DOCTUS: Pathways of Contemporary Research - Archive, Collective Memory, Nostalgia - 14-16 May
The moving image, as a medium of memory, not only preserves the past but also reconstructs it retrospectively. Philosophers, media theorists, and psychologists – such as Henri Bergson, Hugo Münsterberg, Gilles Deleuze, and Oliver Sacks – have drawn parallels between the mechanisms of human memory and cinematic techniques. But film can function not merely as a repository of the past but also as an active agent in shaping how the past is recalled and understood.
Film archives, both personal and institutional, thus serve as dynamic sites of memory (a virtual pendant to Pierre Nora’s lieux de mémoire), influencing the continuity of individual and collective identities. However, what is preserved or omitted within these archives is shaped by mechanisms of selection and exclusion, mirroring the cognitive processes of memory itself.
Nostalgia, often described as the longing for a lost home, is not only spatial but profoundly temporal. It embodies both a yearning for places left behind and an irretrievable past. Photography and film, with their capacity to revive or reconstruct bygone moments, become powerful conduits for nostalgia. At the same time, the cinematic medium – through its history, aesthetics, and evolving technologies – generates its own forms of nostalgia, from retro visual styles to archival footage that recontextualizes historical events.
Yet, film does not only evoke sentimental longing; it can also foster a critical distance from the past, inviting reflection, revision, or even resistance to dominant historical narratives.
The Doctus in Bratislava – the second in a three-part PhD seminar and workshop series for the spring term of 2025 (preceded by the Tallinn seminar in March and followed by the Sofia session in June) – will explore the film archive as a locus where collective memory, nostalgia, and historiography intersect.
Through an interdisciplinary lens that brings together film theory, media theory, and filmmaking practice, participants will analyze how archival moving images shape public and private memory. The seminar will examine how different modes of archival engagement mediate relationships with the past.
Combining theoretical lectures with hands-on workshops and screenings, this session invites participants to explore diverse methodologies for engaging with film archives: from critical media analysis and philosophical inquiry to experimental archival filmmaking and interactive storytelling.
Ultimately, the Doctus aims to not only interrogate the role of film in memory-making but also to expand our understanding of how moving images continue to shape identities, histories, and cultural imaginaries in an age of digital reproduction and algorithmic curation.
Schedule
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Experts
Václav Janoščík
Professor, theorist, and curator focused on philosophical critique and the appropriation of popular culture, vernacular ontologies, speculative history, political ecology, philosophy of technics and media, and gaming. He teaches at the Faculty of Art and Design (University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně), Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM), The New Center for Research and Practice, University of New Haven, and is a researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
He has edited several volumes on contemporary thought including Object (2015), Reinventing Horizons (2016), and Back to the Future (2019). His books include Nonsleeping (2018), Straining the Contemporary (2020), Dystopian Realism (2022), and Past Dreams about Today (2024), forming a trilogy reinterpreting pop culture through philosophy. He is also active in curation, game design, and experimental media practice.
Tasos Giapoutzis
Greek filmmaker and Lecturer in Film at the University of Essex, where he directs the Centre for Film and Screen Media. Formerly worked at Red Bull Media House. His films, such as Quiet Life (2019), have screened at over 100 international festivals. His research blends filmmaking with memory, nostalgia, and displacement.
He is completing Mnemonic Muse, a feature-length docufiction, and has a forthcoming monograph on nostalgia in European cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).
Anna Kryvenko
Ukrainian filmmaker and visual artist based in Prague, graduate of FAMU. She explores memory, identity, and history through documentary and experimental film. Her debut My Unknown Soldier (2018) received awards at IDFF CRONOGRAF and Last Stop Trieste.
Her work, including Silently Like a Comet and Listen to the Horizon, has been exhibited internationally. Kryvenko critically examines nationalism, historical amnesia, and digital memory culture.
Marek Kuboš
Slovak director known for blending personal narratives with critical social commentary. Studied under Dušan Hanák at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Notable works include Voice 98 (1999), Small Propaganda (2001), and +- 90 (2022).
Kuboš brings irony and playfulness to topics of memory, propaganda, and visual identity. He also has experience in television, commercials, and music videos.
Katarína Mišíková
Associate professor at the Film and Television Faculty (Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava). Her research addresses realism and hybridization in Slovak cinema. Author of Mind and Story in Film Fiction (2009), and co-editor of several volumes including New Slovak Cinema (2015) and Slovak Cinema in 2016.
She also authored a textbook on academic skills Akademické kompetentnosti (2024) and contributes to cinema popularization.
Juraj Oniščenko
Slovak film theorist and aesthetician. Studied film science and philosophy in Bratislava and Prague, earning his PhD in aesthetics. Assistant professor at Comenius University and faculty at VŠMU.
His research focuses on image ontology and 20th-century aesthetics. Curator of the Filmový kabinet project at the Slovak Film Institute and collaborator with festivals like Cinematik, Áčko, and Art Film Fest.
Žofia Ščuroková
PhD student at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, researching archival practices in film education. Her internship with Are in Prague involved digitizing Ester Krumbachová’s archive. She has published in Kino-Ikon and contributes to Film.sk.
Her focus includes audiovisual preservation and the institutionalization of film heritage.
Marek Šulík
Documentary filmmaker, editor, and teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Collaborated on projects with directors like Peter Kerekes, Martin Kollár, and Viera Čákanyová. Directed works include Heavy Heart and Ms. President.
Founder of Family Archives, a database of amateur and family footage for filmmakers and researchers.
Peter Zákuťanský
Filmmaker and archivist with an MFA from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. His debut, The Stop on Main Street (2013), reflects on Slovak history through found footage. Co-directed Music for 5 Engineers (2016).
Works with Family Archives and leads the Osmičkári project at the National Centre of Culture. He explores memory, loss, and history through short films and collaborations with institutions like the Slovak National Gallery.