If a film does not belong to a ‘national’ cinema, who is responsible for archiving and preserving it? The dominance of national criteria in archival practice tends to neglect films bereft of a passport. The notion of “paranational cinema” as we envision it in the project Paranational Cinema – Legacies and Practices focuses on cinema beyond the nation: filmmaking and related practices that transcend, subvert, precede or succeed national frameworks which condition the production, circulation, and preservation of films. In our panel, we will discuss the conceptual framing and methodological challenges behind the prefix “para” by focusing on three films found in or closely related to the Arsenal archive: Dušan Makavejev’s Nevinost bez zaštite (1968), Skip Norman’s Cultural Nationalism (1969), and Assja Djebar’s La Zerda et Les Chants de l’oubli (1982). How do they process questions of “nation” and belonging, either in their form, discourse, or the material conditions at their basis? Does the history of the prints – including aspects such as subtitles, language versions, formats – speak to their irreducibility to single national contexts?

Kino Arsenal, 30 September, 14:45

Panelists: Karina Griffith (Berlin University of the Arts), Petra Belc Krnjaić (University of Klagenfurt and VERN’ University in Zagreb), Brigitta Kuster (Humboldt University of Berlin), Volker Pantenburg, Nikola Radić and Philip Widmann (Paranational Cinema – Legacies and Practices, University of Zurich)