Being There: The Long Take and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/tekn.104334
Keywords: aesthetics, cinema, film making, time
Data availability: https://vimeo.com/1132590277

Abstract

This video essay juxtaposes two digitally created long takes from Alfonso Cuarón’s 2103 film Gravity to argue that the function and mode of these sequences forces the viewer to contemplate and dwell in the present in an analogous fashion to how Paul Schrader interprets ‘slow cinema’.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Publication Facts

Metric
This article
Other articles
Peer reviewers 
3
2.4

Reviewer profiles  N/A

Author statements

Author statements
This article
Other articles
Data availability 
N/A
16%
External funding 
N/A
32%
Competing interests 
N/A
11%
Metric
This journal
Other journals
Articles accepted 
68%
33%
Days to publication 
109
145

Indexed in

Editor & editorial board
profiles
Academic society 
N/A
Publisher 
Grupo de Investigación Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales. Cibersomosaguas

Author Biography

Jeffrey Middents, American University

Jeffrey Romero Middents studies and teaches film and world literature at American University in Washington, DC, specifically focusing on Latin American narratives from the 1960s to the present. His screen-oriented courses cover a wide range of concepts, including national cinemas, genre, the auteur, stardom, film criticism, Netflix, and short films. His book, Writing National Cinema: Film Journals and Film Culture in Peru (UPNE, 2009) investigates the historical place of cultural writing within a national discourse by tracing how Peruvian cinema was shaped by local film criticism. Professor Middents has also published essays – in print and video versions – on a variety of other topics, including documentary aesthetics in the work of Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman, Peruvian director Luis Llosa’s films made under producer Roger Corman, the theoretical perspective espoused by Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, the sense of place in contemporary Latin American cinema, movie stardom and “the indigenous” in the works of Dolores del Rio and Magaly Solier, the pedagogy of teaching “world cinema,” and the racial complexities of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is currently working on a monograph on transnational auteurism and the work of Alfonso Cuarón. On sabbatical leave AY 2023-24.

View citations

Article download

Metrics

Published
2025-11-19
OPEN PEER REVIEWS
How to Cite
Middents J. (2025). Being There: The Long Take and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. Teknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales, Avance en línea, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.5209/tekn.104334
Issue
Vol. Avance en línea
Section
Video Essays

License

In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Teknokultura is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.