Sampling global roundtables and Chinese cinephilic communities in the pandemic era

Abstract In the era of pandemic cinephilia, when social distancing, lockdown, isolation, quarantine, and online platforms have become the new normal, cinephiles’ collective longing for community, communication, connection, and contact through the love of cinema has become both dangerous and precious. Three parts constitute the introduction, which is situated in a wide, transnational and translocal context. The first part samples global roundtables that have arisen from pandemic cinephilia. The second part maps and samples global Chinese cinephilic communities—including Film 101 Workshop, Rear Window, Deep Focus, O Cinephiles, and DIRECTUBE—since the digital turn in the 1990s. The aim is to problematize the Deep Focus collective by examining its complex relationship with both capital and censorship. Now that the moment has arrived when Deep Focus is temporarily shut down and when various kinds of voices are being silenced, it is the right time for us to be vocal and multivocal by beginning with `A Deep Focus on Global Chinese Cinephilia’. The third part gives a roadmap for this special issue on global Chinese cinephilia.