Teaching the materiality of film

Abstract

In this Forum article, we present a critical case study of the seminar Materiality of Film, which we taught at the Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich, in 2016 and 2018, in collaboration with David Landolf and Brigitte Paulowitz of Lichtspiel/Kinemathek in Bern, Switzerland. Our primary motivation to develop this course was our own fascination with the material side of analog film, an interest we developed throughout our professional lives, Bregt Lameris as a cataloger and researcher at the EYE Filmmuseum and Barbara Flueckiger as a film technician in international film production. These experiences fed into our academic work, which is characterized by an emphasis and reflection on the correlations between film material, technology, aesthetics, and historiography. However, we felt that students were lacking this awareness of the material side of film and its importance for the way its objects are shaped and used. This lack has increased in recent years, since most of the current generation of students have never seen or touched a filmstrip owing to the predominance of digital projection in cinemas. Since we consider it pivotal for our students’ understanding of twentieth-century cinematographic culture to know, feel, and touch the history of film before the transition to digital technology, we decided to develop this course. We wish to make clear that we do not aim to train future archivists but to educate film scholars with a deeper understanding of the material side of their objects of study [...].