On elemental imagination and the opening of filmworlds: a film-philosophical exploration of the ecological potential of cinematic ethics

In the interdisciplinary context of phenomenological aesthetics and ecocinema theory (environmental film theory), I propose a film-philosophical theory of the ‘natural elements’ — earth, air, water, and fire. The aim is investigating how these elements matter in (a) creating an expressive ‘filmworld’ that (b) immerses the spectator on a phenomenological level; cinema ‘elemental imagination’ can thus (c) re-sensitize the spectator’s awareness of the life-sustaining importance of these elements. Among the first in the field to explore cinema’s representation of these natural elements in relation to cinematic imagination, this thesis develops the notions ‘elemental imagination’ and ‘filmworld’ to illuminate cinema’s ecological potential — how the mediated experience of film can bring us closer, and relate us back to the natural world.