Edinburgh Film Seminar: Aida Vallejo

About the seminar

The Documentary Festival Ecosystem

Since the 2000s, a network of cultural infrastructures devoted to documentary film production and dissemination has developed globally, providing a breeding ground for creative documentary films aimed at the big screen. This network includes a growing number of specialised film festivals as well as institutes for the development of documentary film which closely collaborate with them.

This seminar will focus on the international ecosystem of documentary film festivals, reflecting on their different profiles and cultural dynamics, as well as the institutional networks developed around them.

It will look at programming policies and identity politics developed at the festival site, giving particular attention to the social aspects that shape their operational logics.

By looking at the structural changes brought about by digitisation and new exhibition possibilities opened up by streaming, it will open up new questions about the future of documentary viewing in a moment of redefinition of the physical and virtual experiences.

About the speaker

Aida Vallejo is research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) of the University of Edinburgh and associate professor at University of the Basque Country (Spain).

She has co-edited Documentary Film Festivals Vol.1 and Vol.2 (Palgrave MacMillan) and Film Festivals and Anthropology (Cambridge SP) and several academic articles on documentary film, film festivals, anthropology/ethnography of media, creative industries and narratology.

About the series

Edinburgh Film Seminars is hosted by Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh and brings together world-leading academics within the field to discuss their research.

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How to join

Events are free and everyone is welcome. 

In the interests of audience and speaker wellbeing during Covid-19, they will be held online using Zoom.

Registration on Eventbrite is required so that you can be sent joining instructions and links in advance.