Film faculty member, Marie-Aude Baronian, features in a new AGBU WebTalks video discussing Sergei Parajanov’s 1969 masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates. Entitled Poetry in Motion: Parajanov’s Masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates, the 10-minute webtalk is now available on YouTube. Released in 1969 and celebrated worldwide, The Color of Pomegranates is a visually striking film that explores the inner life of 18th-century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, blending poetry, painting, and theater in a groundbreaking cinematic style. The video offers insightful commentary in light of the 100th anniversary of Parajanov’s birth.
Category Archives: News
News
Underground: Cinema Psychedelica
Join us for Underground: Cinema Psychedelica, a week-long event at Eye, from October 17-23, 2024, celebrating the vibrant intersection of film, art, and psychedelia. Organized by our film faculty members, Patricia Pisters, Slava Greenberg, Amir Vudka, and Erica Biolchini, in collaboration with Eye, NICA, and RMeS, this program delves into the avant-garde American film scene of the 1960s and its profound cultural impact. Featuring a dynamic mix of film screenings, insightful lectures, and a live cinema dance/trance performance, the event will explore the revolutionary spirit of 1960s psychedelic cinema and draw connections to today’s resurgence of psychedelic culture in both therapeutic and cinematic contexts.
Erasmus Knowledge Centre for Film, Heritage, and Tourism Wins Applied Research Award in Barcelona
The Erasmus Knowledge Centre for Film, Heritage, and Tourism (FIHETO), recently founded by Stijn Reijnders (EUR) and Film Faculty member Emiel Martens (UvA/EUR) has been honored at the 39th edition of the CETT Alimara Awards. Held during the prestigious Night of the Alimara, these awards recognize projects that have demonstrated an innovative vision in experiences, digitalization, sustainability, and applied research within the tourism, hospitality, and gastronomy sectors over the past year. The CETT Alimara Awards are a renowned initiative by CETT, a leading university center for tourism, hospitality, and gastronomy affiliated with the University of Barcelona. This year, FIHETO received the Applied Research Award for its pioneering approach to addressing the challenges faced by the film and tourism industries.
New study on the use of metaphors in short animated videos about cancer
Film Faculty member scholar Charles Forceville and former student Nina Gebraad have published a new study on the use of metaphors in short animated videos about cancer. Their research, featured in the journal Visual Communication, reveals that these animations predominantly depict cancer as a battle, with the ‘enemy’ often visualized as a monster. Surprisingly, the journey metaphor is seldom used, despite its potential to offer a more hopeful perspective. Forceville and Gebraad advocate for a more nuanced use of metaphors that better aligns with patients’ experiences, urging oncologists and animation creators to reconsider how cancer is portrayed in media. This research builds on Gebraad’s MA thesis in the dual master’s program Documentary & Fiction.
Lecture and workshop on Psychedelic Aesthetics by Joseph Crickmore
On Thursday, October 5, from 10.00-13.00 hrs, NICA/RMeS are hosting a lecture/workshop by Joseph Crickmore entitled ‘De-Colonizing Spice Melange: Psychedelic Aesthetics in Dune’. After the introductory lecture by Crickmore, participants will enter into a discussion on political and de-colonizing ethics, approaching the current psychedelic revival from a media, cultural and broader humanities perspective.
New Book on Reframing Trauma in Contemporary Fiction Film Published
In her new book Reframing Trauma in Contemporary Fiction Film (2023), Film Faculty member Tarja Laine provides insights into how cinema engages its spectator emotionally with the pathology of memory that lies at the heart of trauma. By arguing that cinema communicates the inability to process a traumatic event by means of its aesthetic specificity, Laine demonstrates that traumatic cinema can be an important source of ethical knowledge, both within and beyond the cinematic world. The films discussed in this book do not necessarily narrate trauma but embody that aspect of trauma which resists narrativization. This is why there are modes of affective engagement beyond storytelling by which spectators can meaningfully relate to trauma. Scholars of film studies, media studies, and philosophy will find this book of particular interest.
Las Vegas: Life in Neon Shadows
On Wednesday, June 14, from 15:30 – 19:00, the 4-part documentary Las Vegas: Life in Neon Shadows (1986) by director and retired Film Team member, Bruce Gray, will be screened at the University of Amsterdam Theater (Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16). The original tapes have recently been digitized for exhibition as part of Gray’s work at BuzzHouse’s digitization studio in collaboration with student volunteers. Presented by UvA’s AMIA chapter, the screening will be introduced by Gray and followed a conversation with him moderated by Preservation & Presentation of the Moving Image MA student Errol Tyson. Gray will also share his past photography work on Las Vegas. The screening is free of charge and open for all to join.
