Immortality by Choice

Philosopher Tom Dommisse shared his thoughts about immortality and illustrates them with excerpts from films like E.T., Blade Runner, Wall-E, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Citizen Kane.

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Information

Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:00 tot 21:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1

Philosopher Tom Dommisse shared his thoughts about immortality and illustrates them with excerpts from films like E.T., Blade Runner, Wall-E, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Citizen Kane. People want long lives. Science and technology help to achieve this. Sci-fi films reflect this desire and the technical possibilities, and sometimes the fantasy lies close to the reality. Think of Pixar's Wall-E, with its almost human-like robot and the people drifting around, glued to their touch-screens. Or of Orson Welles' 1941 Citizen Kane, according to many the best film ever made, in which the  media magnate's lust for power coincides with a wish for eternal life.

Gerlinda Heywegen

(1968) is a programmer, writer, organizer, lecturer and podcaster, mainly on the subject of film and often in combination with literature. Koning Film is the collective of speakers on film that she established. Heywegen's books include The Other Director, about directors of photography; she collaborated with Frans Westra on Passie voor Cinema (Passion for Cinema), which highlights four decades of film screenings in the Netherlands; and she edited and wrote for the film magazine Skrien. Currently, she writes regularly for the websites of the Netherlands Society of Cinematographers and literary magazine Elders.
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Tom Dommisse

(1958) is a philosopher and lecturer on the esthetics of music and cultural philosophy at the Royal Conservatory. Since his time as a university researcher, he has worked in the border areas of philosophy where it encounters literature, theatre and politics. He has published on themes of esthetics, metaphysics, political philosophy and the philosophy of law. According to Dommisse, all philosophy again faces the challenge of linking an academic level of thought with the need to carefully bring it into the public sphere. Theatre companies seek him out for wanted and unwanted dramaturgical advice. He is involved with the work of Thomas Mann and Pasolini and nurtures a passion for Shakespeare. Together with STET English Theatre, he organized a Shakespeare festival in 2016 and 2018.
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