Film on the Faultline

[Film has always played a crucial role in the imagination of disaster. Earthquakes, especially, not only shift the ground beneath our feet but also herald a new way of thinking or being in the world. Following recent seismic events in countries as dissimilar as Iran, Chile and Haiti, Japan and New Zealand, national films have emerged that challenge ingrained political, economic, ethical, and ontological categories of modernity. Film on the Faultline explores the fractious relationship between cinema and seismic experience and addresses the important role that cinema can play in the wake of such events as forms of popular memory and personal testimony.,

Film has always played a crucial role in the imagination of disaster. The earthquake, especially, transforms our understanding of the limits and possibilities of cinema, as well as of life itself. After major quakes in countries as dissimilar as Japan, Chile, Iran and New Zealand, filmmakers have responded with films that challenge ingrained social, political, ethical and philosophical categories of thinking and being in the world. Film on the Faultline explores the fractious relationship between cinema and seismic experience and addresses the important role that cinema can play in the wake of such events.

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