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“I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can’t remember them.”
— Leonard Shelby, Memento (2000)
“Memories can be vile, repulsive little brutes. Like children, I suppose. But can we live without them?”
— The Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
“Memory is a strange thing. It doesn’t work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order.”
— Louise, Arrival (2016)
“The pain of loss is a price we pay for the love we feel. It’s not a weakness. It’s memory.”
— Queen Ramonda, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022; see top image)
“This is what I remember, but what you end up remembering isn’t always what you actually witnessed.”
— Tony Webster, The Sense of an Ending (2024)
“This film only uses their memories.”
—Epigraph, Warfare (2025)
For this proposed collection, we explore the complex relationship between film and memory. But what exactly is memory? Is it a network of neurological pathways, a sequence of internal images, or something more? More likely, memory is a dynamic, biological, and socially embedded process—one that encodes, stores, recalls, and reinterprets experiences. Memory is seemingly unstable, subject to lapse, and open to continual revision and reinterpretation. And does the act of remembering change the memory itself? This understanding raises further questions: What is the relationship between memory and knowledge, truth, or identity?
Most believe memory can be distorted and enhanced through artificial means, so how do films play a part in this process of distortion and enhancement?
As a narrative medium, film relies fundamentally on the audience’s various forms of memory—semantic, procedural, short-term, long-term—to facilitate interpretation as the film progresses. Because films often present events in non-linear and chronological sequences, viewers must actively recall earlier scenes in order to track character development, infer causal relationships, and construct coherent timelines. For instance, in The Sixth Sense, early scenes that initially appear mundane acquire deeper significance as the film’s central mystery gradually unfolds.
To guide their storytelling and pedagogical strategies, filmmakers guide their viewers by using the three and five act structures as mnemonic frameworks. These narrative schemas organize story events into familiar, if not cognitively memorable patterns, enabling audiences to comprehend, manage, and retain the often complex trajectories of cinematic narratives.
Reflexive Construction: Memory as Subject and Object
Though films rely on the individual memories of audiences to follow and interpret their stories, there are many films that focus on memory as the subject matter (Rashomon 1950, Memento 2000, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004, The Father 2020), or as important topics of character development (The Iron Giant 1999, The Bourne Identity 2002, Finding Nemo 2003, Manchester by the Sea 2016).
However, as we explore the subjects of film memory and cinematic memory as representations of memories on film as well as memories of attending and watching films at the cinema, we should responsibly contend with how films often function individually, collectively, and culturally as vessels for a historical understanding of events, particularly when audiences use films as prosthetic memories to develop empathy and moral knowledge of events they have never encountered outside of a film; moreover, we should study how people will remember and recall their lives through the films they saw at key moments in their lives—where films become integrated in the autobiographical memories of people—and these memories are shared.
For instance, repeatedly watching films helps create a shared mnemonic code where people integrate recognizable film scenes and dialog (sometimes misquoted) into their conversations (“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” “there’s no place like home,” “life finds a way,” “All those years at film school paid off!,” “salt water, bad for grass,” etc.). This playful integration of film dialog into conversations relies on the learning and expression of shared memories and helps frame real events by creating common reference points for people to relate to each other.
This shared sound cognition as mnemonic code also relates to recognizable film songs (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) and singers (Judy Garland, Dooley Wilson, Celine Dion.) and music (Monty Norman and John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Bill Conti, John Williams) and sounds, including Ben Burtt’s work on Star Wars (TIE fighter engines, light saber humming), Gary Rydstrom’s sound design on the Jurassic Park films (T-Rex roar, the Dilophosaurus’s chirp); in addition to the other memorable sounds, such as the Wilhelm Scream, Spiderman’s thwip, Wolverine’s snickt, Tarzan’s yell, etc. Given the pervasive richness of songs, scores, and diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, how do these separate and synthesized subjects impact our memory, learning, behavior, and identity?
In these acts of remembering, though films can tempt us into mythologizing and simplifying complex and complicated historical and personal realities, they can also shape our confidence, give us a voice, help us rehearse for triumph and tragedy, and grow us as people.
