CJS Noon Lecture Series | From Security to Refuge: Visibility and Vulnerability in Japanese Cinema

This talk aims to interrogate the relationship between cinema and security in Japanese cinema. My question is whether it is possible for cinema to help locate forms of refuge today that are distinct from security. Drawing on several examples of moving image media in Japan, I will argue that one of the key components of locating refuge involves a shift of emphasis from a politics of visibility to one of vulnerability. Visibility is central to the politics of security in all its modalities. While amplifying fear, security works to obscure any kind of care (indeed, etymologically, the term security—securitas—refers to the absence of care). Vulnerability, on the other hand, opens possibilities for care foreclosed by the fear and aggression of security. Such a distinction raises multiple questions. How does an image that emphasizes visibility differ from one that emphasizes vulnerability? How does the relationship between visibility and vulnerability intersect with that between image and narrative (or other non-visual elements), or specific modes, such as documentary, or animation?

Phil Kaffen’s research and teaching interests revolve around the role of the image in modern societies, from intersections of art and technology in optical media to theoretical reflections on imagination and representation to the politics of surveillance and security. His primary research field is Japan. He has published essays on bodies and urban space in documentary and fiction film, and on violence in cinema during the 1970s. He is currently working on a book project tentatively titled: Immediacy and Refuge: Rethinking the Place of Cinema in Japan.