Abstract

In this talk Teet Teinemaa will explore the multi-protagonist/network narrative film – a film form with several lead characters that has risen to particular prominence since the 1990s, with films such as Short Cuts (Altman, 1993) and Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994), among others, popularising the form. The film form has a tendency to favour contingency as the main organisational device of the film narrative to the more traditional causal connections. Because of this the multi-protagonist film can be seen to hold great philosophical potential. This talk will bring the multi-protagonist film’s interest in contingency together with the thinking of Jacques Rancière and Slavoj Žižek who can also be recognised as granting detailed attention to the notion of contingency.

About the speaker

Teet Teinemaa is a research fellow and a lecturer at Tallinn University. Teinemaa recently defended his PhD in Film Studies at the University of Warwick. His thesis explores the contemporary American multi-protagonist film (The Big Short etc), particularly the film form’s focus on the notion of contingency, via the thinking of Jacques Rancière and Slavoj Žižek. Teinemaa has also studied at Maastricht University, and holds MA in Film Studies and Literature from the University of York and an MA in Cultural Theory from Tallinn University. His research interest includes contemporary American and European cinema, film-philosophy, and representations of capitalism.