CFP for publication: \;&ldquo\;The \;Cinema of Democracy &ndash\; Event and Reinvention of the Mass&rdquo\; \;
\nExtended Deadline: July 15\, 2026 \;
\nAbstract \;In the essay \;Cinema as a Democratic Emblem\, Alain \;Badiou \;proposes that we understand cinema as a space for the \;irruption \;of a &ldquo\;purely democratic element&rdquo\;: the &ldquo\;mass&rdquo\;\, whose \;manifestation \;entails\, each time\, \;the undoing \;of \;any pre-existing model of itself. \;It is \;an intense &ldquo\;evental \;energy&rdquo\; that cannot be \;stabilised \;into a \;definitive form \;(2005\, \;p. \;6). \;
\nBadiou&rsquo\;s \;concept of the emblem no longer functions to preserve symbolic or \;identitarian \;stability\; instead\, it \;serves \;as an imperative of movement\, exposing democracy to its own continual differentiation. \;Under these conditions\, democracy designates less a constituted political form than an openness that finds in cinema a privileged operator &mdash\; a regime of \;emergence \;that resists the \;crystallisation \;of the political. \;As Nicole \;Brenez \;observes\, the mass that \;manifests \;within cinema &ldquo\;creates itself in the name of a lack&rdquo\;\, \;finding in this \;original absence \;the catalyst of its figural metamorphosis \;(2023\, \;p. \;85). \;
\nThe present \;call for papers \;operates \;within this problematic horizon\, encouraging research proposals that explore\, as cinema&rsquo\;s own generative force\, the emergence of a mass in flight\, continually exposed to its own reinvention. \;
\nGilles Deleuze&rsquo\;s thought constitutes a decisive precedent\, pointing out that cinema addresses a &ldquo\;people who are missing\,&rdquo\; making this absence the &ldquo\;new foundation&rdquo\; upon which modern political cinema is built\, dedicated to dissolving any entrenched framework at the heart of democracy (1989\, p. 216). \;
\nDeparting from approaches that reduce cinema to the construction of identifiable political subjects\, that is\, to a representational \;structure\, this proposal instead foregrounds cinema as an index of the &ldquo\;post-foundational&rdquo\; character of the demos of democracy\, whose manifestation never converges into a \;totalising \;figure\, remaining beyond any form of political capture (Marchart\, \;2007). \;
\nRecent work\, such as that of Jun Fujita Hirose\, explores this perspective by highlighting the revolutionary becoming of images\, whose \;potentia \;does not lie in the \;actualisation \;of an idea of the nation\, but in the continuous production of the nation&rsquo\;s non-coincidence with itself: the people become &ldquo\;phantasmatic\,&rdquo\; finding in this spectral condition their &ldquo\;line of flight&rdquo\; (Hirose\, \;2020\, \;p. \;59). We find the same intuition in Jean-Luc Godard: &ldquo\;the voice of Mozambique. From what mouth does this voice emerge? What is its face?&rdquo\; (Godard\, \;1979\, \;p. \;93). The crucial point is to preserve a deserted\, problematic image\, akin to Hitchcock&rsquo\;s &ldquo\;emptied subjects&rdquo\;\; that is\, figures which\, while structuring and influencing the action\, remain a presence without content\, exposing not exactly an individual &ldquo\;I&rdquo\; but an anonymous\, always-to-be-formed &ldquo\;we&rdquo\; (Ling\, \;2011\, \;p. \;177). In this sense\, it becomes a question of &ldquo\;making of the image a common place (un lieu du \;commun) where the commonplace of images of the people used to reign&rdquo\; (Didi-Huberman\, \;2012\, \;p. \;159). \;
\nFor Claude \;Lefort\, democracy is bound up with this formless\, &ldquo\;empty&rdquo\; we \;(Lefort\, \;1991). \;Rather than a lack to be remedied\, this \;emptiness \;functions as a positive criterion for cinema&rsquo\;s creative act and vision. \;From within this theoretical constellation\, the \;JSTA &ndash\; Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts \;invites researchers to submit original articles for the thematic dossier The Cinema of Democracy: Event and Reinvention of the Mass\, devoted to the study of cinema as a space through which democracy &ldquo\;can be thought\, experienced and enacted&rdquo\; beyond any normative framework (Kim\, \;2023). \;
\nPossible research paths include: \;
\nGuest Editors: Diogo Nó\;brega (School of Arts\, Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts\; Nova Institute of Philosophy\, IFILNOVA)\, Hugo Monteiro (Institute of Philosophy - University of Porto\, Centre for Research and Innovation in Education (inED)\, Lucas Ferraç\;o Nassif (Nova Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA)
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