Desire for cinema perhaps existed before its creation. Today, cinema can be thought as the umbrella term for the variety of moving images and time-based forms that currently circulate and which have intersecting, yet specific, histories of emergence. These encompass the changing technological and spatial forms themselves—from collective halls to handheld devices—in which cinema appears, as well as the movement and interpretation of cinemas throughout the world. Cinematic Migrations is a multi-faceted look at the role of cinema’s transmutations over time and its worldwide and circuitous shifts.
The terms “global” and “identity,” with their ubiquitous uses, can no longer be assumed to have definitive substance or recognizable meaning. Lecturers and guests participating in this series will examine these terms in different ways, along with their own explorations.
Note about Cinematic Migrations
Cinematic Migrations is a two-year collaborative research project initiated by Renée Green (Free Agent Media) and is co-hosted by the MIT Visiting Artists Program and ACT. The work of filmmaker John Akomfrah and producer Lina Gopaul (Smoking Dogs Films, and founding members of the seminal UK-based Black Audio Film Collective) is a focal point in our investigation of the theme.
Funded in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT