Technologies of Age: The Intersection  of Feminist Film Theory and Aging Studies

Raquel Medina Bañón; Barbara Zecchi

doi:10.5209/infe.66086

Raquel Medina Bañón Aston University
Barbara Zecchi University of Massachusetts, Amhers

Keywords: cinema, age, gender, ageism, aging, feminism

Agencies: This essay is part of CinemAGEnder research project, an international, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary research network composed of academics and professionals, with the objective of studying age and gender in visual culture (with emphasis in cinema) mainly within, but not limited to, the Hispanic context (www.cinemAGEnder.com).

Abstract

Aging studies is a relatively new discipline, and its intersection with feminist film theory can lead to fundamental methodological and theoretical rethinking of the notion of cinema as a powerful technology of age. This essay provides an account of the ageism that permeates Western societies vis-à-vis the place of aging and gender in visual culture. In light of contemporary feminist conceptualizations of aging and aging narratives, this essay aims to propose possible new directions that cinema and feminist film theory can take as part of a new epistemological framework. It also explores new theoretical paradigms from an intersectional perspective aimed at deconstructing ageism in the film industry. Finally, by focusing on female aging narratives in several non-mainstream film productions, this essay advocates moving away from the binary approach of aging as either decline or success, and it suggests new, affirmative ways of looking at aging bodies, and of understanding old age.

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Author Biographies

Raquel Medina Bañón, Aston University

Raquel Medina (PhD, University of Southern California, 1994). After working as Assistant Professor (1994-2000) and then Associate Professor of Spanish (2000-2006) at the University of Massachusetts

Amherst, she joined Aston University (2006). She is the author of Cinematic Representations of Alzheimer's Disease (Palgrave Macmilillan, 2018), Surrealismo en la poesía española de posguerra (Visor, 1997), and co-editor of Sexualidad y escritura (Anthropos, 2002), and co-editor of the section Aging and Audio-visual Culture included in The Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging, (forthcoming, Springer, 2020). She has published numerous articles, book chapters and reviews on contemporary Spanish poetry, women writers, film and cultural studies. Her current research focuses on cultural representations of aging and dementia across cultures. She is the Director of the International Research Network CinemAGEnder, co-director of Dementia and Culture Network, and Executive Director of The European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS).

Barbara Zecchi, University of Massachusetts, Amhers

Barbara Zecchi (PhD, University of California Los Angeles, 1998) is Professor of Film Studies and Iberian Studies, and Director of the Film Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research and teaching interests include European and Latin American cinemas, feminist film theory, adaptation theory, aging studies, videographic criticism, and the use of technology in the humanities. In addition to numerous videoessays, articles and book chapters and seven edited or coedited volumes, Zecchi published the monographic books La pantalla sexuada (The Gendered Screen, Cátedra, 2014) and Desenfocadas: Cineastas españolas y discursos de género (Out of Focus: Spanish Women Filmmakers and Gender Discourses, Icaria, 2014). She is the founder and director of the Gynocine Project, and vice-director of the International Research Network CinemAGEnder.

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