Knowledge Map

OUR APPROACH

FILM AND DEATH: A CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE MAP is a research output of P3 ‘Close-Up on Film-Philosophical Death’ within the FILM AND DEATH project. It visualizes a dynamic network of relations between films, television series, filmmakers, formal strategies, concepts, and thematic subjects, exploring how cinema engages with questions of death and mortality. Unlike general film databases, the map highlights conceptual and thematic connections across cinematic forms, allowing users to explore the philosophical and interpretive dimensions of these works (1). The elaboration of the map followed an iterative, exploratory workflow. It began with individual proposals for films and television series, based on associative and comparative responses to the guiding focus question: How does film make us think about death? 

BEHIND THE MAP

The map is organised around three primary domains — Concept, Form and Subject — forming a triadic structure that shapes the film-philosophical relations emerging from the analysis. Designed as a molecular structure, the network allows relations to emerge dynamically across domains, and its organization follows a taxonomic Deleuzian approach, emphasizing multiplicity and variation rather than hierarchical ordering. In this sense, the map functions like a graph in Deleuze’s sense, representing abstract functions between forces, intensities, or incorporeal relations rather than fixed entities. These core domains are supplemented by reference fields, including Film Title, Director, Continent, Country, Genre, Year, and Wikipedia URL, used as an external informational resource. Relations between concepts and subcategories are articulated through a system of cross-links, yet the map remains open to expansion as new films, concepts, and analytical perspectives are incorporated.

Click here to access the map.

ENTERING THE MAP

Users may navigate the map by starting from films or television series, from formal strategies, from conceptual clusters, or from thematic subjects, following the cross-links that articulate relations between them. The same dataset can be explored through two complementary visualizations: the FILMS MAP and the LABELS MAP. While both display the same network of relations, they organise the view differently — one centred on works, the other on conceptual and analytical labels. Both visualizations support research design, concept formation, teaching, and curatorial or critical work, helping identify affinities, contrasts, and recurring patterns across diverse film-philosophical contexts.

FILTERS 

Try to zoom fit and filter by CONCEPT, FORM, SUBJECT to learn more.

Example

You can filter (multiple) DIRECTORS using a dropdown list of names in the top-left corner

You can filter (multiple) COUNTRIES using a dropdown list in the top-left corner

You can filter (multiple) CONCEPTUAL clusters using a dropdown list in the top-left corner

You can filter (multiple) FORMAL strategies using a dropdown list in the top-left corner

You can filter (multiple) thematic SUBJECTS using a dropdown list in the top-left corner

Each film page includes brief information and a link to Wikipedia.

Example

(1) The dataset and an accompanying methodological report documenting the analytical and conceptual decisions are available via Zenodo: Viegas, S. & Rodrigues, C. (2026). ERC FILM AND DEATH - Knowledge Map [Data set]. ERC FILM AND DEATH. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18223968.