Problem Statement:
Although memory plays a crucial role in films, it is frequently relegated to a secondary or tertiary position within film studies—addressed primarily as a rhetorical device, a narrative trope, or a tool for ensuring continuity across time and space. This proposed collection aims to reposition memory as a central, generative, and contested dimension of cinematic form and content. By examining memory not merely as a representational strategy but as a dynamic and constitutive epistemic force, the volume invites contributions that investigate memory as a thematic preoccupation, structural principle, and affective register (as content, form, epistemology, technology, etc.). Special emphasis will be placed on how cinematic engagements with memory intersect with theories of human development, perception, and identity formation, thereby opening new interdisciplinary avenues of inquiry across film studies, psychology, cultural studies, and cognitive science.
The Project
This proposed monograph has an independent, peer-reviewed publisher strongly interested in the collection.
For consideration, we invite contributors to consider three primary approaches: first and foremost, film analysis: we encourage contributors to examine how memory is represented in film—from character development and narrative structure to cinematic technique and genre. For example, how do films depict memory and recollection, forgetting and misremembering? What role do false or shared memories play in film narratives? How does mnemonic distortion shape character arcs and audience comprehension?
Second, personal development: Prosthetic memory is a term theorized by culturalist Alison Landsberg in her 2004 book Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. The term refers to memories that individuals acquire through their engagement with cultural technologies—especially film, television, and other mass media—which represent experiences they did not live through themselves. In other words, humans implant scenes and sounds in their memories to help shape their sense of empathy, moral position, and identity—even if the events depicted occurred long before they were born or in places they’ve never been. For example, Landsberg discusses how some films fuse historical trauma with emotional identification. In this section, we encourage contributors to theorize how films generate profound internalizations of historical and emotional events, contributing to self-development—what we might refer to as prosthetic filmic memories: memory constructs shaped within and by the aesthetics, narratives, and experiences of film.
Third, we want contributors to think more daringly—to examine how movies position cinema as a dynamic architecture of meaning—a modern expression of Giulio Camillo’s memory theater. Camillo’s 16th-century concept imagined a physical structure designed to trigger memory through visual and spatial arrangement. Similarly, cinema organizes sights, sounds (and silence), and narrative moments that create memory loci—scaffolded sites of recall for both characters and audiences. While prosthetic memory emphasizes what the viewer receives from the film—empathic, borrowed experiences that shape identity—cinematic memory could theoretically focus on how films themselves are structured as mnemonic devices, organizing narrative, image, and sound to scaffold memory and meaning within the viewer’s mind. In this way, films do not merely tell stories; they build memory architecture inside the viewer. Further, film viewing permits psychological development across our lifespans: from exploring identity to rehearsing moral dilemmas and processing cultural norms, films contribute to both cognitive and emotional literacies by offering tools to reinterpret our life experiences.
There is room in this monograph for analyses that embrace the analytical themes mentioned above that include television content as well.
We welcome proposals from graduate students, early-career researchers, postdoctoral scholars, established academics, and professional critics. Please submit a title and abstract (300–500 words) to ryand@usfca.edu with the subject line “Film Memory Book” by October 15, 2025.
Once which essays to include in the volume have been determined, contributors will be contacted with additional information and will have six months to complete their chapters (4,000-6,000 words). The deadline for the completion of chapters (after acceptance) will be April 15, 2026.
Recommended Resources:
- Image Journal: Top 25 Films on Memory
- Seamon, John. Memory and Movies: What Films Can Teach Us about Memory (2015, MIT Press)
- Baronian, Marie-Aude. Screening Memory: The Prosthetic Images of Atom Egoyan.
Key Questions to Consider:
- How do films represent memory?
- How do films portray how personal memories relate to the construction of collective memories?
- How are symptoms or diseases such as amnesia or dementia used or portrayed in films?
- How credible is eyewitness memory, and how is this credibility questioned and portrayed cinematically?
- What are the historical roots of memory theory in figures such as Simonides, Augustine, Giordano Bruno, and Giulio Camillo—and how do these theories play out in films?
- How are archaic, classical, Renaissance, postmodern, and futuristic models of memory—rhetorical, theological, architectural, astrological, digital—portrayed or influence cinematic storytelling?
