Just like IRL? On Virtual Reality Movie Theaters in the Time of Covid-19

In: In Media Res. June 19, 2020. Faced with closed movie theaters over the past months, cinephiles worldwide have bemoaned the loss of the shared cinema experience and what I have called “the audience effect.” Yet some early adopters were quick to point out an alternative: virtual reality movie theaters. Link to the article on […]

An Invention with a Future: Collective Viewing, Joint Deep Attention and the Ongoing Value of the Cinema.

In Oxford Handbook of Film Theory, edited by Kyle Stevens, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Since it is first and foremost the cinema that enables—or at least facilitates—concentrated and focused film experiences, this article makes a strong plea for the ongoing importance of the movie theater as a vital cultural practice and social institution. Although […]

Abruptly Altered Horizons: Covid-19, Momentous Events and a Not so Rare Phenomenon in Historical Reception Studies.

In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft: Open Media Studies Blog May 28, 2020 In this brief essay I draw attention to the effects momentous historical events – such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Brexit referendum or the 9/11 attacks – can have on a film viewer’s interpretive horizon. How we interpret films shot long before the event […]