LECTURE SERIES
 

CELLULOID NO MORE: REFLECTIONS ON CINEMA AS DIGITAL MEDIUM IN THE 21ST CENTURY

 

MON 2, 9, 16 AND 23 MARCH
Lumière Cinema, Bassin 88, Maastricht

Hugo Emmerzael
Film Critic & Journalist

In this lecture series, we will be reflecting on film by looking at digital cinema. When George Lucas released his Star Wars prequel series Attack of the Clones in 2002, he was one of the forefathers of a new revolution in film. It was the biggest film ever made completely with digital technology. He saw endless possibilities in the step away from celluloid, moving towards an immaterial, digital film era, in which filmmakers got more control over their creative process. In 2009, his vision of the future became reality to a large extent. Nearly every cinema worldwide parted with their 35mm projectors and installed state-of-the-art DCP projectors. And all in order to project James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) – one of the greatest digital films ever made to date.

Since then, we no longer give so much thought to film as a digital medium. With the rise of streaming services, we have grown accustomed to films as digital products. Yet it is precisely now, around 25 years after those big changes brought about by Lucas, among others, that it is important to look back and reflect on the materiality and ontology of the medium of film. What is cinema in the 21st century? How has the arrival of the digital medium affected techniques, camera technology, style choices and directors’ strategies? How does the medium relate to other communication technologies, such as the internet? In this series, film expert Hugo Emmerzael guides us through these themes.

 

The individual lectures:

1. The Digital Revolution: Attack of the Pixels (2 Mar)
2. Endless Possibilities: The New Frontier of Digital Cinema (9 Mar)
3. Unfriended: Cinema’s Tense Relationship with the Internet (16 Mar)
4. Framing Globalism and Capitalism through Cinema: TIME IS LUCK (23 Mar)

Cost of the whole series / individual lectures
UM students: €8 / €2.50
UM employees and students from other schools: €20 / €6.25
Others €40 / €12.50

In conjunction with this lecture series, we are presenting one screening of Miami Vice, on Wednesday 25 March, along with a video introduction by Hugo Emmerzael. Tickets for the screening are available through www.lumiere.nl. Those attending the lecture series get a reduction.