Fernanda Pinto de Almeida: History writing as a practice of place. Cinema's spatial stories

HUMA Doctoral Seminar Series

Speaker: Fernanda Pinto de Almeida (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)

How does one write a history of – and from – a particular place? How does one connect spaces and narrative? This talk explores how a particular space suggests an approach to academic writing and how storytelling "takes place". Based on my encounters with old cinema houses in South Africa during my PhD research, I will consider places as formed by the stories that represent them, shaping notions of experience so valuable and yet contentious in historical writing. The first part of the presentation considers cinema in Cape Town through engaging de Certeau's notion of a "practised place": as a space of racially policed leisure that occasioned bureaucratic and political dissent, cinema offers us a lens onto spatial histories of urban segregation, forced removals and sites of public disobedience. The second part considers how attention to space accounts for a renewed attention to inactive cinema theatres on the continent, creative processes of architectural renovation and a scholarly view on cinema's afterlives.

 Reading: In advance of our seminars our guests share with us foundational texts related to their topic in support of their presentations. Please find the chapter on Spatial Stories by Michel de Certeau as a tool for engagement in our upcoming seminar.

About the speaker: Fernanda Pinto de Almeida is a cultural historian. She is currently a Next Generation Scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, where she co-convenes its Documentary Film Programme. She has written on cinema in twentieth-century Cape Town and is interested more broadly in histories of media and popular culture.