Research team
Expertise
Alexander De Man is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Centre for Visual Poetics at the University of Antwerp and the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies at Ghent University. His research revolves around diasporic and (trans)national cinema, Flemish cinema, film policy, and the cultural politics of popular media. He studies these subjects from the theoretical vantage point of cultural studies, postcolonial studies, film studies, and critical media industry studies. Additionally, he serves as a film programmer at Film-Plateau and is affiliated with the Centre for the Social 91勛圖厙 of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR).
Curating diasporic cinema: understanding European film festivals as diasporic spaces.
Abstract
FWO Junior Postdoc -- This project examines how the ecosystem of European film festivals enables, structures, and constrains the emergence and proliferation of diasporic cinema. Research on diasporic cinema has largely focused on aesthetics and representations, with limited attention to the industrial mechanisms that structure its production and dissemination. At the same time, film festival studies have examined the role of festivals as cultural intermediaries and industry gatekeepers, but have not sufficiently addressed questions of transnationalism, diaspora, and socio-cultural difference. This project bridges these gaps over the course of three work packages. First, it interrogates different curatorial and promotional strategies towards diasporic cinema within European film festival circuits (2018-2024) through a transnational, comparative analysis of major, medium-sized, and thematic film festivals. Second, it examines, through six multimodal case studies, how diasporic filmmakers themselves navigate these circuits to gain symbolic capital, visibility, and recognition. Third, it develops a theoretical framework that conceptualises film festivals as power-inflected, 'diasporic spaces' where the cultural meaning and ideological position of diasporic cinema are negotiated. As such, the project adds to academic/public debates on how to dismantle cultural and epistemological hierarchies of identity and belonging in European cinema.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Willems Gertjan
- Fellow: De Man Alexander
Research team(s)
Funding
- FWO
Project type(s)
- Research Project