*CFP* "GEORGE A. ROMERO: A CANNIBALIZED BODY OF WORK?", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

International Conference

George A. Romero: A Cannibalized Body of Work?

November 24-25, 2022, Montpellier, France

 

Dug up in 2019, The Amusement Park (1973), and released in theaters in June 2021, commissioned by the Lutherian Church, stands as a reminder that George Andrew Romero (1940-2017) was not just the director of Night of the Living Dead (1968) and creator of the modern zombie. By focusing on an old man abandoned in a theme park where he will be subjected to all sorts of humiliation and abuse, the Pittsburgh director once again fires away at US-American society and remains faithful to an aesthetics whereby the figures of Gothic horror are portrayed in a raw realist mode.

Prompted by this posthumous release, and considering the continued relevance of Romero’s stories of contamination, zombified lives, and deserted stores and streets in the light of a global pandemic, this two-day international conference aims to decenter the habitual views cast on a body of work that has been cannibalized by the living dead. From 1968 to 2009, ten out of the sixteen feature films directed by Romero have ignored the creature to focus on witches in Jack’s Wife/Season of the Witch (1972), vampires in Martin (1977), killer monkeys in Monkey Shines (1988) and faceless yuppies in Bruiser (2000).

*CFP* "FROM CELLULOID TO STREAMING: CONSERVATION AND CIRCULATION OF SMALL CINEMAS", 12TH EDITION OF THE SMALL CINEMAS CONFERENCE

12th edition of the Small Cinemas Conference

From Celluloid to Streaming: Conservation and Circulation of Small Cinemas

October 28th-29th, 2021

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

 

The flow of globalization has renewed the debate on center-periphery inequalities. The irruption of new technologies for distributing, consuming and archiving cinema pose a challenge to small cinemas already fighting for a place in traditional screening venues and events. Small cinema products are now part of the Video on Demand gigantic catalogues. The so-called algorithm culture perpetuates the unbalance between big and small industries.

 

In this conference, we propose to analyze if the algorithm could be a death sentence for small cinemas or could instead bring new opportunities. Should small cinemas look for visibility by using tags related to popular genres or use smallness or periphery as tags themselves are relevant questions for the survival of small productions.

*CFP* "A HANDBOOK OF INDIAN INDIE CINEMA", BOOK CHAPTER

Each year, a large number of Indian Indie films are released that suffer from lack of viewership even when it comes to their target audience, not to mention critical assessments: films that are regional, experimental in nature or have fresh, timely interventions. 

Many among these deserve recognition, not only from general audiences and moviegoers but also from film scholars and the academia. With the onset of streaming sites and OTT platforms, some of these have made it to the limelight, although a systematic handbook that discusses and features many of these films is currently, absent.

We look forward to filling this gap by compiling an accessible handbook of Indian indie films that also sets to capture the various conceptual paradigms, through close engagements.

We welcome abstracts of not more than 300 words along with a bio-note at this mail: indiecinemavolume@gmail.com. The last date for the submission of abstracts is March 31, 2021.

*CFP* "A HANDBOOK OF INDIAN INDIE CINEMA", EDITED BOOK

Each year, a large number of Indian Indie films are released that suffer from lack of viewership even when it comes to their target audience, not to mention critical assessments: films that are regional, experimental in nature or have fresh, timely interventions. Many among these deserve recognition, not only from general audiences and moviegoers but also from film scholars and the academia. With the onset of streaming sites and OTT platforms, some of these have made it to the limelight, although a systematic handbook that discusses many of these films is currently, absent.

We look forward to filling this gap by compiling an accessible handbook of Indian indie films that also sets to capture the various conceptual paradigms and divergences that are offered through close engagements.

 

We welcome abstracts of not more than 300 words along with a bio-note (of not more than 100 words) at this mail: indiecinemavolume@gmail.com. Please make sure that you write on a single film. The last date for the submission of abstracts is March 31, 2021.

*CFP* "ALTERNATIVE CINEMA(S) OF SOUTH ASIA", CHAPTER BOOK

South-Asian Cinema comprises the body of cinematic works produced in South–Asian Countries - India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It offers an indispensable source for understanding the vicissitudes of the region addressing its social, political and cultural issues. It is significant to note that for South–Asian Cinema has been a site of national, religious, ethnic and cultural debates. These films are a valuable source to understand social, cultural and political dynamics of the region. Despite its seemingly common problems such as the issues of minorities, women, violence, fluid contact zones, disputed borders and challenges of modernity, the region is also known for its cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic diversity. Though there are superficial similarities yet each country/region has its unique dynamics, social system, cultural practices and circumstances. The complex nature of the region demands critical engagement and nuanced understanding of its society, culture, politics and art.

