Critical Film & Image Hub
Since the dawn of cinema, the immersive and persuasive power of film has been harnessed to cultivate collective indifference toward the diverse minorities known under the umbrella term Roma. The result is evident today, just as it was during the darkest period in European history.
The Critical Film & Image Hub, newly established at the Research Center on Antigypsyism, aims to challenge the normalisation and ubiquity of antigypsyist imaginary through interdisciplinary research, educational outreach and sustained dialogue with filmmakers. We are an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers and educators and we aim to bring about a turn in film studies, in filmmaking and in critical film literacy.
“Breaking the frame of antigypsyism” is our watchword. What sets us apart is the understanding that we cannot stay in the ivory tower of the academia but need to make the next vital step and explore ways of connecting research findings to creative work; translating scientific knowledge into artistic praxis. We want to amplify the fruits of our scientific endeavor by channeling the imaginative power of film in the opposite direction, emboldening counternarratives that foster empathy for all those who have been chronically excluded from the solidarity of the nation’s ‘we’.
The Critical Film & Image Hub is part of the ‘Cooperation Network against Antigypsyism’ in the federal programme ‘Live Democracy!’ of the German Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ).
