Towards a definition of elemental cinema: matter and representation beyond the ecological divide

• Autor(a) principal: Mendes, Margarida
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34632/diffractions.2023.13284

As in the materialist turn in recent philosophical discourse, cinema too has revealed traces of a renewed appreciation for depicting matter. In a coincidental move, artists and filmmakers across the globe have given matter centre stage and revised representational tactics by allowing materiality to become the main subject in front of the camera. This of course does not imply an erasure of the human figure from the script at all times but redirects the camera’s gaze and proposes a shift in film’s leading protagonists, calling into question the depiction of other-than-human ontologies and a new imagination of the posthuman condition. As one is increasingly haunted by the confluence of virtual and technospheric agents put forward by the era of the Anthropocene, while living under climatic distress, this puts into question how material narratives are taking place and shaping human agency today.