Newsletter no. 5 — June 2024

Barbara Delacourt | Photo: Nawelle Zaïdi

cinEXmedia teamed up with the Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM) in 2022 to carry out various intersectoral projects combining cinema studies and the health sciences. As these projects begin to take shape, we will introduce them in more detail in a new series of texts we are launching to highlight this collaboration.

Two articles first of this series by our research assistant Hugo Samson have been put online. In an initial text, Samson explains the reasons for soliciting a partnership between the two organizations and summarizes the projects that will be carried out. In another article, he interviews the doctoral student and speech therapist Barbara Delacourt (see photo), who works with cinEXmedia and CRIUGM on the Lumière project, which will establish a catalogue of audiovisual materials to be used to stimulate non-verbal communication between people with dementia and their caregivers.

Traversées Sud-Est. Cinema and the right to self-representation in Mexico

As part of the Beyond Borders (Au-delà des frontières — in French only) cycle, the cinEXmedia partnership and the Espacio México gallery at the Institut culturel du Mexique in Montreal are presenting, this Friday June 14 and Saturday June 15, the program Traversées Sud-Est. Cinema and the Right to Self-Representation in Mexico, curated by doctoral student Katia Andrea Morales Gaitán.

At the heart of the intimate and moving stories brought to life by Tsotsil and Acapulquenian filmmakers, memory, family and spirituality come together to reveal the essence of their identity and the cultural richness of Mexico. The program is available here (in French only).

Acfas Congress

Two researchers associated with cinEXmedia gave talks at the conference "Binge Entertainment: French-language Media Studies in the Age of Streaming and Video on Demand" (in French only), on 16 and 17 May. The event was organized by Stéfany Boisvert, a member of the Groupe de recherche sur l’avènement et la formation des identités médiatiques (GRAFIM) as part of the 91^st  ACFAS congress.

The two participants were Thomas Carrier-Lafleur, research coordinator at cinEXmedia, and Lisa Mélinand, a doctoral student supervised by Santiago Hidalgo and research assistant. The conference sought to contribute to better studying French-language media and audiovisual production in the age of streaming and binge watching, and to reflect on the state of media studies in French. The full program is available here (in French only).

Image taken from the film Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1989) by Harun Farocki

Politiques du film d’archives

The Centre of Intermedial Research in Arts, Literatures and Technologies (CRIalt — in French only) has obtained, with the support of the cinEXmedia partnership, a Connection grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, enabling it to undertake a vast project this year. Entitled Usage Policy in Film Archives: Contemporary Issues in Documentary Production, it has two phases.

The first, which took place from the fall of 2023 to winter 2024, was devoted in particular to the cinema of Sergei Loznitsa and Harun Farocki. CRIalt will also organize, in the fall of 2024, a series of events with a dozen institutional partners on editing practices and interpreting archival images from an intermedial and decolonial perspective. The schedule of these events will be announced in the coming months. To learn more, consult this article by our research assistant Olivier Du Ruisseau.

cinEXmedia joined with the on-demand documentary platform Tënk last February to present a program of Radio-Canada archives as part of its series Layovers (Escales). The films sought to “explore television as a device that stimulates thought”. “Reflecting on the fundamentally democratic nature of public media and the responsibilities towards the common good that arise from it”, Tënk remarks on its website, “we have selected four productions from the heritage of Radio-Canada that embodied an intention to stimulate collective reflection”.

This layover was carried out with the support of cinEXmedia on the occasion of the publication of an issue of the magazine Spirale (in French only) devoted to television fiction in Quebec and edited by researchers Stéfany Boisvert and Thomas Carrier-Lafleur. To learn more, consult this article by Olivier Du Ruisseau, who interviewed Naimie Décarie-Daigneault, the artistic director of Tënk.

You can also take advantage of free access to the platform for one month, by clicking on this link (valid until December 31, 2024). The link unlocks Tënk's entire programming, and the month of access begins when the account is created.

Last September, the researcher and founder of CinéMédias, André Gaudreault, presented the inaugural lecture of a conference organized by the I/MA/C/S (International Master in Cinema Studies) network and the cinEXmedia partnership. Entitled “Cinema’s Extraordinary Adventures at the University (of Montreal . . . and of the World)”, the lecture is available in a video recording here (in French only).

Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre | Photo: Fiona Matthews

We have recently posted online new portraits of researchers which highlight the breadth and diversity of the projects supported by cinEXmedia.

First, our research assistant Lou Andrysiak spoke with the filmmaker and professor at Université Laval, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre (see photo), a member of cinEXmedia. Her next short film will examine the depiction of women’s bodies and their sexualities from a feminist perspective, and will employ artificial intelligence. Andrysiak authored another text on Geneviève Lamoureux, a doctoral student carrying out a research-action project to create resources for raising awareness of “communicational diversity” in the television, radio, performing arts, and journalism communities.

Olivier Du Ruisseau, for his part, interviewed Vittorio Gallese, a member of cinEXmedia. Gallese spoke about his work at the Neuroscience & Humanities Lab based at the University of Parma, Italy. Du Ruisseau also met with Maude Sils-Néron, a doctoral student and research assistant, who has become the first person in charge of student affairs at cinEXmedia.

Cinémathèque québécoise

In May, the program Zoom sur les caméras at the Cinémathèque québécoise enabled visitors to explore the institution’s collection of equipment and its archives. The series was an extension of the virtual exhibition My Camera and Me (in French only), created in collaboration with TECHNÈS, a research structure of Laboratoire CinéMédias. The exhibition continues until 19 January 2025.

National Film Board of Canada

Every month, the National Film Board of Canada, which collaborates with cinEXmedia on a variety of projects, posts new films on its platform. Some of the films you can now watch are Borislav Kolev’s Theodore Ushev: Unseen Connections, which looks at the abundant oeuvre of the Canadian animated filmmaker Theodore Ushev. A selection of the latter’s films is also available on the NFB’s platform, and the Cinémathèque québécoise is devoting an exhibition to him until 22 September 2024.

Film club in the classroom

As part of the course "Thème choisi: Le cinéma et la science" given this summer by Santiago Hidalgo, professor and executive director of cinEXmedia, at the Université de Montréal, astrophysicist Olivier Daigle will present excerpts from science fiction films in the form of a film club (in French only), aiming to discover science concepts behind the featured works. The event will take place on June 18 in room C-1017-02 of the Pavillon Lionel-Groulx.

Media Club

The cinEXmedia Student Activities Committee is launching a summer media club (in French only)! A meeting will be held each month in June, July and August, to discuss an audiovisual work and its social, educational and mental health issues. The first event is scheduled for June 27, at 2 p.m., on the Université de Montréal campus (exact location to be confirmed). It will focus on the Australian series Heartbreak High.

Report

Maude Sills-Néron, PhD student and head of student affairs for the partnership, and Anna Kolesnikov, postdoctoral fellow, are featured in this report (both links in French only) on Radio-Canada's Découverte program on neurocinema. This subject is central to the work of cinEXmedia, for which Maude Sils-Néron is responsible for student affairs.

Study Days

The study days “Innovating in Media and Cultural Accessibility: Education, Research and Services”, organized by Santiago Hidalgo, Caroline Martin and Lisa Mélinand, were held at the Université de Montréal on 15 and 16 April. Consult the report by Lou Andrysiak here.

Social Media

Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn. You can also join the Facebook pages of Laboratoire CinéMédias and the cinEXmedia partnership to make sure you don’t miss any of our news.