Film

Scholars in disciplines such as media and film studies have time and again invoked a “geography of cinema,” by which is largely meant the political economic settings within which film is sponsored and produced, and the differential scales of activity exhibited by the entertainment industry, as well as the re-presentation of specific locations on screen, and the role of such scenes in setting the emotional tone for a character, culture, or plot device. Research emerging from geography, however, is arguably distinctive by virtue of the fact that “space” and “place” are at the forefront of their analyses, and, moreover, that film becomes a means of nuancing these terms, and of exploring new “spatial turns.” Certainly, and in concert with scholars outside of the discipline, geographers have looked to film as a case study, a metaphor, an analogy, a symptom, and a causal factor. But also, geographers have looked to cinematic film as a site for exploratory and innovative thought and practice around some of the discipline’s key terms, or “primitives.”