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Afterimages of Revolution and War. Trauma- and Memoryscapes in the Postrevolutionary Iranian Cinema

Research Project
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01.04.2015
 - 31.03.2018

The research project Afterimages of Revolution and War will explore trauma- and memoryscapes of the post-revolutionary Iranian Cinema - a cinema that has regenerated and reshaped its forms of remembering against the backdrop of the Islamic Revolution's iconoclastic storm (1979) and the subsequent eight years of war (1980-1988). Iranian cinema's unique forms of temporal and spatial articulations, its stylistic formations and dynamics call for a closer analysis of the complex relationship between historical time and time of remembering as determined by censorship.Taking Iranian Cinema as an invitation to enter into dialogue with filmmakers, film scholars and researchers in the fields of Cultural and Middle Eastern Studies, the project aims at developing a topology of cinematic forms of remembering, including the concept of screen memory (Deckerinnerung) as both an analytical tool and a structural condition. By adopting the notion of the afterimage, the project receives a trauma theoretical framework. To capture bidirectional time structures, we will rely upon the procedure of telescopage , a term coined by Walter Benjamin to describe compression and conflation of present and past. Based on the exploration of a broader corpus of films and our own research work on filmic forms of memory the project's objective is to elaborate theoretical, aesthetical and epistemological approaches that are suitable to engender an intercultural dialogue and cross-cultural entanglements.

Collaborations & Cooperations

2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Ahmadi, Tara Najd, conference speaker, book contributor, University of Rochester, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Atwood, Blake, conference speaker, book contributor, American University of Beirut, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Langford, Michelle, conference speaker, book contributor, University of New South Wales, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Makaremi,Chowra, filmmaker, Q&A, CNRS in Paris (IRIS-EHESS), Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Mottahedeh, Negar, conference speaker, book contributor, Duke University, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Partovi, Pedram, conference speaker, book contributor, American University in Washington, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Rekabtalaei, Golbarg, conference speaker, book contributor, University of South Orange, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Saljoughi, Sarah, conference speaker, book contributor, University of Toronto, Research cooperation
2020 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Ullmann, Viktor, conference speaker, book contributor, Freie Universität Berlin, Research cooperation
2016 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Akrami, Jamsheed, key note lecture, William Paterson University, Research cooperation
2016 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Eslami, Majid, key note lecture, 24 Film Magazin, Research cooperation
2016 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Eslami, Mazyar, key note lecture, Porsesh Institute, Research cooperation
2016 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Saeed-Vafa, Mehrnaz, key note lecture, professor and associate chair in the Cinema Art + Science department of Columbia College Chicago, Research cooperation
2016 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on an international level
Saljoughi, ,Sara, key note lectures, Assistant Professor of English and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto, Research cooperation

Funding

Afterimages of Revolution and War. Trauma- and Memoryscapes in the Postrevolutionary Iranian Cinema

SNF Projekt (GrantsTool), 02.2016-01.2019 (36)
PI : Holl, Ute.
CI : Wittmann, Matthias.

Publications

Wittmann, Matthias (2019) ‘Drehtüren zwischen Nähe und Distanz. Der Blick in die Kamera als Trope des iranischen Kinos’, in Kirsten, Guido (ed.) Montage AV. Schüren: Schüren (Montage AV).

URLs
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Holl, Ute (2017) ‘Mit ohne Ordnung. Kontingenzproduktion als Strategie des Dokumentarischen (zum Beispiel Abbas Kiarostami)’, in Büttner, Elisabeth; Öhner, Vrääth; Stölzl, Lena (ed.) Sichtbar machen. Politiken des Dokumentarfilms. Berlin: Vorwerk 8 (Texte zum Dokumentarfilm), pp. 111–130.

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Wittmann, Matthias (2016) ‘Stadt der Widersprüche. Stadt der Revolutionen. Eine Reise unter die Haut von Teheran’, film bulletin. Zeitschrift für Film und Kino, (7), pp. 6–13.

URLs
URLs

Wittmann, Matthias (2016) ‘Image Under Construction. Alles voller Schlupflöcher zwischen Code und Gegencode - aber der Teheraner Alltag unterliegt einer anderen Zensur als der Film’, Cargo. Film. Medien. Kultur, 30, pp. 34–41.

URLs
URLs

Wittmann, Matthias (2016) ‘Image Under Construction (II). (Bonus-)Notizen vom FAJR Festival in Teheran’. www.cargo-film.de. Available at: https://www.cargo-film.de/festival/festivalreisen/image-under-construction-ii/.

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URLs

Wittmann, Matthias (2015) ‘Krieg und Revolution im Kino des Iran. Eine Telescopage’, Mittelweg 36, 24(3), pp. 64–83.

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Members (3)

Profile Photo

Ute Holl

Principal Investigator
MALE avatar

Matthias Wittmann

Co-Investigator
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Hossein Heidari

Project Member