*CFP* "REFOCUS: THE FILMS OF RACHID BOUCHAREB, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS RECOFUS SERIES

Rachid Bouchareb was born in Paris in 1953 to Algerian parents and became one of France’s first French filmmakers of North African descent. While his career now spans over thirty years and his diverse films have garnered both mainstream and critical success, including three Oscar nominations, there exists no book-length study (in French or English) on Bouchareb’s body of work. The director’s films are remarkably varied in their themes, formal elements, and narrative settings, from Senegal, England, Vietnam, and Algeria, to France, Belgium, Turkey, and the United States. While diverse in many ways, Bouchareb’s films are also linked by certain key concerns: the mixing of cultures, engagement with contemporary political issues and debates, immigration, and identity, among others. The director achieved national and international recognition for Indigènes/Days of Glory (2006) and Hors-la-loi/Outside the Law (2010), which both examine France’s colonial ties to North Africa, yet Bouchareb’s cinematic corpus extends well beyond this framework, and the full range of it has not been considered at length. In addition, Bouchareb’s work as a producer is an important yet often overlooked part of his career that merits critical attention.

We invite abstracts (~300 words) for essays on the work and career of Rachid Bouchareb to be published as part of an edited volume in the Edinburgh University Press ReFocus series (series editors are Robert Singer, Ph.D. and Gary D. Rhodes, Ph.D.). The volume seeks to highlight connections between Bouchareb’s films, with a special emphasis on his lesser-known and understudied films (such as his shorts and made-for-television films), to explore key influences on his output, consider theoretical approaches to his work, and shed new light on well-known films like Indigènes and Hors-la-loi.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cinematic aesthetics and influences, including genres (road movies, film noir, spaghetti westerns, war films, gangster movies) and the work of other directors (such as Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone) 
• Interest in the United States: American landscapes, spaces, and cultures; American cinema 
• Mapping Bouchareb: theoretical approaches and critical frameworks 
• Transcultural/cross-cultural elements (American/African American cultures, others) 
• Women and gender dynamics and/or female centered films 
• Political engagement (in his films and with regard to his career more broadly) 
• Use of space(s): cities/urban spaces, francophone and other spaces 
• Water in Bouchareb’s work 
• Use of the same actors/actresses in different films; relationship with his actors (such as Jamel Debbouze, Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem); collaborations with co-writers and co-producers (Jean Bréhat) 
• Work as a producer (feature films, television) 
• Projects outside of feature films and téléfilms, such as his collaborations with historian Pascal Blanchard (Frères d’armes – 50 short films made to be diffused on television) 
• Your Suggested Topic/Area of Interest

Essays that focus on films other than Indigènes and Hors-la-loi are particularly welcome.

Essays included in this refereed volume will be approximately 7,000 words referenced in Chicago endnote style.

The deadline for abstracts (~300 words) is September 1, 2018. Please send abstracts and a short bio as a single attachment to both volume editors, Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp and Michael Gott: lkealhofer@uri.edu and gottml@ucmail.uc.edu. The essays would be due by May 1, 2019.