Newsletter no. 7 — January 2025

Photo : Clément Massé (Laboratoire CinéMédias) | Franceso Casetti at the Université de Montréal

Francesco Casetti

On 7 November, the partnership welcomed Francesco Casetti, film theorist and professor at Yale University, for the second cinEXmedia Distinguished Speaker lecture. Professor Casetti followed Vittorio Gallese, who spoke in the spring of 2023. In his lecture, at the Carrefour des arts et des sciences of the Université de Montréal, Casetti, who is also a member of the cinEXmedia partnership, shared thoughts drawn from his book Screening Fears: On Protective Media (Princeton University Press, 2023). In this volume, he offers a novel historical perspective on screens, which he describes as “protection systems”.

For more information, consult this article by Olivier Du Ruisseau.

Photo : William Pedneault-Pouliot | André Gaudreault at the Goethe-Universität

Cinema’s Shifting Identities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The founder of the cinEXmedia partnership, André Gaudreault, was invited, on 19 November, by the Institut für Theater, Film und Medienwissenschaft (Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Culture) at Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt, Germany, to deliver the organization’s Kracauer Lecture. This series of events has as its objective to “present innovative contemporary scholarship on film and media from the fields of film and media studies, art history, cultural studies and aesthetic philosophy”.

Gaudreault discussed the upheavals brought about by the advent of artificial intelligence in cinema production and research. In particular, he presented the recent work of Laboratoire CinéMédias on this topic, including the research-creation project DÉMARRER, carried out in collaboration with the artist Alain Omer Duranceau. He also spoke with the university’s students about the “digital revolution” of the past few decades and its many effects of cinema studies.

For more information, consult this article by William Pedneault-Pouliot.

Photo : Adil Boukind (FNC) | From left to right : Émilie Huberdeau, Martine Bédard and Emmanuelle Orange-Parent

Workshop on Described Video (VD)

On 18 October, the Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) and the cinEXmedia partnership took part in a workshop devoted to creating and disseminating described videos. The workshop was led by Émilie Huberdeau, a specialist in media accessibility at AMI-télé, and Emmanuelle Orange-Parent, Operations Supervisor of the Described Video Department at MELS studios.

Whereas the television industry has the benefit of regulations concerning the need for described video at specific times of the day when programs have large audiences, cinema is exempt from these regulations, thereby limiting access to films produced in Canada. The workshop thus gave a detailed demonstration of the various techniques, requirements and constraints involved in creating this tool for making culture accessible to blind and poorly-sighted individuals.

For more information, consult this article by Sophie Leclair-Tremblay

Photo : Gabrielle Labadie | Maxime Michaud

We met with two researchers who work with cinEXmedia in order to highlight their work, situated at the intersection of cinema and the health sciences.

For his doctoral research-creation project, Maxime Michaud (see photo) is attempting to transpose the lived experience of hypersensitivity in an experimental documentary. He is drawing in particular on his research in the neurosciences and on first-hand accounts of hypersensitive people like himself. For more information, consult this article by Sophie Leclair-Tremblay.

Antonio Zadra, full professor of psychology and director of the Laboratoire de recherche sur les rêves at the Université de Montréal, has been studying dreams for several years. Why and how do we remember our dreams? How is the content of dreams connected to our waking life? Why do we dream? These are the questions which drive his research. He now also works in cinema, carrying out, with Santiago Hidalgo, director of the cinEXmedia partnership, a vast project on how our dreams (and the way we depict them) can be shaped by films. For more information, consult this article by Sophie Leclair-Tremblay.

Photo: Laboratoire CinéMédias | Maude Sills-Néron (left) and Marianne Gravel (right), one of the speakers.

Contributing to Well-being in the Age of Screens

On Friday 4 October 2024, the cinEXmedia partnership presented its first symposium organized entirely by and for students of audiovisual media, entitled “Contributing to Well-being in the Age of Screens: An Intersectoral Approach between Film Studies, Health Sciences and Social Sciences”. Over the course of a day, young researchers presented an overview of their work and proposed sometimes startling connections between the arts and the health sciences.

For more information, consult this article by Hugo Jacquet.

Photo : Thibault T. Becquaert | A panel co-organized by the OCQ, at Université de Montréal, last fall

A look back on history 

Since its launch in 2010, the Observatoire du cinéma au Québec (OCQ) has become the principal university-based organization devoted to disseminating, analysing and promoting Quebec cinema. For the first time in its history, the OCQ is undertaking a vast philanthropic campaign with the goal of broadening its activities and making them sustainable. These activities always involve the participation of students of the Université de Montréal.

On this occasion, we met with the director of the OCQ, Thomas Carrier-Lafleur, to find out more about the history of the organization and to highlight its crucial role. Consult Olivier Du Ruisseau’s text here, and click here to make a donation to the campaign.

Photo : Naomi Silver-Vézina, courtesy de Naila Kuhlmann | The Piece of Mind projects performers in rehearsal

HUPR

Recently, the Research Centre for Human Potential (HUPR, formerly CRITAC), affiliated with the National Circus School, has become a cinEXmedia partner. The two organizations are now collaborating with the goal of optimizing the social impact of their respective disciplines. Following the founding of this new partnership, we spoke with members of the HUPR team to better understand how they work.

For more information, consult this article by Olivier Du Ruisseau.

CRIUGM

Since last summer, we have been publishing a series of texts on the work we are carrying out with the Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM). In this new article, Hugo Jacquet explores the centre’s research orientations and its most recent projects.

Polyvalente des Baies

The cinEXmedia partnership recently helped set up the website (in French only) of the Rencontres Étudiantes du Cinéma à Baie-Comeau, in collaboration with the Polyvalente des Baies. It is the only event in Quebec dedicated to young filmmakers aged 12 to 17. Participants create a short film (Kino) over a 36-hour period. The films are then presented at a gala, during which over $5,000 are awarded to the young filmmakers. Participants also have the chance to meet film industry professionals who attend the event.

Our team in UdeM Nouvelles

The researchers Annaëlle Winand and Barbara Delacourt, who work with the cinEXmedia partnership, were recently interviewed for UdeM Nouvelles. Here (in French only), Virginie Soffer interviews Annaëlle Winand, professor in the École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information and a member of GRAFIM, on the topic of her new book, Aux marges de l’archivistique: exploitation des archives et cinéma de réemploi, published by Presses de l’Université du Québec in the fall of 2024. Read also Béatrice St-Cyr-Leroux’s interview with the speech therapist Barbara Delacourt, here (in French only). Her doctoral project examines the ways in which cinema can support communication and promote social involvement in cases of people living with dementia.

The Political Use of Film Archives

The project “Du politique dans l’usage des archives filmiques. Lectures et pratiques décoloniales”, co-organized by the Centre de recherches intermédiales sur les arts, les lettres et les techniques (CRIalt) and the cinEXmedia partnership, came to a close on 10 December with the event “Les archives visuelles de la Méditerranée: Présentation du projet KATSAKH” (in French only) at La lumière Collective. With the collaboration of Wapikoni mobile, Laboratoire CinéMédias, La lumière Collective, the NFB, the Faculté des arts et des sciences at the Université de Montréal and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the project led to the organization of four events addressing different political issues related to the use of archival images.

Cadavre Exquis

This past fall, the project Cadavre Exquis project, which is supported by cinEXmedia and whose goal is to give new life to the Université de Montréal 16mm film collection, held three screenings of short films followed by discussions with researchers. For more information about the project, consult this article by Olivier Du Ruisseau. Follow Cadavre Exquis' Facebook page in order not to miss upcoming events in 2025.

Social Media

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