Unfolding Narrative (from middles to beginnings to endless loops)

In the last decade, the definition of the term ‘narrative film’, or more precisely, ‘narrative in film’, has changed with regard to our understanding of the purpose of story telling using the film medium. Within the traditional realms of film studies, narrative in film has taken on the role of a fixative, a thread that anchors practice within areas that have come to be defined by such terms as ‘commercial’, ‘mainstream’, ‘narrative’, ‘non-narrative’ ‘counter-cinema’ or ‘artist film’. This pigeon-hole style of categorisation is problematic, not least as it suggests that there is a conformed, systematic approach behind the creative process and its subsequent output. Despite this pedantic quest to categorise narrative in relation to artistic processes, filmmakers have always developed new ways of working which bypass these established notions of classification. This symposium will explore different approaches to narrative in film along with the different strategies artists are deploying to work with narrative in exhibition spaces, which range from the cinema to the gallery. Speakers: Anthony Caleshu, Axel Lapp, Anya Lewin, Heidi Morstang, Kayla Parker, John Sealey, Alia Syed, Sarah Turner