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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01/04/2026

The Film-Phil Lisbon Seminars: Robin Vanbesien

April’s first Film-Phil Lisbon Seminar will be led by our resident Robin Vanbesien (Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp), who will talk about “Posthumous Struggle and Transmission”. Abstract People forced into necropolitical mobility who die at Europe’s external borders often experience a “double death”: first physical, then social, as their identities and stories are lost. […]
06/04/2026

We welcome our new resident, Robin Vanbesien!

We are very pleased to welcome Robin Vanbesien as the third short-term resident to join our  team. Robin Vanbesien is a Brussels-based artist, filmmaker, researcher, and educator. He explores how cinematic methods align with and contribute to situated struggles of place-making. How can cinema—with or without a lens or a screen—offer ways to acknowledge, reclaim, reassemble, rehearse, […]
27/03/2026

Lucas Ferraço Nassif’s Interview for TV Scholar

A new intervew with Lucas Ferraço Nassif for TV Scholar is out now! In this interview, Lucas Ferraço Nassif reflects on his work at the intersection of cinema, television, and philosophy, outlining a research practice shaped by psychoanalysis and experimental media. Drawing on his book Unconscious/Television, he explores how TV and anime operate as sites […]
25/03/2026

Marco Grosoli at Eutimia surplace: Ciclo di incontri

Our post-doctoral fellow, Marco Grosoli, will be present at Eutimia surplace: Ciclo di incontri, on April 8 16:00, a series of seminars hosted by the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici. His presentation is titled “Al limite dopo. Catherine Malabou, l’epigenesi, il cinema”. Abstract Con gesto filosofico non meno audace di quello che la impose […]
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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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