Participants: Erica Carter, Ana Grgic, Volker Pantenburg, Nicola Radic, Cecilia Valenti, Philip Widmann Film culture has been largely structured by the concept of the nation: funding schemes, awards, archives, and film historiography have taken this notion for granted. It is therefore not surprising that making and thinking film continues to operate along national lines, often equating visibility and attention with the size and prominence of nation states. In film preservation and restoration, in the creation of taste and public discourse, national criteria can relegate practices and works to the margins, or even invisibility. In a world marked by colonial and post-colonial dynamics, by the ubiquitous experience of diaspora and re-surging imperial politics, we propose to speak of a “paranational cinema,” acknowledging a heterogeneous body of work and complex relations — before and after, below and beyond nation (state) structures. This workshop is an invitation to reflect on the epistemological and methodological challenges of examining cinematic practices and films beyond their national belonging. How can we think them in relation to each other and account for their specificities at the same time? If a film does not belong to a ‘national’ cinema, how do we trace its circulation? In dialogue with concepts like ‘transnational’ cinema, we seek to foreground critical interventions into the national paradigm. Introducing examples from the SWANA region or the Balkans, while addressing questions of restitution, diaspora, and Cold War constellations, we hope to broaden the scope to include multifaceted paranational activities, both past and present.

NECS Conference 2026   Université de Montpellier Paul Valéry   09:30 to 11:10   Room G 211