Teaching Staff
Prof. Mette Hjort

Chair Professor in Humanities, Dean of Arts
Office: OEW1102
Tel: 3411 7200
Email: mettehjort@hkbu.edu.hk
Selected Projects
Alternative film schools, capacity building, and talent development
Involving field work in Africa and the Middle East, this film-based project looks at transnational partnerships (Nordic region – Middle East; Nordic region – East Africa; Nordic region – West Africa), milieu-building efforts, and the development of transferable models, all within the context of an exploration of moving images as a significant source of public value.
Moving images, health, and well-being
A community-oriented project involving collaboration with scholars in the areas of positive psychology and neuro-cinema, and with hospitals and homes for the elderly. A key goal is to identify, explain, and explore the potential of moving images to contribute to health and well-being.
The ethics of image-based biographical fiction
An analytic project aimed at developing a typology of approaches to fictionalizing lives, and at articulating the moral duties of both producers and viewers.
Environmental aesthetics and green filmmaking
A wide-ranging project focusing on the use of cinematic depictions of nature for the purposes of health outcomes, on best practices in green filmmaking, and on policy-oriented measures to promote environmentally responsible filmmaking.
Recent Publications (2015-2019)
2019 (forthcoming), Hjort, Mette, and Eva Jørholt (eds). African Cinema & Human Rights, “Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora” series, edited by Michael T. Martin and David C. Wall. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press and the Black Film Center/Archive.
2019 (forthcoming), Hjort, Mette. ‘What is Denmark doing in the Middle East? Soft Power, Capacity Building, and Film as Art.’ In Cinemas of Elsewhere: A Globalized History of Nordic Film Cultures, edited by Anna Stenport and Arne Lunde.
2019 (forthcoming), Hjort, Mette. ‘In Defense of Human Rights Filmmaking: A response to the sceptics, based on Kenyan examples.’ In African Cinema & Human Rights.
2019 (forthcoming), Hjort, Mette, with Eva Jørholt. ‘Filmmaking on the African Continent: On the centrality of human rights thinking.’ In African Cinema & Human Rights.
2018 (forthcoming), Hjort, Mette. ‘The Public Value of Film: Moving Images, Health, and Well-being.’ In Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, special issue devoted to Movings Images, Health and Well-being, edited by Mette Hjort and Tommy Gustafsson.
2018, Hjort, Mette. ‘Guilt-based filmmaking: moral failings, muddled activism, and the dogumentary Get a Life.’ In special issue of Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, edited by Elisabeth Oxfeldt. 10.P1: 6–13, https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2018.1447219.
2018, Hjort, Mette. ‘Gender Equity in Screen Culture: On Susanne Bier, the Celluloid Ceiling, and the Growing Appeal of TV Production.’ In Refocus: The Films of Susanne Bier, edited by Missy Molloy, Mimi Nielsen and Meryl Shriver-Rice, 130-144. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
2018, Hjort, Mette. ‘Soft Power, Talentförderung und Filmschaffen im Mittleren Osten,’ translated by Patrick Vonderau. Montage AV: Zeitschrift für Theorie & Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation (Special Issue: Arab Cinema) 26.2: 49-58.
2017, Hjort, Mette. ‘Eyes on the Future: World Cinema and Transnational Capacity Building.’ In Routledge Companion to World Cinema, edited by Rob Stone, Paul Cooke, Stephanie Dennison, Alex Marlow-Mann, 482-496. London: Routledge.
2017, Hjort, Mette. ‘Creative Strategies: Lars von Trier’s Medea.’ In Blackwell Companion to the Reception of Classical Myth, edited by Vanda Zajko, 447-461. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
2017, Hjort, Mette. ‘Unlikely Empathy: The Process and Effect of Identification in Listen.’ In Short Film Studies. 8.1: 73–77, doi: 10.1386/sfs.8.1.73_1.
2017, Hjort, Mette. 跨越国界:丹麦“特色”电影培训、能力建设与人才扶持的跨国实践, translated Wang Xinying, 当代电影 (Contemporary Cinema) 250.2, 2017: 80-88.
2016, Hjort, Mette. ‘Talent Development and Capacity Building in Small Nations: On the Twinning of Film-Makers.’ Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, special issue edited by Ilona Hongisto, Bill Nichols, and Malin Wahlberg. 6.2: 81-100. doi: 10.1386/jsca.6.2.81_1
2016, Hjort, Mette. ‘What Does It Mean to be an Ecological Filmmaker? Knut Erik Jensen’s Work as Eco-Auteur.’ Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind 10.2: 104-124. doi: 10:3167/proj.2016.100206
2016, Hjort, Mette. ‘Facilitating Student Engagement: A Performative Model of Transnational Film Pedagogy.’ In Teaching Transnational Cinema, edited by Katarzyna Marciniak and Bruce Bennett, 155-176. London: Routledge.
