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Obstinate Memory: Documentary as trauma in disrupting state narratives on racial violence
15 October 2021
"The most political decision you make is where you direct people's eyes. In other words, what you show people, day in and day out, is political. And the most politically indoctrinating thing you can do to a human being is to show them, every day, that there can be no change." Wim Wenders (1) Television… continue reading.
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‘This will be your version of what happened’: Performance, Perspective and Control in Jackie (2015)
15 October 2021
Pablo Larraín’s biopic, Jackie, is an unsettlingly personal account of Jackie Kennedy’s experience of the days following the assassination of her husband, President John F Kennedy. As a biopic it raises complex issues around authenticity, performance, memory and control. Whilst as a female-centred text, it presents an alternative, personal perspective on a now globally witnessed,… continue reading.
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Random Access Memory
15 October 2021
How the bricolage of the Internet encourages, stores and presents society’s collective memory and individuals’ private recollection. From cave paintings and oral poems, to text, photographs and now data, humans have always used technology to capture memory and share their experience, to assert their individual existence and that of their wider social group, tribe, family,… continue reading.
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A (Frosted) Window on the Past: Historical Representation and its Influence on Collective Memory
15 October 2021
If the past is a foreign country, then it is, at least, one place that we can all visit with ease, if only for an hour or two at a time. Amongst the numerous films and television dramas available for consumption are many offering immersion into a past time, whether it is the hijinks of… continue reading.
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‘’It’s a life you’re making up’’: Pour une Femme and the Creative Process of Remembering
15 October 2021
In Pour une Femme (Diane Kurys, 2013), a film which explores how the France of the 1980s is shaped by the political and cultural changes of the post-war period, cinema is explored as an intersection of cultural memory, an official version of the past and the product of subjective desires, the latter which have been… continue reading.
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The “redemption of memory” path in Giorgio Diritti’s L’Uomo che Verrà
15 October 2021
Dedicated to the memory of Angelo Del Boca (23/05/1923 – 6/7/2021) In the vast panorama of memory studies, the concept of historical memory assumes uncertain connotations. If “historical” research aims at verifying truth by using sources and evidence, “memory” is subjective, and it relates to the changeable concept of identity. National institutions and communities choose… continue reading.
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Vergangenheitsbewältigung on the example of the movie "Das Leben der Anderen"
15 October 2021
In recent years a whole range of very successful German movies have been produced which take place during the time of German Democratic Republic, particularly its last phase. These include Leander Haussmann's Sonnenallee, Sebastian Peterson's and Thomas Brussig's Helden Wie Wir, and Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin!; the latter not only arousing nostalgic feelings, but… continue reading.
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Rebuilding Lost Memory in Digital Games
15 October 2021
Along the River During the Qingming Festival, also known as the Qingming Shange Tu, is a Chinese painting by Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145). The scroll is 24.8 cm in height and 528 cm long. It is an historically important artwork that captures the daily life of people and the landscape of the capital… continue reading.
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The Memory of Sequels: Blade Runner 2049 and Collective Memory
15 October 2021
Anyone familiar with the film Blade Runner (1982) will know that memory takes a vital role in its narrative. This remains the case for its sequel, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), albeit from a somewhat altered perspective. At the heart of both Blade Runner films is the boundary between "artificial" and "real" memories, and the implications… continue reading.
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Memory, gender and filmmaking: Exploring Thelma & Louise
15 October 2021
Lucy Brown presents her moving and perceptive film essay ‘BFF Thelma and Louise: Tanya and Lucy Revisit 30 Years On’, along with an enlightening commentary.… continue reading.