Towards a Cinema of Empathy: Listening to/with Banietemad’s The May Lady

Laudan Nooshin

Abstract:

This talk explores a single film, The May Lady by Rakhshan Banietemad (1998), through the lens of sound, with a focus on the act of listening - who listens to whom and who has the authority to listen and to be listened to - and specifically the ways in which notions of empathy are sonically mediated.

Bio:

Laudan Nooshin is Professor of Music at City, University London, UK. She is an active researcher working in the broad field of Iranian music and sound studies. She has published books and articles on Iranian classical, popular and film music, and is currently writing a volume on the sounds of Tehran (supported by a Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust).