Damien Pollard

My research looks at film sound. I'm particularly interested in the role of the human voice in Italian horror and giallo cinema of the 1960s to1980s and how the voice might help us to rethink the historicity of these films because it is shaped by both aesthetic and commercial concerns. As a result, the voice forms a strong link between films' texts and contexts, and allows us to hear how texts speak to the wider social, cultural and political concerns of their day.

I'm also interested in the wider history and theory of sound-based medial, as well as the aesthetic significance of the air in cinema and emerging African film genres. Before starting my PhD, I was a practicing filmmaker and I now teach on a range of film theory, film history and film practice courses.