Research Overview

Abstract PhD Journal

The conceptualisation of memory in film is an expanding area of research that establishes the links between memory and identity through the use of case studies. The case studies in my thesis are primarily chosen for their use of cinematography, while also considering both genre and historical importance. In this thesis I will investigate primarily through their cinematography, the use of flashbacks in transnational and international cinema from their early and rare appearance in classical Hollywood film and the current trend in contemporary cinema in which complex narrative forms traditionally associated with independent art cinema have become common in productions targeted at mass audiences. As Turim states “The flashback is a crucial moment in a film narrative, one that captures the cinematic expression of memory, and history”. (Turim, 2013: 1-278). The flashback, the various definitions of the flashback, the evolving conventions associated with entering and exiting a flashback through cinematography and other methods, initially defined by classical Hollywood film conventions and those in art film. Using similar research methods, I will investigate the history and definitions of other memory representation in cinema, including; prosthetic memory, collective memory and cultural memory. Included in this thesis will be a critical analysis of my own film practice, a series of experimental films considering the production techniques employed in the creation of these films, how they represent aspects of memory and identity through the cinematography and editing processes.