'Waiting as Such': The Politics of Tarrying

Abstract

This essay explores the subject of waiting in relation to cinema. It looks in particular at films that engage at length with waiting through extended duration, focusing on one 'black box' example (Lav Diaz's Death in the Land of Encantos) and one 'white cube' example (Wang Bing's Crude Oil). The essay outlines various ways in which waiting has been theorised, and interrogates how these can be related to cinema. In addition to exploring the ways in which waiting works in relation to the moving image in cinemas and galleries, the essay explores the politics of waiting. Even those films which concentrate on the oppressive political uses of waiting, it is concluded, may offer glimpses of ways in which waiting could be harnessed positively.