LECTURE 
 

CELLULOID NO MORE | Lecture 3: Unfriended: Cinema’s Tense Relationship with the Internet

 

MON 16 MARCH, 19:30
Lumière Cinema, Bassin 88, Maastricht

Hugo Emmerzael
Film Critic & Journalist

 

In the digital age, cinema is barely distinguishable from other audiovisual media we consume on our televisions, computers and smartphones. This lowered hierarchical position of cinema in relation to more social and interactive media, becomes apparent in works by filmmakers who question our relationship with the internet and digital media.

Themes such as social control, surveillance, and the boundlessness of the internet dominate both experimental and mainstream films. Works such as Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, 2002), Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001), and Unfriended (Levan Gabriadze, 2014) depict the internet as a murky, dangerous swamp. Because the internet transforms so rapidly, films also constantly change alongside it. In this lecture, we delve into the constantly shifting relationship between cinema and new media. Through a wide range of examples, we experience how cinema offers a critical lens through we can view the new dominant technology of our era.

 

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.