This volume aims to bridge disciplines by addressing the cinematic, philosophical, scientific, and cultural dimensions of memory. We look forward to reading your proposals.
Below are some helpful categories of inquiry with corresponding short list of films that might encourage your memory to invent, organize, stylize, and deliver your abstract-proposal.
1. Amnesia and Identity Reconstruction
Films in this group center on memory loss—often due to trauma or injury—and explore how characters reconstruct identity through fragmented recollections or external prompts.
- Overboard (1987, 2018)
- Robocop (1987, 2014)
- Total Recall (1990, 2012)
- Regarding Henry (1991)
- Shattered (1991)
- Cure (1990)
- Memento (2001)
- The Bourne Identity (2002)
- The Forgotten (2004)
- Trance (2013)
- Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
- Still Alice (2014)
- Black Box (2020)
- Little Fish (2021)
- Recalled (2021)
2. False Memories and Psychological Manipulation
These films explore implanted, false, or altered memories—whether via technology, suggestion, trauma, or state control. They often raise epistemological questions about what we “know.”
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
- Perfect Blue (1997)
- Dark City (1998)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- Paycheck (2003)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- The Forgotten (2004)
- The Number 23 (2007)
- Synecdoche, New York (2008)
- Inception (2010)
- Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
- Reminiscence (2021)
3. Memory and Aging, Disease, or Cognitive Decline
These films deal with degenerative memory loss and its emotional, philosophical, and familial consequences.
- Ran (1985)
- Finding Nemo (2003)
- The Notebook (2004)
- Up (2009)
- Amour (2012)
- Still Alice (2014)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- Coco (2017)
- The Father (2020)
4. Trauma, Repression, and Recovery
In these narratives, memory is suppressed or buried due to trauma, with its recovery serving as a key narrative or emotional arc.
- Persona (1966)
- Shattered (1991)
- Lost Highway (1997)
- Shutter Island (2010)
- First Reformed (2017)
- The Sense of an Ending (2017)
- You Were Never Really Here (2017)
- The Accountant 2 (2025)
5. Epistemology, Truth, and Unreliable Narration
These films challenge the reliability of memory as a source of truth, often through multiple perspectives or narrative distortions.
- Laura (1944)
- Spellbound (1945)
- Dark Passage (1947)
- Out of the Past (1947)
- Rashomon (1950)
- Sunset Boulevard (1950)
- The Long Goodbye (1973)
- Brick (2005)
6. Speculative, Science Fiction, and Techno-Memory
This group includes futuristic or science-fictional scenarios where memory is engineered, digitized, or weaponized.
- Solaris (1972, 2002)
- Total Recall (1990, 2012)
- Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
- Dark City (1998)
- Paycheck (2003)
- Inception (2010)
- Oblivion (2013)
- The Arrival (2016)
- Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
- Black Box (2020)
- Reminiscence (2021)
- Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)
7. Historical Memory, Collective Memory, and Cultural Trauma
These films examine how individuals and societies remember—or forget—historical events, and how such memory is constructed or contested.
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- How Green was My Valley (1941)
- Rashomon (1950)
- Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
- Sword of Doom (1966)
- Samurai Rebellion (1967)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- When the Last Sword Is Drawn (2002)
- The Sense of an Ending (2017)
8. Memory, Mourning, and Legacy
These films engage with memory as a means of preserving the past or honoring lost loved ones.
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- The Notebook (2004)
- Tree of Life (2011)
- Amour (2012)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- Coco (2017)
- The Father (2020)
9. Films Where Memory Constructs the Narrative Structure
- Rashomon (1950)
- Memento (2000)
- Mulholland Drive (2001)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- Trance (2013)
- The Sense of an Ending (2017)
- Still Alice (2014)
- The Father (2020)
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
- Reminiscence (2021)
Contact:
David Ryan, PhD
Associate Professor
University of San Francisco
ryand@usfca.edu
David Ryan is Academic Director and Faculty Chair of the Master of Arts in Professional Communication at the University of San Francisco. He’s published widely on rhetoric and film studies and is the co-editor of David Fincher’s Zodiac: Cinema of Investigation and (Mis)Interpretation (FDU Press, 2022).