Next Media Suite Seminar on Exploring Abstract or Operational Images
On Wednesday May 24, 2023, from 15.00-17.00 hrs, the next Media Suite Seminar on ‘Exploring abstract or operational images as new media (arts) research in the Media Suite’ will be hosted online and on location. In this seminar, Megan Phipps will present her work on the CLARIAH Media Suite’s collection acquisition of The Peter Rubin Collection (Eye Filmmuseum), a multi-media, experimental film, audiovisual performance, and rave/techo-based collection. She will discuss experience gained in archiving a re-mixed based collection and examine how viewing abstract images through an operational framework can provide a fresh look at the role of the (new) media histories within audiovisual archives. Together, attendees of this webinar will explore methods of researching abstract (new) media arts and operational images through cross-collection research, cross-media analysis, and the search functionalities features provided within the Media Suite. Participation is possible on location at the UvA Media Studies Department’s E-Lab (BG1, Room 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9) or via Teams.
Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers
“Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers” is a week-long program of events from May 29 to June 2, 2023 at (mainly) OT301 which creatively and theoretically responds to the concept of exhaustion through a series of participatory art works, lectures, seminars, screenings and workshops. The project comprises three program sections across the first five working days: a morning theoretical program titled “Exhausting Theory”; an afternoon creative workshop program “Exhaustive Creation”; and an evening program of artistic interventions and screenings as “Exhausted Pleasure”.
Book launch, film program, and discussion surrounding the work of Roberto Taroni and Luisa Cividin
On Friday, May 19, from 2-5.30pm, the research group ‘Moving Images: Preservation, Curation, Exhibition’ (Eye Filmmuseum, UvA and ASCA)is organizing a book launch, film program, and discussion at the Eye Collection Centre (Asterweg 26). It concerns the launch of Taroni-Cividin: Performance, Video, Expanded Cinema 1977-1984, a bilingual edited volume which comprehensively chronicles and sets into today’s context the work of Roberto Taroni and Luisa Cividin across film and performance. Alongside a special screening of some of Taroni-Cividin’s film and video works restored in the context of the project, artist Roberto Taroni and editor Flora Pitrolo will join in conversation by Eye curator Simona Monizza and programmer and researcher (Leiden University) Julian Ross to discuss the duo’s radical interdisciplinary practice. The event is free of charge and open for all to join.
Committee of Six and WTC: A Love Story Screened by the UvA Student Chapter of AMIA
On Tuesday May 9, at 7pm, the UvA student chapter of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA, related to the MA Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image), organizes the screening of the films Committee of Six (2022, 40′) and WTC: A Love Story (2021, 60′) at Ventilator Cinema/OT301 in Amsterdam. This program, introduced by P&P student Finn Jubak, addresses contested transformations of the urban environment, combining archival research, oral history, and performance.
After the Political, Aesthetic Affiliation
On May 2, 2023, at 4pm, Brian Price (University of Toronto) will give a ASCA public lecture entitled ‘After the Political, Aesthetic Affiliation’ in the Doelenzaal (UB) of the UvA Library. In this talk, Price will elaborate an aesthetic theory of solidarity with respect to Olivier Assayas’s recent television series. He will argue that Assayas’s recent television works, Carlos and Irma Vep (2022), simultaneously stage the problem of appearance in uniform terms, and propose, especially in Irma Vep, a way of understanding political affiliation in necessarily uneven aesthetic terms, where belonging depends less on relations of identity than on the very differences that constitute a need for ‘relation’ in the first place. In addition, on May 3, 2023, from 10am-1pm, Price will be giving a masterclass on the topic of ‘Moral Philosophy, Moving Images’. In case you want to join this masterclass, please register via a.m.geil@uva.nl. For the public lecture no registration is needed.
Patricia Pisters Speaks at Psychedelia and Computing Conference
On Friday April 7, 2023, Film Faculty member Patricia Pisters will speak during the first session, entitled ‘Psychedelia: a noetic experience of the entropic brain?’, at the conference ‘Psychedelia and Computing: How to Bifurcate Cybernetics?’ hosted by the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society of the University of California. The 1-day conference can also be followed online, a Zoom link will be sent 2 days before the event to registrants.
