The ground falling from beneath your feet, the cliff’s edge barely holding you aloft, the free fall in open air. Cinematic representations of falling and nearly plummeting from great heights have long been around as an arbiter of suspense and a literal visualization of the classic “cliffhanger,” with origins to such a visual tracing back to the silent film era and actor Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock in Safety Last! (1923) Falling and dizzying heights have been featured over the years in a variety of forms and often successfully serve as a device to drive the plot forward or signify its climax. We see examples of villains and heroes alike battling on skyscrapers in DC and Marvel universe adaptations. The scorned woman gains revenge in a single “shove” in Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) or even the 2017 television series Big Little Lies. The wizened mentor leaves the prodigy behind by falling into the darkness (e.g., Gandalf falling into the abyss with the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; Dumbledore plunging from the astronomy tower at Snape’s hand in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). The monstrous is made mortal with King Kong’s deadly fall from the Empire State Building. Beyond the physicality of falling and acrophobia (fear of heights), there is the common occurrence of a “fall from grace.” The hero is injured and must retreat. The egotistical character drunk on fame must return to their roots after a controversy. Lies unravel the relationship between two lovers who can no longer view one another the same. Furthermore, the screen reflects for audiences the realities of our society and the innermost workings of our minds. “Cancel culture” rises and falls amidst the tides of social media. The fall from grace occurs with personal relationships, celebrity idols, and leadership roles. The idea of “peaking” lends itself to a subsequent downhill spiral, and the greater the apotheosis of that peak, the greater the fall. Film’s repetitive use of the imagery of heights and falling–through innovative filming techniques and immersive settings–and its dissemination into today’s cinema and social relevance, guides us to confront some vital questions about humanity: What does success look like? Is there a point of no return in the “climb to the top” after which an inevitable fall must occur? Why is the fear of heights and falling so prevalent? What must we learn from falling as a positive–falling in love, falling into dreams, falling as a force of freedom? And what must we learn from falling as a warning–falling into an abyss, falling as a reckoning or an act of villainy, falling as finality? Finally, what might we learn about humanity itself and the way the mind of the individual or that of society as a hive mind works? Perhaps some answers may be refined by turning to theory: for example, Martin Heidegger theorized that the concept of Verfallen, or falling, could be equated to a sense of falling prey to social conformity and an overall absorption in outside perceptions, for “. . .when the individual man surrendered himself and allows the circumstances and vissicitude of life to swallow him, his existence will, nevertheless, geared to nothingness; and this, Martin Heidegger termed inauthenticity of life” (Mmadudiri and Onwuatuegwu, “Martin Heidegger's Concept of Fallennness: An Expository Analysis,” Quest Journals, p. 39). Might it be that man himself is the eternal precursor to the fall?

This panel will be proposed to CSU Stanislaus' Media in Full Bloom Conference: A Central Valley Interdisciplinary Conference for Graduate and Undergraduate Students on Film, Television, and Media Studies (cfp link: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/09/15/media-in-full-bloom...).

Please submit a 250-word abstract and a brief (one-page) CV to Schuyler Becker at beckers@yosemite.edu by November 28th. (DUE DATE EXTENDED)