‘ABBA: Against The Odds’: Director James Rogan On Combatting Anglo-American “Snobbery” Against The Swedish Superstars On Eve Of 50th Eurovision Anniversary
03.05.2024 - 11:09
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: The upcoming ABBA feature, which will air on 14 broadcasters including the BBC and CW, is an attempt to give the global superstars the Asif Kapadia-style doc treatment for the first time while combatting “Anglo-American” snobbery, according to its director.
James Rogan said previous docs about ABBA have been “lovely, full of joy and in the style of the arts programing of the late nineties and noughties,” while his team wanted to hand the show a modern narrative treatment, seen in the work of auteurs like Amy and Senna director Kapadia.
Produced by Rogan Productions, ABBA: Against the Odds is a documentary first in that it has been funded by 14 broadcasters including the BBC, CW and Scandinavian networks to help take on the might of the streamers, organized under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs Eurovision. The 90-minuter will launch a week before the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s Eurovision Song contest victory in Brighton, England, which catapulted them to global superstardom with the song ‘Waterloo’.
Rogan was approached by Danish commissioning exec Anders Bruus around four years ago, and noted “there hadn’t been any modern docs about ABBA” that reflected how doc storytelling had changed over the past decade. As a producer of “serious” docs, Rogan said he has repeatedly been asked, “Why are you making a film about ABBA?” since embarking on the journey.
“The challenge was the scale of it,” he added. “We discussed the project for a long time and it was always about trying to find the right shape.”
Having buy-in from Scandinavian broadcasters allowed the producers to challenge Anglo-American stereotypes and traditional criticisms of ABBA, which have held through the decades,