Volume 6, Issue 1 (2017)

This issue of Cinesthesia delves into the connection between film and the psyche. Films, by their nature, are a sensory experience which directly engages the mind not only aesthetically, but also poetically; the cinema allows us to make meaning from the world and from ourselves. The essays and authors within this issue concern themselves with exploring different manners in which film engages with our mental experiences, and ultimately all ask a common question: how does film help turn the cogs of our mental clockwork?

Our writers engage in conversation with filmmakers and theorists in a variety of psychologically tinted fields: mental health experts, psychology scholars, pediatricians, and sociologists are all referenced and their fields become rich veins for film analysis within these essays.

Amongst the films analyzed are Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, the documentary My Beautiful Broken Brain by Sophie Robinson and Lotje Sodderland, Don Hall and Chris Williams’s animated hit Big Hero 6, among several others. Thus, they explore how film – through nostalgia, loss, empathy, and example – affects our mental workings in myriad and striking ways.

This issue's cover art was created by Kayleigh Van Overen. Click here to see more of her work.