David Davidson defended his doctoral dissertation, "Cahiers du Cinéma: From Mao to New Media (1981–2003)", on Monday, December 9, 2024. The committee consisted of James Cahill (supervisor), Alberto Zambenedetti, Zdenko Mandusic, exam chair Kate Neville, and external examiner Laure Astourian (Bentley University).
We asked David about his work, as well as his plans for the future.
My dissertation explores the Parisian cinema journal, Cahiers du cinema, from 1981 to 2003, a familiar period in our recent past. Looking at the five different editors-in-chief of this period (Toubiana, Jousse, de Baecque, Tesson, Lalanne) this dissertation offers an original perspective on this little-known period in Cahiers history. How did this cinephile journal – the home of Bazin, Truffaut, Godard and other New Wave filmmakers – see cinema and moving-image culture throughout these two decades? Benefitting from first-hand interviews with its critics, we discover that cinema, and even film culture itself, was in a period of radical evolution with the rise of multimedia, the Internet, and the uncertainties of the new millennium.
Since moving to Toronto in 2010, I have been thoroughly engaged in the local film community: working at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, attending the cinematheque, organizing film screenings, covering Canadian cinema, and pursuing film studies in academia. I completed my Master of Film Studies at York University in 2015, and will be a PhD graduate from the University of Toronto in 2025 with the completion of my thesis dissertation, “Cahiers du cinéma: From Mao to New Media (1981-2003)”. I have a chapter on “Toronto’s New DIY Filmmakers” in the book “Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium” (2023). I currently live in Hamilton, Ontario, working with the federal government.
My plan for the future is to publish this dissertation as a book, first in English and then reworked into French. I need to sincerely thank my supervisor James Cahill and my committee for their thoughtful engagement in my project and their valuable support over the years. I am also grateful to my parents for their valuable assistance and encouragement throughout this project. The contribution from Teddy, my dog, was mixed but she often provided a needed distraction. A final huge thanks and affectionate hugs goes to my wife Candice for her love and support.
His supervisor, James Cahill, had this to say about David's dissertation:
David Davidson’s Cahiers du cinéma: From Mao to New Media, 1980-2003 is an impressive accounting of an understudied and often dismissed period in the history of film criticism and cinephilia. David left almost no stone unturned in his determination to read every issue of Cahiers du cinéma and conduct extensive oral history interviews with nearly every living participant of the journal from that era. The thesis thus examines how those responsible for the journal tried to keep its mission as a shining light of critical cinephilia going across the many changes in the media and cultural landscape and the challenges they posed, and he accomplishes this by drawing on a veritable treasure trove of original information he has gathered. I have learned so much from working with David and the wonderful committee on his thesis, not just about Cahiers du cinéma and its many fascinating personalities, but also about the key critical debates, scandals, beloved and panned films, and trends of the 1980s-2003. His attention to detail really brings this period’s critical cinephilia and its broader media ecologies to life and gave me a long list of films to see and articles to read. I know my approach to this period of French cinema and film culture has been substantially enriched by David’s work—it makes me excited to teach French cinema of this period again—and I look forward to seeing how he develops this project as he works on a book about this era of Cahiers du cinéma. Congratulations Dr. David Davidson. You have much to be proud of!
Congratulations, Dr. Davidson!
