“I am afraid that other people do not realize that the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death.”
Welcome to FILM AND DEATH
FILM AND DEATH defends the hypothesis that to film-philosophize is to learn to die. This will be achieved by rethinking the innovations that film brings to recent philosophies of death and the metaphysics of time. A new criterion for understanding the relationship between film and philosophy is proposed that claims 1) that film-philosophy’s methodology is a meditation on death, and 2) that films think and have their own ways of creating novel thoughts that are not our own. One of these thoughts concerns death, a phenomenon of which we have no image but that film renders visible as a death-image (a direct image of passing time, facing the impossibility of any representation). We will assert that the cinematic experience is in itself equal to awareness of one’s own mortality, as a memento mori, without which we would not philosophize at all.
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Screening and Debate: Amour (2012) and Miroirs No. 3 (2025)
We are pleased to invite you to two screenings followed by a debate, curated by Vanessa Freerks (University of Fort Hare), as part of her short-term residency at the FILM AND DEATH project. On March 24 5PM WEST we will screen Amour (2012) by Michael Haneke at NOVA FCSH (Aud. A2). And on April 1 […]
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The Film-Phil Lisbon Seminars: Vanessa Freerks
April’s Film-Phil Lisbon Seminar will be led by Vanessa Freerks (University of Fort Hare) who will talk about “Imagining death otherwise: Baudrillard and cinema’s vital illusion”. Abstract In this presentation, Vanessa Freerks will start by outlining Baudrillard’s conception of cinema as an essential partner in the technology of hyperreality, and situate it within his broader […]
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4 Filmes, 4 Conversas: Saúde Mental, Trabalho e Género
In partnership with NOVA FCSH, Teatro Avenidas and the BANDUA project, the FILM AND DEATH project presents the Film and Debate Cycle 4 Filmes, 4 Conversas: Saúde Mental, Trabalho e Género [4 Films, 4 Conversations: Mental Health, Work and Gender], curated by Susana Viegas, Lucas Ferraço Nassif, Pedro Florêncio e Nuno Mora. Taking advantage of […]
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Extended Deadline! CfP Special Issue on Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films
We are happy to announce the new home for the Special Issue “Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films”! The editors have chosen to publish it in Arts, an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal (also published online by MDPI) devoted to research on all facets of the visual and performing arts, […]
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Presenting Film and Death: A Conceptual Knowledge Map
We are pleased to announce the launch of Film and Death: A Conceptual Knowledge Map, a dataset developed within the FILM AND DEATH project. Guided by the focus question “How does film make us think about death?,” the map visualizes the network of relations between films, filmmakers, formal strategies, concepts, and thematic subjects, highlighting their philosophical […]
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Manoel de Oliveira and Portuguese Cinema: 3. Turns of Life – Yesterday as Today (1990–2015)
Susana Viegas, Marco Grosoli, and Vasco Baptista Marques have been invited to contribute to the third volume of ‘Manoel de Oliveira and Portuguese Cinema: 3. Turns of Life – Yesterday as Today (1990-2015)’, published by the CCMO-Serralves Foundation, and throughout 2026, they will also join screening sessions at the Auditório (15 Mar-21 Oct 2026) as […]
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New publication by Lucas Ferraço Nassif for Alea: Estudos Neolatinos
We are very pleased to announce that Lucas Ferraço Nassif‘s new open-access article for Alea: Estudos Neolatinos has just been published! Titled “Metallic Affects in Hiroshima mon amour: The Unconscious via Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari”, Lucas Ferraço Nassif’s peer-reviewed article is a frontier work that intersects psychoanalysis and schizoanalysis. The text discusses […]
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New publication by our team: “Death-Images: Revisiting Deleuze’s ‘Time-Image’ in Cinema after 1985”
As invited guest editors, Susana Viegas, Lucas Ferraço Nassif, Marco Grosoli and Vasco Baptista Marques are pleased to share “Death-Images: Revisiting Deleuze’s ‘Time-Image’ in Cinema after 1985” (Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens | Journal of Communication and Languages no. 63), published by the NOVA Institute of Communication – ICNOVA of NOVA University Lisbon. Marking forty years since […]
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