Edinburgh Film Seminar: MaoHui Deng

About the event

by MaoHui Deng

This talk examines the ways in which dementia-friendly screenings have been facilitated and discussed in the UK. The argument that I will put forward is threefold.

First, dementia-friendly screenings can be understood as a form of caring cinema that pays close attention to the ways in which people who live with dementia and their carers can be more relationally embedded within their communities and environments.

Second, drawing from Charles R. Acland and Haidee Wasson’s work on “useful cinema” (cinema that is used to maintain the longevity of institutions), we can also understand dementia-friendly screenings as a form of exhibition practice that furthers David Cameron’s 'Big Society' agenda, where money is cut from healthcare services and caring responsibilities are pushed onto the individuals.

Third, complementing the above claims, I argue that the films curated by dementia-friendly screenings thus far are largely catered to an imagined white audience, and are rooted in discourses of nostalgia and reminiscence – in turn, dementia-friendly screenings in the UK, in its current state of existence, can also be understood as furthering the coloniality of dementia discourses, where the experiences of white people living with dementia are epistemologically privileged over non-white/non-western demographics.  

About the speaker

Dr MaoHui Deng is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Ageing, Dementia and Time in Film: Temporal Performances (2023, Edinburgh University Press), which puts forward the first sustained analysis of films about dementia from a temporal viewpoint. He has also published chapters on films about dementia in The Routledge Companion to European Cinema (Routledge), Contemporary Narratives of Ageing, Illness, Care (Routledge), and The Politics of Dementia (De Gruyter).

He is currently working on a project on dementia and modernity.

How to attend

This event is free to join, and open to all. Spaces are limited, so you can reserve your spot on Eventbrite.

About the Edinburgh Film Seminars

Each semester, the Edinburgh Film Seminars bring a broad range of film academics and experts to the University of Edinburgh.

Are you interested in studying film at Edinburgh?

Exploring crucial concepts in the development of film theory and film-philosophy, one one-year taught Masters programme (MSc) centres on the criticism, analysis and interpretation of auteur cinema, with a focus on European and American film.

We also supervise PhD research in film theory, film-philosophy, various national cinemas, the work of individual filmmakers, and cinema in relation to other art forms.