“Apocalyptic Cinema”: Doomsday Scenarios and Visions of End Times in Film
CAPAS event series scheduled in cooperation with the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and Karlstorkino
Doomsday scenarios and visions of end times are the focus of a film series organized by the Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) at Heidelberg University in cooperation with the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and the Karlstorkino cinema in the summer semester of 2024. The series titled “Apocalyptic Cinema” combines screenings of selected films, each accompanied by a short academic lecture or a panel discussion. The film “The Wall” from 2012 will be shown at the opening event on 21 June 2024, with commentary by Dr Elisabeth Kargl, cultural scientist at Nantes Université (France). The event will take place as an open-air screening in the courtyard of the Mathematikon (Im Neuenheimer Feld 205) and will begin at 9:30 p.m. Admission to all screenings is free.
As part of this film series, the speakers will explore, from a variety of perspectives, the question of how doomsday scenarios and apocalyptic visions are experienced on an individual, collective or global level. The opening event on 21 June will be followed on 12 July by the screening of the film “Afire” (2023), which deals with the effects of a forest fire on the Baltic Sea. The film, which will be shown in collaboration with the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (IFFMH), will be commented on by Dr Sascha Keilholz, artistic and managing director of the IFFMH. The focus of an event on 19 July will be the English-language science fiction thriller “Tides” (2021), which will be contextualized by Dr Adam Stock, literary scholar at York St John University (UK) and visiting scholar at CAPAS. The events will take place in the courtyard of the Mathematikon – or in Karlstorkino depending on weather conditions. Each event will start at 9:30 p.m.
In addition to the open-air screenings in the Mathematikon, films on apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic issues will be shown in Karlstorkino. On 24 June (from 4 p.m.), the English-language documentary “On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)” from 2022 will be shown. It deals with a false missile alarm in the US state of Hawaii. As part of this, a moderated discussion with academics from France, the UK and the USA will take place. On 28 June (from 7 p.m.), the French-language film “Pacifiction” (2022) will be shown. The screening will be accompanied by a panel discussion in English with Estelle Castro-Koshy (Université de Bretagne Occidentale), Temiti Lehartel (Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III) and Sascha Keilholz from the IFFMH. The venue is the Karlstorkino cinema at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz 3.
The Spanish- and English-language documentary “Imagining End Times”, produced at CAPAS, will premiere on 10 July at Karlstorkino, accompanying an exhibition on doomsday scenarios in Mexico. The exhibition was organized by CAPAS in cooperation with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City. A panel discussion in English will be held as part of the film screening. Prof. Dr Robert Folger, scientist at the Department of Romance Studies and director of CAPAS, and the anthropologist and former CAPAS fellow Adolfo Mantilla Osornio will take part. The event begins at 7 p.m.
The Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies is a transdisciplinary research center at Heidelberg University, where scientists from a variety of disciplines research apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic ideas and scenarios – particularly in relation to current challenges and threats. CAPAS is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as a “Käte Hamburger Kolleg”.
