What is the Future of Film?

Note to Attendees: Please consider making a $5 donation to contribute to the running costs of this Meetup.

Cinema has long been understood as a medium that gathers the other arts into itself — image, sound, story, performance, rhythm, and the architecture of space. Yet its status now feels uncertain. Andrei Tarkovsky famously argued that cinema exists to “sculpt in time” — but what happens to that ambition when time itself is fragmented by platforms, feeds, and endless distraction?

At our next Brisbane meetup, we’ll ask whether cinema can still sustain its claim to depth, meaning, and shared cultural experience. Is cinema declining, transforming, or simply revealing truths about culture that we’d rather ignore? And if cinema is changing, is that because of technology — or because our expectations of art have changed?

The questions we will address at this meetup are as follows:

1. Is cinema truly the synthesis of the arts, or was that claim always overstated?
2. Will artificial intelligence fundamentally change cinema — or make human authorship irrelevant?
3. Does cinema still require a shared public space (the theatre), or can it survive as a private, domestic experience?
4. What is your favourite film, and why does it matter to you?

This event will be held at The Osbourne Hotel in Fortitude Valley.
After the discussion, we’ll stay on for a meal and a drink together — a chance to continue the conversation in a more relaxed setting and support the venue.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Please support the venue by purchasing a drink or meal during the event.
• This is intended to be a good-natured but robust discussion. Please be respectful and prepared to have your ideas challenged. If you are easily offended, this event may not be for you.