‘Spirits, Forests, and Screens’ Workshop with Erik Bordeleau
On April 19, 2023, from 16:00-19:30, the film-philosophy workshop focuses on the cinema of Apitchapong Weersathekul together with dr. Erik Bordeleau. The workshop will consist of a screening of scenes from Weersathekul’s latest film, Memoria (2021), followed by a talk by dr. Erik Bordeleau (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) and finally an open discussion. The workshop will be held at OT301’s Cinema Space in Amsterdam.
Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers with Lectures and Seminars by Film Faculty Members
The Fuck Healing collective is pleased to announce its first Summer Program, entitled “Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers”, which will take place from May 29 to June 4, 2023. It is a series of events comprising lectures, seminars, creative workshops, screenings and art interventions at OT301, culminating in a one-day final event at Treehouse NDSM. We are pleased to invite students to participate in the entire program (lectures/seminars and creative workshops) through a selection process. The morning “Exhausting Theory” program will be open to students via advanced registration, and will feature lectures and seminars from invited theoreticians working at the intersection of Deleuze’s theory and creative practice on the theme of “The Exhausted”. Contributions are confirmed by Patricia Pisters (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis), Toni Pape (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis), Rick Dolphijn (Utrecht University), Halbe H. Kuipers (University of Amsterdam) and Hypatia Vourloumis (Dutch Art Institute).
Keynote Lecture on Multimodal Metaphor Theory
Film faculty member Charles Forceville will give a keynote lecture entitled ‘On developing Multimodal Metaphor Theory into Multimodal Trope Theory: Providing Food for Thought’ at the Culture and Cognition in Language 3 (CCL3) Conference, which will be hosted from April 27-28, 2023, at the University of Rzeszów, Poland. In the days preceding the conference Forceville is scheduled to give a series of guest lectures about visual and multimodal communication at the Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland.
UvA scholars sign open letter: ‘Stop developing AI systems’
The development of AI systems that are more powerful than the current ChatGPT-4 must be paused for the next six months. This is stated in an open letter from the non-profit institute Future of Life, which, in addition to big names such as Elon Musk, has also been signed by UvA scholars, including Film Faculty member Amir Vudka. In an interview with Folio (in Dutch) he explains why: “GPT-5 could really be a game changer.”
New Webtalk on Aurora Mardiganian, Armenian-American actress and survivor of the Armenian genocide
In the AGBU WebTalk entitled ‘Aurora Mardiganian: Survivor, Witness, Activist’, Film faculty member Marie-Aude Baronian offers a portrait of Aurora as a pioneer and activist, a young woman who having survived the unimaginable violence of the Genocide wrote a memoir to tell her story and the story of her people, then went on to play her own role in Ravished Armenia, a 1919 Hollywood production that became the first ever film to depict genocide. In another AGBU WebTalk entitled ‘Ravished Armenia: Representing Genocide in Early American Cinema’ Baronian explores the implications of this film, the making of it, its impact at the time, and the challenges of representing violence and mass atrocity through cinema. The animated documentary, Aurora’s Sunrise (2022), directed by Inna Sahakyan, is screening in selected Dutch film theatres from Monday, April 24, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
Watch WebTalk 1: Aurora Mardiganian: Survivor, Witness, Activist
Watch WebTalk 2: Ravished Armenia: Representing Genocide in Early American Cinema
Watch the radio broadcast (De Nieuws BV) about Aurora’s Sunrise
Exhibition Decolonising Media Studies
In the elective ‘Decolonising Media Studies: From Theory to Practice’, students produce their own projects addressing, tackling, and practicing decolonisation in the field of media. This year, the exhibition of final projects will take place on March 31, 2023, at the VOC-Zaal, in line with the aim of the course to encourage decolonial reflections on the pedagogies, curricula, and higher education, including the University of Amsterdam’s own practices and heritage. The event starts at 1pm with presentations and from 3pm onwards it will be possible to walk-in to visit the exhibition.
Workshop on research-based filmmaking at InScience Industry Day
On Friday, March 17, at 10.45am, Film faculty Emiel Martens will host a workshop on research-based filmmaking at the Industry Day of the InScience Film Festival. The making of a film starts with translating an idea into a plan to submitting this plan for funding. However, writing a film plan and securing funding can be very challenging, particularly for independent research-based filmmakers who often might not be considered as ‘official’ and ‘fulltime’ filmmakers (but as researchers, academics or, worse, hobbyists). In this workshop, film scholar-practitioner Emiel Martens (Film Studies, UvA) discusses the importance of a film plan and the various elements that go into such a plan. In addition, he will share different funding opportunities for independent research-based film productions, particularly research grant schemes that are increasingly oriented towards societal impact (or ‘valorisation’) through creative public outputs such as research-based impact films.