GRK Das Dokumentarische. Exzess und Entzug

Theodor Frisorger, M.A.

Universitätsstr. 105
44789 Bochum
Room: UNI 105, 3/25

Phone: +49 (0) 234/32-27296
E-Mail: theodor.frisorger@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

 

Title of the Dissertation

Photographic Documents of Film-Making. (Working Title)

Project Description

My doctoral thesis examines photographs of production work on film sets. These photographs are characterised by a certain tension between documentary excess and withdrawal. On the one hand, they promise a glimpse behind the scenes of film-making and offer the field of media research the opportunity to reflect on the underlying process of transforming moving images into still ones. On the other hand, they serve as advertisements for the film industry combining practices of de-mystifying and rendering visible film-making with the ideological glorification of ‘actual’ production conditions. Given set photographs’ oscillating status between meta- and advertising images, it is not my purpose to voice a genre-ontological approval or rejection of their documentary qualities. Rather, my project examines how these photographs are located and circulated as media between visual culture and the operations of the documentary.

To this end, I focus (primarily) on the American studio system of the post-war era, the transformation of production and distribution and their consequences for the practices of photographic documentation of film-making. In doing so, I analyse the documentary use of set photographs in various (film) magazines and highlight the progressive potential of these photographs, which, far from being instrumentalised exclusively for film industry marketing, can also be negotiated as documents providing visibility and recognition for (marginalised) forms of work in the sector. It is at this intersection between film history and magazine culture that my doctoral project contributes to the history and historiography of film photography as well as the epistemology of film studies.

Scholarly Career

  • Since October 2019: researcher (doctoral candidate) in the DFG post-graduate programme “The Documentary. Excess and Withdrawal”, Ruhr University of Bochum
  • 10/2018 to 09/2019: researcher at the Institute of Media Culture and Theatre, University of Cologne (under Junior Professor Dr. Dennis Göttel)
  • 10/2015 to 08/2019: Master’s degree in Media Studies, Braunschweig University of Art
  • 04/2014 to 09/2018: undergraduate assistant and tutor at the Institute of Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art (under Prof. Dr. Heike Klippel and Prof. Dr. Rolf F. Nohr)
  • 10/2012 to 01/2016: Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies and Art Studies, Braunschweig University of Art and Braunschweig University of Technology Braunschweig

Publications

  • »At least the money will stay in the family.« Film- und Familienproduktion bei Chantal Akerman. In: Winfried Pauleit und Angela Rabing (Eds.): Familien-Bilder. Lebensgemeinschaften und Kino. Berlin: Bertz + Fischer 2020, pp. 104-114.

University Courses

  • Winter term 2019/20: Seminar „Fototheorien“, Institute for Media Culture und Theatre, Cologne University
  • Summer term 2019: Exercise „Starfotografie“, Institute for Media Culture und Theatre, Cologne University
  • Winter term 2018/19: Seminar „Feministische Filmarbeit“, Institute for Media Culture und Theatre, Cologne University
  • Summer term 2017: Seminar „Weltkino“, Institute for Media, Theatre and Popular Culture, University of Hildesheim
  • Summer term 2017: Exercise „Michel Foucault“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art (with Elisa d’Augello)
  • Winter term 2016/17: Tutorial „Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art
  • Winter term 2016/17: Exercise „Gender und populäre Medien“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art (with Elisa d’Augello)
  • Summer term 2016: Exercise „Intermedialität“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art (with Elisa d’Augello)
  • Winter term 2015/16: Tutorial „Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art
  • Winter term 2015/16: Exercise „Filmarbeit: Alfred Hitchcock“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art
  • Summer term 2015: Exercise „Lektürekurs MeWi“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art (with Arne Fischer & Fedor Thiel)
  • Winter term 2014/15: Tutorial „Einführung in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten“, Institute for Media Research, Braunschweig University of Art

Organisation of Events

  • Organisation of the workshop „Genealogien/Durchkreuzen“ with Dr. Nanna Heidenreich as part of the lecture series „Medienwissenschaft post_kolonial“, 28.05.2019, Cologne University.
  • Conception and organisation (with Céline Brouwez) of the film series „Our Story: The Outfest Legacy Project“, 16.03-15.04.2018, CINEMATEK Brüssel.
  • Conception and organisation (with Michael P. Aust) of the conference „Feindliche Schwestern. Interdependenzen von Film und Theater“ as part of the Braunschweig International Filmfestival, 10.11.2016, Braunschweig State Theatre.

Talks

  • „behind the scenes & below the line. (Gegen)Bilder von Filmarbeit“, panel presented as part of the 33. Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Braunschweig University of Art, 11.03.2020 (with Felix Hasebrink).
  • „‚At least the money will stay in the family.‘ Film- und Familienproduktion bei Chantal Akerman“, 24. Internationales Bremer Symposium for the film „Familien-Bilder. Lebensgemeinschaften und Kino“, City 46. Kommunalkino Bremen, 09.05.2019
  • „Das Making-of als Quelle historischer Filmproduktionsforschung“, 3. Workshop der AG Medienindustrien „Methoden und Zugänge für die Forschung zu und in Medienindustrien“, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, 01.02.2019 (with Dennis Göttel)
  • „Queere Zeitstrukturen im Mittelalterfilm am Beispiel von ‚The Valley of the Bees‘ (1967)“, student conference „Das Erbe des Mittelalters“, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 24.11.2017
  • „Kinematografische Anatomien. Bewegtbilder des Körperinneren im intermedialen Austausch“, conference for student research „forschen@studium“, University of Oldenburg, 08.06.2016
  • „Turn the inside out. Fragmente einer Filmgeschichte des Körperinneren“, 6. Interdisziplinäre Studierendentagung „TURN! TURN! TURN! Medien der Kunst und Kultur im Wandel“, University of Bamberg, 24.10.2015
  • „Das Gleiche, das verunsichert. Serielle Fotografie als Medienreflexion“, student conference for interdisciplinary research „ZUfo“, Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, 26.09.2015
  • „Ästhetik der Scheibe. Durchsicht, Ansicht und Reflexion bei Abbas Kiarostami“, 87. Kunsthistorischer Studierendenkongress „Ansichtssache“, Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, 30.11.2014

Miscellaneous

  • Since 2019: member of the Diversity Action Group at the Institute of Media Culture and Theatre, University of Cologne
  • Since 2018: member of the Society for Media Studies
  • Since 2016: various introductions to film, panel chairing and workshop discussions, e.g. at the Forms of Theatre Festival, the Braunschweig International Film Festival or the L’Âge d’Or Festival
  • Since 2014: film categories for the “Daumenkino” blog
  • 2017–18: internship at the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique
  • 2016: internship and freelance work at the Brauschschweig International Film Festival