move between journalism and other academic fields. I studied at the Journalism School but the M.A program was shaped so courses could be taken at other faculties as well. As a journalist, being able to spend time embedded at other faculties, myself focused on public health and climate science, was a great opportunity to learn science from the inside.
What do you want others in the Thanks To Scandinavia community — supporters, scholars and alumni — to know about?
I think scholarships like this can have a long impact. They give you time to become curious about subjects outside your immediate field and to develop ways of working that may only become useful many years later. For me, the combination of journalism and research continues to shape the films I make.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I hope people get a chance to see Amazomania. It’s my way to use cinema in the way I love, giving audiences a visceral understanding of something that is hard to describe with words. In Amazomania the relationship between the western media and indigenous communities. If you want to read more about it here is Variety’s feature.