18/03/2026

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 critique of contemporary culture. Baudrillard does not simply critique cinema in the face of technologically driven hyperreality; he simultaneously offers an alternative vision. Against hyperreality, Baudrillard foregrounds the power of illusion as vital to cinema. The world is given to us as enigmatic and unintelligible – and art's task is to help us cope with our vital illusion – the fact that we do not know the real, merely the appearances behind which it hides.

Bio Dr. Vanessa Freerks is a research fellow at the University of Fort Hare (South Africa) at the Centre For Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA). She engages with a range of critical themes, from post-structuralist critiques of consumer society to phenomenological, feminist, and ecological inquiries.

The session will be held in person on April 22, 2026, at 15:00 WEST in room B201 of NOVA FCSH (Av. de Berna, 26 C).

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07/08/2026

“Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films” is out now!

We are pleased to announce the completion of the Special Issue “Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films”, guest edited by Vasco Baptista Marques and Susana Viegas for Arts. The Special Issue brings together seven original articles examining testament films from a philosophical perspective. Rather than approaching filmmakers’ final works merely as […]
06/08/2026

New Open Access publication by Susana Viegas

We are pleased to share that the book chapter “Derrida on Cinema’s Spectral Images: Time, Repetition, and Belief” by PI Susana Viegas is now available in Open Access through the publisher Brill. Published in “Derrida and Film Studies”, edited by Kamil Lipiński and Andrzej Marzec (Brill, 2025), the chapter explores Jacques Derrida’s reflections on cinema […]
06/08/2026

Join us at the Goethe-Institut Portugal for the cycle “Falar sobre a morte (nunca matou ninguém)”!

Organized by the Goethe-Institut Portugal, with contributions from the FILM AND DEATH team, Death Café, the association Doulas do Fim da Vida, and many other partners, the festival Falar sobre a morte (nunca matou ninguém) [Speaking About Death (Never Killed Anyone)] will open on September 17 at 5:00 pm with the interactive sound installation Memorial […]
03/08/2026

Join Anderson Santos and Lucas Ferraço Nassif at the Centro Português de Psicanálise

On September 1, 7:00 PM, the Centro Português de Psicanálise (R. da Assunção 7, 2º) will host a talk by Anderson Santos, moderated by Lucas Ferraço Nassif, on “Félix Guattari: Psicanálise e o Paradigma Ético-Estético”. This presentation will be in Portuguese. This presentation addresses the shift initiated by Félix Guattari within psychoanalysis, as he proposes […]
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Funded by the European Union (ERC, FILM AND DEATH, 101088956). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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