The present project shifts the focus from mainstream cinema to all kinds of alternative cinema(s). Since there are many forms of alternate cinematic expressions, it is proposed to call in alternate cinema(s). The present project invites original research papers/chapters from film scholars, film writers and filmmakers reflecting on Parallel Cinema or New Wave or New Cinema or Avant Garde in the past and Indies, new cinema or New (Middle) Cinemas, short films or experimental films in the post-liberalization era across South Asia to understand region specific issues. 

*CFP* "SOVIET UNDERGROUND AND PARALLEL CINEMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, EAST EUROPEAN FILM BULLETIN

In the early 1980s, two moments of underground film — the so-called Parallel Cinema — emerge in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and Moscow. For the first time radical young filmmakers, painters and artists produce amateur films, mainly in 16mm, outside of Goskino’s state monopoly. While the Moscow school’s approach to film is shaped by the influence of conceptualist art, the Leningrad school, associated with “Necrorealism,” explores an expressionist and absurd cinema, circling around death, decay and horror.

As part of its Russia focus 2020, the East European Film Bulletin is preparing a special issue on Soviet Parallel Cinema (parallelnoe kino), an experimental film movement in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. We are looking for contributions on underground films and video art by, among others, Igor and Gleb Aleinikov, Evgeny Iufit, Evgeny Kondratiev (Debil), Boris Yukhananov, Andrej Myortvy, Konstantin Mitenev, Igor Bezrukov, Alexander Doulerain, Vladimir Zakharov, Oleg Kotelnikov etc.

*CFP* "POP CINEMA", EDITED ANTHOLOGY

One of the most revolutionary and divisive art movements of the 20th century, Pop Art often found its thematic and stylistic sources in cinema. While it remains common to speak of Pop Art in relationship to film culture, there has been a significant lack of theorisation of films and filmmakers that were influenced by or employed the aesthetics and themes of Pop Art. Although there have been useful discussions in recent years of the place of Pop Art in the film criticism of curator and theorist Lawrence Alloway (Stanfield 2008), and curators William Kaizen (2011) and Ed Halter (2015) have separately attempted to define a corpus of Pop Films, there has been no thorough scholarly engagement with what this book terms ‘Pop Cinema’. This anthology will begin to remedy this omission by gathering a range of perspectives on artworks from the late 1950s to the present to probe the idea that a body of cinema and cinema-related practice exists that bears a direct relationship to Pop Art. We are concerned to bring the methodologies and critical positions of Art History and Film Studies together to bear on works of moving-image art—be they cinema or video—not to explore the ways in which they display works of Pop Art within their diegesis but to situate them as works of Pop Art in their own right.

*CFP* “THE FILMS OF SUSAN SEIDELMAN”, CHAPTER BOOK

Susan Seidelman has a knack for being ahead of the curve when it comes to innovative filmmaking styles, trends, and celebrity casting, and yet there is a lack of critical, academic writing on her work. She is a central figure in American independent cinema, since she emerged with other No Wave filmmakers in New York City in the 1980s before casting Madonna in her first starring role in Desperately Seeking Susan. She has worked with seminal musicians from the beginning, caputuring the zeigeist of New York City long before directing the pilot episode of Sex and the City. Unlike many women filmmakers of the 1980s, Seidelman also continued directing feature films for major Hollywood studios while working in television.

This edited collection seeks to become a comprehensive and innovative study of Seidelman’s career. In creating space for increased visibility for, and study of, Seidelman’s work, this collection will encourage fresh perpsectives on her fiction films (of all lengths), television episodes, documentaries, and music videos. Chapters focusing on single films, on a period in her career, specific themes, or her work as a whole are welcomed. Possible topics could include but are not limited to:

*CFP*, “A SERIES OF FILM/AMERICAN STUDIES ANTHOLOGIES (UPDATE)”, REFOCUS, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH PRESS, BOOK

In 2015, the University of Edinburgh Press launched a multivolume series of scholarly, refereed anthologies entitled ReFocus. Edited by Robert Singer (CUNY), Gary D. Rhodes (University of Central Florida) and Frances Smith (University of Sussex), each book focuses on a critically overlooked American film director who worked in the studio system, independent cinema, mainstream cinema, experimental filmmaking, or documentary tradition. Volumes published so far in this series include: Preston Sturges, Amy Heckerling, Delmer Daves, Kelly Reichardt, Elaine May, Spike Jonze, William Castle, Barbara Kopple, and Budd Boetticher.

ReFocus features a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of the work of these American directors, from the once-famous to the ignored, in direct relationship to American culture --its myths, values, and historical precepts. This series will consider any director who created a historical space, either in or out of the studio system, beginning with the origins of American cinema and continuing up to the present. This research may include work in other media such as television.