Being(s) in Labour: A Series of Film Screenings on Productive and Reproductive Labour

Being(s) in Labour: A Series of Film Screenings on Productive and Reproductive Labour

University of Cambridge, academic year 2022-2023

Organised by Anna Ceschi (POLIS, Cambridge) and Erica Bellia (Italian, MMLL, Cambridge)

Funded by POLIS Graduate Seminars Fund

Productive and reproductive labour (Federici 2020) structure the life of contemporary societies. In the past two centuries, labour has been one of the decisive factors in the (geo)politics, the development, the conflicts, and the anthropology of many countries, shaping their philosophic and legislative paths (Lucassen 2021). This allows us to consider labour as a historical agent of pivotal importance.

Labour is often at the centre of public discourse, where it is dealt with on a general level, with little attention paid to subjective consequences. As a counterpoint (Said 1993) to this discourse on labour, cultural representations of labour exist and ask for an investigation (Bernes 2017). Cinema, among other media, has been a channel for the narration of the lived experience of labour, providing images and stories of what happens to the body and psyche of those who are involved in (re-)productive dynamics or excluded from them. 

Being(s) in Labour is a series of six seminar sessions, each of which will revolve around a film concerning productive and/or reproductive labour. Sessions will consist of three different moments. In the first part, the film will be introduced by a guest speaker, internal or external to the University. The second moment will be the viewing of the film. Afterwards there will be a Q&A held by the convenors. The series will enrich the Department’s current offer by considering questions of labour through the cinematic lens, which provides alternative and often militant views often overlooked by academia.