Erased From Your Own Story

What does it look like to be erased from your own story?

Excerpt from my book Outcast from the School of Housewives – Behind the Scenes of the Icelandic Film Industry (working title – soon to be published in English).

In January 2025, the director of Húsó and our co-writer were nominated for the Nordic Series Script Awards.

My lawyer asked the production company Glassriver to add my name to the nomination and to invite me to the Gothenburg Film Festival, where the awards are presented by the Nordisk Film & TV Fund.

That request was denied.

In interviews with international media, my involvement in the project is not mentioned anywhere.

According to dated documents in my possession, I initiated the project from the start, worked for two years on developing and writing the series, which was largely based on my own experience, and received the green light at a meeting with RÚV’s programme director at the time.

According to these documents, the core ideas of the series, its characters, their relationships, storylines, scenes, and numerous details were developed through my work and my work within the writers’ room.

A letter sent from the Icelandic Writers’ Union (RSÍ) to RÚV (the national broadcaster) and the production company Glassriver:

“Now that the television series Húsó is being rebroadcast on RÚV, RSÍ wishes to reiterate its support for Dóra Jóhannsdóttir’s demand that her name, as well as her pseudonym, be displayed in connection with all screenings, nominations, and any other matters relating to Húsó. The Icelandic TV Awards were presented on October 30th, and Dóra, along with others, accepted the award for Script of the Year as ‘creator’ (originator) and one of the writers of Húsó. There is therefore no doubt about her involvement in writing the series. The absence of name attribution violates authors’ rights, including the right to be credited (moral rights). RSÍ therefore requests that Dóra’s rights be respected in every context in which the series is shown, nominated, or covered in the media.”

As things stand, it is impossible for me to use Húsó in my CV in any meaningful way, since I am not credited as a writer in international nominations or media coverage.

This discrepancy can raise doubts with international collaborators and directly undermines my real employment and income opportunities in an industry that relies heavily on international networks and collaboration.

RÚV and producers have a contractual and legal obligation to respect authors’ rights.

No author should have to fight for years to have minimum statutory rights respected in publicly funded projects.

Despite extensive media coverage and significant public interest, RÚV and Glassriver have not issued a public correction.

Vísir (one of Iceland’s most-read news outlets) ran the headline: “Did not get her name nor pseudonym on her own show.”

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