If cameras have memory, it could be said that cameras reflect, that is, they create visions of the world. The Camera Lucidas section is dedicated to films that help us understand an increasingly turbulent world, where the barrage of images creates a network that makes a single vision of the world less and less discernible. In the face of this barrage of silent images, we must look for images that think about the society around us, about the place we leave behind, about the world we are heading towards. Camera Lucidas brought the outside world into rooms of painters. For this reason now more than ever, we must advocate for films which bring us closer to that which is remote, whether it be History or lost forms of socialization.

Cinema, like History, is always made in the present, no matter what the subject matter, location or time from the past being narrated. Cinema also holds the capacity to create imaginary worlds about the present, which, even if we don’t realize it, make up the way we see the events around us. Camera Lucidas: Thinking History presents four films that use footage from the past and thoughtful analysis of anachronistic images to show us the perfect thermometer for today’s world: from the political rise of extremisms through to the resurgence of naive romanticism. This section shows us how cinema is an indispensable tool for understanding the world and history.