Critics like to describe contemporary film culture as “post-cinematographic”: in a process of “relocation” (Casetti), film has moved to places that cannot be understood entirely through the dispositif of cinema and instead circulate in a variety of social and cultural settings. New forms of moving image production beyond the standard feature film are emerging – from “amateur” video clips on YouTube to aesthetically ambitious series on streaming platforms. Film, especially in these new configurations, functions as an important reference to theater, the visual arts and literature. The term “post-cinema” also represents an opportunity for film theory: it opens up a perspective that goes beyond the narrative of loss and mourning to a media specificity that is ultimately tied to the dispositif of cinema, the indexical nature of the photographic image and a canon to be questioned.

Instead of retelling the narrative of the supposed loss of media specificity, the DFG Research Training Group 2279 “Configurations of Film” will address the question of what comes after the “post-cinematographic state”. How can we move beyond the aesthetic and supposed ontological supremacy of the triad of dispositive, index and canon in our thinking about film? What alternatives are there to the already established dichotomies of film studies, from “theatrical vs. non-theatrical” and “artistic vs. non-artistic” to “canonical vs. non-canonical” and “center vs. periphery”?

The aim of the Research Training Group is to contribute to the development of research approaches for the next generation of film and media research by training excellent young female researchers. The research training group bundles the subject-specific competencies in Frankfurt and integrates philosophy, theater studies, musicology and American studies, as well as the neighboring locations of Mainz, Marburg, Mannheim and Offenbach. The college builds on three Master’s degree programs at Goethe University and cooperation between the applicants. It utilizes the potential of the Frankfurt location, where the University Library and the German National Library have literature holdings of European standing and where important non-university partners are available in the form of the German Film Institute, the Murnau Foundation and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. The Center has developed an international reputation through its cooperation with Yale University and Concordia University.

The spokesperson for the Research Training Group is Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger