Society of Fellows scholar Anastasia Kostina will present her paper “The Mother of Soviet Documentary: Esfir Shub Between Theory and Practice” at the Sites of Cinema University Seminar at Columbia University on September 18, 2025. The University Seminars is an ongoing community of partnerships, each of which is constituted by scholars from multiple academic departments and disciplines, often including experts from outside academia, and is devoted to the study of an institution, practice, or issue of theoretical and/or practical importance. Seminars invite members from Columbia, other institutions, and the surrounding community. A scholar or professional may request an invitation to attend as a guest by contacting the seminar chair or rapporteur directly and expressing their interest and qualifications in the seminar’s area of study.

Official announcement
University Seminars “Sites of Cinema” at Columbia University

“The Mother of Soviet Documentary: Esfir Shub Between Theory and Practice”

Speaker: Anastasia Kostina, Mellon Teaching Fellow at Heyman Center, Columbia University

Bio: Her book project, Engendering Soviet Documentary: Esfir Shub Between Theory and Practice, examines the intersection of politics, aesthetics, and gender in early documentary cinema. Co-editor: The New Russian Documentary: Reclaiming Reality in the Age of Authoritarianism.
Respondent: Alexandra Juhasz, Distinguished Professor, Film Department, Brooklyn College, CUNY

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When: Sept. 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EST
Where: Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr., New York, NY 10027
RSVP by Monday, (Sept. 15) to rapporteur Haoze Guan: [email protected]
RSVP REQUIRED for non-Columbia attendees - Campus access limited to CUID holders & official guests. Once RSVP is processed, guests will receive a QR code via email to show to security for campus access.
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SITES OF CINEMA (#735)

Founded: 2010

Chairs: Professors Racquel Gates and Jane Gaines

Rapporteur: Haoze Guan

"Sites of Cinema" takes a new approach to the question of cinema at the moment when cinema is said to be in decline, even in some accounts said to be facing its "death." Alternative to André Bazin's question "What is Cinema?" "Sites of Cinema" will ask "Where is Cinema?" Where has it been seen to be and where will it be spaced in the future—as theoretical construct, national culture, material object, artistic work, social practice and space of exhibition. Cinema has moved and is still moving—from theatrical stages to museum walls, in and on buildings as well as within historical nations and regions of the world. "Sites of Cinema" signals our interest in site-specific cinemas plural but also cinema as a total apparatus—the "cinema of the mind" for the mass audience.