2016, Hjort, Mette. ‘Crossing Borders: The Transnational Turn in “Danish” Film Training, Capacity Building, and Talent Development.’ In A Companion to Nordic Cinema, edited by Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist, 148-172. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
2015, Hjort, Mette. ‘The Risk Environment of Filmmaking.’ In European Visions, edited by Janelle Blankenship and Tobias Nagl, 49-64. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
Professor Hjort has published 4 monographs, 13 edited books, 4 interview books, and 2 translated books (with Harvard UP, Chicago UP, Oxford UP, HKUP, BFI Publications, Routledge, Johns Hopkins UP, U of Washington P, Indiana UP, Edinburgh UP, Wayne State UP, Wiley-Blackwell, and Intellect). See the full CV for details.
Selected Grants:
2018-2021, member, research project ‘Cinema of Mobility in the Hispanic Atlantic,’ Ministry of Economy, Spain, Principal Investigator Miguel Fernandez-Rodriguez Labayen, Co-Investigator José Francisco Cerdán Los Arcos.
2017, Hjort, Mette, Film:Exchange, internal research grant to support collaborative research (DK 50,000, University of Copenhagen).
2016, Hjort, Mette, Film:Exchange, internal research grant to support collaborative research (DK 50,000, University of Copenhagen).
2013-2015, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, GRF (Hong Kong Research Grants Council), ‘Practice-oriented Film Education and Its Institutions: Values, Methods, Transferable Models’ (RGC Ref No.340612; HK $309,266).
2012-2013, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Teaching Development Grant, ‘Independent Chinese Cinema: A Pedagogical Resource’ (TG11A9; HK $375,000, Lingnan University).
2011-2012, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Direct Grant, ‘Contemporary Documentary Filmmaking in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the PRC: Understanding Practitioner’s Agency,’ Co-Investigators Cheung Tit Leung, Ma Ran, Hu Liu Bin (DA11B1; HK $ 15,000, Lingnan University).
2010, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Teaching Development Grant, ‘Film and Education: Documentary Film’ (TG10B1; HK $19,840, Lingnan University).
2010, Hjort, Mette, Teaching Development Grant, ‘Key Issues in Contemporary Documentary Filmmaking: Practitioners’ Perspectives’ (TG10B2; HK $14,400, Lingnan University).
2010, Hjort, Mette, Co-Investigator, Teaching Development Grant, ‘Developing a Virtual World Teaching Resource.’ With Brant Knutzen, David M. Kennedy and Christine Shirley (HK $398,402, Lingnan University).
2010, Hjort, Mette, Direct Grant, with Meaghan Morris, ‘Instituting Cultural Studies’ (DA10A2; HK $30,000, Lingnan University).
2008-2010, Hjort, Mette, Direct Grant, ‘Art and Risk’ (DA08A7; HK $29,000, Lingnan University).
2007-2009, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, CERG (Hong Kong Research Grants Council competitive grant), ‘The Cinema of Lone Scherfig’ (HK $400,000).
2007, Hjort, Mette, Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Leverhulme Trust, ‘Transnational Cinema’ (UK £19,000, University of St Andrews).
2006-2007, Hjort, Mette, with Meaghan Morris, Direct Grant, ‘University Culture: Markets, Globalization, Norms’ (DA06A7; HK $27,000, Lingnan University).
2006-2007, Hjort, Mette, Direct Grant, ‘Small Nations, Film Culture, and Transnationalism’ (HK $64,340, Lingnan University).
2002-2004, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Research Initiation Grant, University of Hong Kong (HK $109,000).
2001-2002 (declined), Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Danish Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, ‘Small National Cinemas’ (450,000 Danish Crowns).
1995-1998, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), ‘Cinema and the Politics of Recognition.’ (Cdn $45,000, McGill University).
1995-1998, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Release Time Stipend (Cdn $13,500, McGill University).
1991-94, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Fonds de recherche du Québec (FCAR), ‘Cinema and the Politics of Recognition,’ (Cdn $47,600, McGill University).
1991-94, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), General Research Grant (Cdn $20,779, McGill University).
1989-91, Hjort, Mette, Principal Investigator, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Postdoctoral Research Grant (Cdn $24,000, McGill University).