“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.
Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events
The Film-Phil Lisbon Seminars: Laurence Kent
July’s next Film-Phil Lisbon Seminar will be led by our visiting researcher Laurence Kent (University of Bristol) who will talk about “…not life, but an alternative to dying: Blurry Images in the Afterlives of Slavery”. Abstract This talk explores two disparate examples of blurred images as working through the afterlives of slavery: Hussein Shariffe’s The […]
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1 Research Grant for Post-Doctoral Fellow
The FILM AND DEATH project has opened a call for 1 (one) Research Grant for a Post-Doctoral Fellow. Research field: Philosophy of Cinema Requirements: Preferential requirements: Preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate proficiency in English. Application deadline: July 20, 2026, 11:59 p.m. (Lisbon time). Duration of the scholarship: The fellowship will last for […]
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New video! Watch our conversation with Darius Marder at the Cinemateca Portuguesa
During the month of March 2026, in partnership with NOVA FCSH, Teatro Avenidas and the BANDUA project, the FILM AND DEATH project co-organized 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 […]
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New article by Lucas Ferraço Nassif in Viso: Cadernos de Estética Aplicada
We are happy to announce that Lucas Ferraço Nassif, member of the FILM AND DEATH team, has just published an article titled “Poetics of Fort-Da: Elephant Wars in the Semiotic Unconscious” in Viso – Cadernos de Estética Aplicada, v. 20, n. 38 (jan/jun 2026). Abstract Based on Gilles Deleuze’s and Félix Guattari’s critical readings of […]
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CfW [in]Transition Special Issue: Screening Death
[in]Transition Special Issue: Screening Death Guest Editors: David H. Fleming (University of Stirling): david.fleming@stir.ac.ukPedro Inock (NOVA University of Lisbon): pedroinock@gmail.com Projected Publication Date: Summer 2027 Mission & Scope (Call For Works): Visual media do not simply represent and remediate death; they actively shape political responses, ethical debates, and practices of public mourning. This special ‘Screening […]
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Marco Grosoli at the Association for Philosophy and Literature: The Object(s) of Literature
Marco Grosoli is presenting is talk “The Desert of Literature. Julio Bressane’s São Jerônimo with Maurice Blanchot” at the 2026 Conference of the Association for Philosophy and Literature, dedicated to the theme “The Object(s) of Literature”, and taking place between July 15 and 17, at the Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem, Campinas. Abstract In The […]
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Welcoming Laurence Kent
We are very happy to welcome our new resident, Laurence Kent, to the FILM AND DEATH team! Laurence Kent is Lecturer in Digital Film & Television at the University of Bristol. He has published and presented on various topics within film theory and philosophy, from Deleuzian ethics, experimental cinema, Hollywood action film, archiving practices, and anticolonial […]
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New article by Cían Ó Donnchadha published in our Arts Special Issue on Swan Songs
The guest editors of the Arts’ Special Issue on Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films, Vasco Baptista Marques and Susana Viegas, are pleased to announce the publication of a new open-access article: ““Blue, Upon Your Grave”: The Testament of Derek Jarman in Blue (1996)” by Cían Ó Donnchadha. This article develops an understanding of […]
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