Erika Balsom

Coming this summer from Columbia University Press — THE EDGES OF CINEMA, a selection of my essays and reviews grouped into four parts: experiments in nonfiction, the new constructivism, duration/body/landscape, and feminist revisions…https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-edges-of-cinema/9780231221337/

It’s not every day that there is good news in film publishing - so glad to have @filmcommentmagazine back in quarterly form and to be part of the first issue of the new format. My essay on Lucrecia Martel looks back at her filmography through the lens of her new documentary NUESTRA TIERRA. So many congrats @devikagirgayi @cliftonklute and @flowingisthesecret ✨ /article/lucrecia-martels-ghosts-our-land-zama-the-headless-woman-review/

Tusen takk til alle publikummere og bidragsytere på åpningshelgen av utstillingen No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and The Moving Image! ✨ Utstillingen står til 3. mai 2026.   📸 Åpningskveld fredag 13. februar. Samtale i kinoen mellom Erika Balsom og Silja Espolin Johnson. DJ: @djdaeva 🪩   Seminar lørdag 14. februar: Feministiske Filmkulturer i Skandinavia. Bidragsytere: John Sundholm, Ingrid Ryberg, Stine Hebert, Abirami Logendran, Ingrid Synneva Holtar, Torunn Nyen, Inge-Lise Langfeldt 🎤   Åpningsfilm lørdag 14. februar: Blind Spot (Claudia von Alemann, 1981) 🎞️   Alle foto: Mathilde Velvin @velvinphoto   //   Many thanks to all guests and contributors for joining the opening weekend of No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and The Moving Image! ✨ The exhibition is on view until May 3, 2026.   📸 Opening evening Friday, February 13: No Master Territories. Conversation in the cinema between Erika Balsom and Silja Espolin Johnson. DJ: @djdaeva 🪩   Seminar Saturday, February 14: Feminist Film Cultures in Scandinavia. Contributors: John Sundholm, Ingrid Ryberg, Stine Hebert, Abirami Logendran, Ingrid Synneva Holtar, Torunn Nyen, Inge-Lise Langfeldt 🎤   Opening film Saturday, February 14: Blind Spot (Claudia von Alemann, 1981) 🎞️   All photos: Mathilde Velvin @velvinphoto

“No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image” is now open until 3 May at @kunstnerneshus in Oslo - a new edition of a project that Hila Peleg and I initiated at HKW Berlin in 2022, this time curated with @siljaesp and Clemens Ottenhausen. Feminist nonfiction from around the world, primarily from the 1970s to 1990s, now with a special emphasis on the Nordic countries, unfolding across the cinema and the gallery spaces.

For the winter issue of @bookforum , I revisited the work of Catherine Breillat - a filmmaker who transformed my teenage sense of the world --- /print/3203/depravitys-rainbow-62603

Martine Beugnet’s BLUR - the third volume in Cutaways, a series I edit with @genevieveyue for @fordham_press - is now here! Translated from the French by Lindsay Turner, the book presents a taxonomy of blurs and argues that blurriness “stands as a provocative reminder of the value of uncertainty - a sign of the irreducible mystery at the heart of the filmic image.” 😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️

My article “Feminist Observation: The Case of Un processo per stupro/A Trial For Rape” is now out in Camera Obscura - a journal edited with a level of care one almost never finds in academic publishing. An immense thank you to all involved. The article looks at the landmark observational documentary made by a collective of six women in 1979, documenting the proceedings of a trial for gang rape, and tries to show how and why they adopt observation as a feminist weapon. Anyone interested who does not have institutional access can get in touch…

Some installation views of “The Secret Mirror, or, the Disappearance of A.A.A. Offresi” at @kunstvereinhh , a display I’ve curated as part of “On the Origins of the 21st Century or the Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography,” an exhibition comprised of five different curated sections, organised by Milan Ther and on view until 11 January. This room brings together films and documents around an absent centre, the 1981 documentary A.A.A. Offresi. Working collectively, Maria Grazia Belmonti, Anna Carini, Rony Daopoulo, Paola De Martiis, Annabella Miscuglio, and Loredana Rotondo used a hidden camera to videotape the interactions of French sex worker Véronique and her clients in a Roman apartment. The film was intended to be shown on Italian public TV but was never aired: first the broadcast was suspended, and then the filmmakers were charged with the invasion of privacy and the facilitation of prostitution. Although they were eventually acquitted, the film was seized by the court, has not been officially shown since, and is presumed lost. Installation photographs by Edward Greiner.

Cutaways #2! Jules O’Dwyer’s beautiful book on HOTELS ✨ Akerman, Murnau, Warhol and beyond ✨ @jodw991 @genevieveyue @fordham_press

Cutaways is here! @genevieveyue and I are editors of a new series of small books published by @fordham_press . Each one will look at a motif or device across a wide range of films. First up is a brilliant take on props by @cinemiasma and @johndavidrhodes - truly original and beautifully written. I couldn’t dream of a better start to the series ✨

My small book on the sea in cinema - published in 2018 as part of a residency and exhibition at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre in New Zealand - was always a little hard to find. But since it is now fully out of print, I am making the PDF available here: /media/an-oceanic-feeling.pdf 🌊