Daoism, Cinema and Wellbeing: Meditative Cinema

This interdisciplinary project shifts the debates on ecological and mental health crises while decolonising knowledge production. It systematically engages an ancient yet living non-western thought, Daoism, with cinema, and brings a Daoist perspective of cinema to reshape our understanding of ecology and wellbeing. Constructing a Daoist conceptual framework, it seeks to expand how we experience cinema and perceive our place in the world through film. The project reveals that Daoism can activate cinema’s meditative power, highlighting its healing and restorative capacity in turbulent times. This project responds to the criticism of modernist Anthropocentrism, and to the critique of western-centric post-humanism that tends to homogenise differences among various species and entities. Instead, it aligns itself with wisdoms in many ancient non-western relational worldviews that long predate post-humanism. Such perspectives are rare in film studies, where most of our formal understanding of cinema and key debates are drawn from western philosophical, artistic and cultural traditions. The project thus offers a corrective by arguing for the conceptual power of non-western philosophies for an understanding of cinema. An essential part of traditional Chinese thought, Daoism, with its correlative and transformative cosmology and emphasis on nature-human oneness, has a long-lasting impact on Chinese cosmology, ecological sensitivity, wellbeing and traditional art. It has also influenced aesthetic formations globally in a transcultural context. This project: develops a new Daoist theoretical framework to explore cinema. Contributing to decolonising and de-westernising knowledge production, it excavates a hidden trajectory of cinema through the lineage of East Asian art history, putting cinema in the wider context of transcultural influences. proposes a new model to engage with cinema, through qi (breath, vital energy), challenging Euro-American film theorisations that follow ‘the model of the eye’ or ‘the model of the brain’. proposes ‘meditative cinema’ as a new category, analysing 30 global films of varying themes, genres and forms from the past decade, set against a backdrop of crisis. It examines how these films evoke a somatic experience of breathing, how their aesthetic features induce meditation, and how they resonate with traditional East Asian art forms. establishes a Research Hub for Cinema and Eastern Philosophies to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogues and discussions. enhances the connection between theory and practice through practice-based research in filmmaking and curation, engaging broader audiences, the art world, and the exhibition industry. generates impact by building links with the wellbeing industry and creating a new form of ‘Film Meditation’ workshops. Collaborating with two industrial partners and two international academic partners, this project will result in a single-authored monograph, to be completed by January 2027; a film to be completed by December 2027, to be shown at festivals and exhibitions; a project website featuring a list of ‘meditative films’ with links for individual viewing, and a comprehensive list of bibliographies on Daoism and Daoist interdisciplinary studies for future research; Two annual workshops and screenings organised by the Research Hub; a pilot of four ‘Film Meditation’ workshops at wellbeing retreats and office buildings; a moving image exhibition and an associated international conference in London; culminating in an edited collection to be completed after the project concludes; and one work placement opportunity at a partner organisation for a recent graduate to help organise the events.