More cinema, por favor!

This year we are about to dive in a rather unusual academic experience. We have definitely learnt some lessons from the past lockdown, but we are still figuring out how to teach, learn, share, think, question, and interact in new ways, far too often mediated by screens. As the new academic year begins, the SELCS/CMII film club is set to come back on a weekly basis. Launched last May, this multidisciplinary film club has created a digital space to watch and discuss films. It’s a space of connection from the distance, an open window to other places and times, and a grounded cultural community in a digital form.

For me, the film club has greater added values. As a filmmaker, I soon realized about the potential of film clubs not only to explore films as art forms or as ways of discovering and better understanding the world but also to learn about how to make films. Like many of the filmmakers I study – Latin American women who worked in the 1970s and 1980s –, I did not attend film school but I learnt about cinema and filmmaking by watching and discussing films in different contexts and with a variety of people. Besides, whether with friends, colleagues, or just strangers, for me watching and talking about films is some sort of a bonding ritual. Being back in the darkness of a cinema – the cooperative Zumzeig in Barcelona – for the first time after lockdown made me realize how much cinema allows me to connect with people. Although in a digital form, the SELCS/CMII film club is a great opportunity to meet staff and students, connect with the department, and develop a stronger sense of belonging. It will also introduce you to great new films and give you the opportunity of looking at them with multiple eyes.

From October, we have a whole new programme of films that I am sure will help us connect in this uncertain time. During the first five weeks, the film club will happen within the A&H Induction/Welcome programme and will help us discuss crucial issues, such as the matter of black lives, gender and sexuality, the climate emergency, local, global and virtual places, and the possibilities of better futures. The programme during these first weeks contains the following films: Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer (Andrew Donoho & Chuck Lightning, 2018), A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (Ada Gay Griffin & Michelle Parkerson, 1995), the video-essays Subatlantic (2015) and Deep Weather (2013) by Ursula Biemann, The Rite of Spring (1975), and Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016). For more information about where to watch the films and dates and times of the discussions, visit here. After the A&H Induction/Welcome programme, we will go back to the normal activity of the film club. So, if you enjoy watching films, this is a fantastic opportunity to look at great moving images from a variety of angles. As a multidisciplinary department, the conversations are almost guaranteed to be diverse, engaging, and enriching, but also welcoming and relaxed.