Film-Phil Lisbon Seminars: Vanessa Freerks on "Imagining death otherwise: Baudrillard and cinema’s vital illusion"
Film and Death Project
FILM-PHIL LISBON SEMINAR WITH VANESSA FREERKS: "IMAGINING DEATH OTHERWISE: BAUDRILLARD AND CINEMA'S VITAL ILLUSION"
April’s second Film-Phil Lisbon Seminar will be led by our resident ed by Vanessa Freerks (University of Fort Hare) who will talk about "Imagining death otherwise: Baudrillard and cinema’s vital illusion".
Abstract In this presentation, Vanessa Freerks will start by outlining Baudrillard’s conception of cinema as an essential partner in the technology of hyperreality, and situate it within his broader critique of contemporary culture. Baudrillard does not simply critique cinema in the face of technologically driven hyperreality; he simultaneously offers an alternative vision. Against hyperreality, Baudrillard foregrounds the power of illusion as vital to cinema. The world is given to us as enigmatic and unintelligible – and art's task is to help us cope with our vital illusion – the fact that we do not know the real, merely the appearances behind which it hides.
Bio Dr. Vanessa Freerks is a research fellow at the University of Fort Hare (South Africa) at the Centre For Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA). She engages with a range of critical themes, from post-structuralist critiques of consumer society to phenomenological, feminist, and ecological inquiries.
The session will be held in-person on April 22, 2026, at 15:00 WEST in room B201 of NOVA FCSH (Berna Campus).