IAS Turbulence: On the Video Essay in Contemporary Film and Screen Studies

In this illustrated talk, Catherine Grant will explore the emergence of the audiovisual essay in screen studies, focusing on her own creative/critical "material thinking" research as a video editor, a curator, a publisher and a theorist of such videos. She will also discuss the issues that arise with such work in educational contexts in relation to technology, skills and Fair Dealing/copyright. And she will set out her basic workflow and techniques in conducting her audiovisual essay research.

Bio

Catherine Grant, Professor of Digital Media and Screen Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, has published widely on theories and practices of film authorship, adaptation and intertextuality, and has edited important collections of work on world cinema, Latin American cinema, digital film and media studies, and the audiovisual essay.

A relatively early and prolific adopter of the online short video form, Grant is internationally known for her pioneering and award-winning work on the audiovisual essay in film and moving image studies, especially in found-footage, first-person and essay-film forms. She has produced well over 200 videos to date, dozens of which have been published in online journals alongside her written reflections on these forms and their emergent role in film and media studies, especially in relation to theories of film spectatorship, material thinking, and psychoanalytic object relations. Her videos have screened at film festivals and film museums around the world.