All Staff Members | James | University of Cumbria

Biography

Dr James Slaymaker is a filmmaker and cinema scholar. His articles have been published in Screen, Open Screens, Senses of Cinema, Film International, Bright Lights Film Journal, MUBI Notebook, Little White Lies, Kinoscope, and The Interactive Film and Media Journal. He has also contributed chapters to the edited collections Refocus: The Films of Paul Schrader (2020) and Scott Barley: Sleep Has Her House (2021).

He is the author of the books Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann (Telos Publishing, 2022) and Essay Cinema in the Digital Era (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024). He is currently editing a book on the French filmmaker Leos Carax.

As a practicing filmmaker, James has written, directed and edited a range of short films and video essays. His films have been featured on Fandor, MUBI, Offscreen, and The Film Stage, as well as screening at the London DIY Film Festival, the Concrete Dream Film Festival, the InShort Film Festival and The Straight Jacket Film Festival. His video essay The Rising of the Moon (2020) was named one of the ‘Best Video Essays of 2020’ by BFI Sight and Sound. His most recent short film, the narrative drama Counter Shot (2025), premiered at the London Lift-Off Sessions, in association with Vimeo on Demand and Pinewood Studios.

Prior to joining University of Cumbria, James held teaching and research positions at University of Southampton, Bournemouth University, and Trinity College Dublin. He holds an MA (2018) and PhD (2023) in Film Studies from the University of Southampton. His research interests include digital media, essay cinema, European film, cultural memory, and practice as research. He is the Practice Research and Video Essays editor for BAFTSS Open Screens.

Qualifications and memberships

Member of Advanced HE at the Associate Fellowship level (AFHEA).

Academic and research interests

Books:

• (2024). Essay Cinema in the Digital Era. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• (2022). Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann. Kent: Telos Publishing.

Journal articles and chapters:

• (2025). ‘Fake it so Real: Essayistic Self-Portraiture in Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal’. Film International.
• (2025). ‘The Hauntological Essay Film: Navigating Historical Memory and Collective Trauma in Dónal Foreman’s The Image You Missed’. Screen. 66:3. PP.324–347.
• (2025). ‘In the Flow of Memory: Terence Davies and the Tracking Shot’. Offscreen. Online Resource [Video Essay].
• (2023). ‘The Age of Visible Machines is Over: Navigating the Simulated Image, Epistemological Uncertainty and the Waning of the Index in the Late Digital Works of Harun Farocki’. Interactive Film & Media Journal. 3 (2). Online.
• (2023). ‘“Enter The Memory”: Interactivity, Authorship, and the Digital Database in Chris Marker’s Immemory and Ouvroir.’ BAFTSS Open Screens. 6 (1). Online.
• (2022). ‘Origins Of The 21st Century: The Impact of Digital Technology on The Construction of The Cinematic Essay’. Interactive Film & Media Journal. 2 (3). Online. pp.191-205.
• (2022). ‘In The Shadow of Women: Frustrated Gazes and Thwarted Desire in José Luis Guerín’s In The City Of Sylvia’. Film International. 20 (1). Print. pp. 147-158.
• (2020). ‘Images of the World and the Inscription of War: Brian De Palma’s Domino and Redacted’. Film International. 18 (1). pp.127-139. Print.
• (2020). ‘“Just Being Transparent, Baby”: Surveillance Culture, Digitization, and Self-Regulation in Paul Schrader’s The Canyons’. In Moore, M. (Ed.) Refocus: The Films of Paul Schrader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 155-170.
• (2019). ‘Cinema Never Dies: Abbas Kiarostami’s 24 Frames and The Ontology of The Digital Image’. Senses Of Cinema (88). Online.
• (2017). ‘“I Reach Out My Hand and What Do I Feel?”: Thematising Digitization in Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis’. Senses Of Cinema (84). Online.

Conferences

• ‘The Age of Visible Machines is Over: Navigating the Simulated Image, Epistemological Uncertainty, and the Waning of the Index in the Late Digital Works of Harun Farocki’. Interactive Film and Media Conference 2023. Hosted by Ryerson University (Toronto). August 2023.
• ‘Theorising The Digital Cinematic Essay’, Interactive Film and Media Conference 2021: New Narratives, Racialization, Global Crises, and Social Engagement. Hosted by Ryerson University (Toronto). August 2021.
• ‘Origins Of The 21st Century: The Impact of Digital Technology on the Construction of The Cinematic Essay’, Gradnet Film Research Symposium. Hosted By the University of Southampton. May 2021.
• ‘The App Generation: Post-Cinematic Affect and The Database Aesthetic in The Unfriended Series’, Centre For Modern And Contemporary Writing Research Day. Hosted by the University of Southampton. January 2020.
• ‘Godard’s Historical Montage and New Media Archaeology’, Mining Memories: New Explorations in
Cinema, Memory and The Past. Hosted by the University of Cork. November 2019.
• ‘Derrida’s Work of Mourning and Historical Montage in Godard’s Histoire(S) Du Cinéma’. ‘Stories of the Past and The Power Of Memory’ Symposium. Hosted by the University of Southampton. July 2019.
• ‘Digital Affect and Godard’s Film Socialisme’. Gradnet Film Research Symposium. Hosted by the University of Southampton. June 2019.

Invited Talks:

• ‘Thinking Through Images in Higher Education: Strategies for Teaching the Video Essay in Theory and Practice’. BAFTSS Essay Film Seminar series, online presentation, December 2024.
• ‘Visions of the Future: Navigating Digital Culture in the Late Works of Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Harun Farocki’. PGR Research Seminar Series, Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities, October 2023.
• ‘Introduction to Miami Vice and the Digital Work of Michael Mann: Globalisation, Surveillance, Hyper-Realism’. Crime Research Centre, University of Sussex, April 2023.