Cinephilia in Lockdown.
A discussion with Girish Shambu and Mike Sperlinger

Before the Covid-19 situation the conditions of film viewing and cinephilia had already changed as online streaming and social media occupied an ever more central position in relation to film viewing and discourse. With the lockdown there has been an explosion of new online streaming, analogous film festivals and screenings, while at the same time grieving over the loss of cinema spaces, cinema experience and damage to the already precarious work and structures that enable this. For this online discussion we welcome Girish Shambu and Mike Sperlinger to reflect in this current moment on the future of cinema-going and cinephilic culture, moderated by Benjamin Cook, LUX Director.
This discussion is organised on the occasion of the UK release of Mike Sperlinger’s book Occasional Criticism or, anacolutha on cinema and its causes available now from the LUX Shop
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LUX is dedicated to providing a welcoming online environment for everyone, regardless of gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, or religion or belief. Participants who do not adhere to this code of conduct and the participation guidelines will be asked to leave the event.
Girish Shambu is a critic and cinephile who teaches at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. He has run his film blog since 2004, and his writings have appeared at Film Quarterly, Framework, Film Comment, and the Criterion Collection. Recently, he is the author of the manifesto, “For a New Cinephilia,” at Film Quarterly, where he edits the online column, Quorum. A new and expanded edition of his book The New Cinephilia (caboose books) will be published in 2020.
Mike Sperlinger is currently Professor of Writing & Theory at the Oslo Academy of Fine Art and also teaches at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. Previously he was assistant director of LUX, a London-based agency for artists working with the moving image, for more than 10 years. He has written extensively on contemporary art and is the editor of several publications, including recently Here Is Information. Mobilise – Selected writings by Ian White (2016). His most recent publication is Occasional Criticism, or, anacolutha on cinema and causes (Akademie Schloss Solitude, 2018).

You can find the recording of this discussion on the LUX Facebook page. Or watch the full video below.