The Cosmopolitan Cinema Conference at the University of Bayreuth

Daniela Berghahn was invited to explore the relationship between Diasporic and Cosmopolitan Cinema at an international conference on Cosmopolitan Cinema: Arts and Politics in the Second Modernity  (3 – 5 April 2014).

As many diasporic filmmakers are shedding what Kobena Mercer has called ‘the burden of representation’, addressing themes that do not relate to their ethnic background, distinctions between ‘diasporic’ and ‘cosmopolitan’ filmmaking are becoming increasingly fluid. Whereas diasporic filmmakers tend to reject the label ‘diasporic’, associated with postcolonial and labour migration, they readily self-identify themselves as ‘cosmopolitan’ with its more elitist connotations. There is also a growing tendency to frame narratives about diasporic ethnic minority subjects as genre cinema which ensures the cross-over appeal of films such as Bouchareb's war film Days of Glory. 

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Posted by Daniela Berghahn on 05 Apr 2014 •