*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, NEXT ISSUES, NEW CINEMAS: JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY FILM

New Cinemas is seeking scholars and practitioners working in the fields below to act as peer reviewers. A vital part of academic publishing, peer review enriches the discipline and improves the work of authors and reviewers alike. We encourage reviewers from diverse backgrounds and at different stages of their career to join the peer review pool. We are particularly interested in hearing from researchers in Asian cinemas, film theory and philosophy, and genres such as horror and sci-fi.

New Cinemas is a peer-reviewed journal aiming to provide a platform for the study of new forms of cinematic practice and fresh approaches to cinemas hitherto neglected in western scholarship. It particularly welcomes scholarship that does not take existing paradigms and theoretical conceptualisations as given; rather, it anticipates submissions that are refreshing in approach and exhibit a willingness to tackle cinematic practices that are still in the process of development into something new.

We particularly welcome submissions from those close to completing their Ph.D., Early Career Researchers and practitioners, especially from outside ‘Western’ spaces, as well as work on film beyond the text (such as festivals, technology and marketing). We also seek to publish research and cutting-edge thought in shorter formats than the traditional academic article.

*CFP* "SHORT-FORM HORROR: HISTORY, PEDAGOGY, AND PRACTICE", ISSUE 5.2, MONSTRUM JOURNAL

From TV to TikTok, movie trailers to music videos, and GIFs to short films, the short form dominates most of our media consumption. The horror genre is ripe for experimentation in the short form, through screamer videos, short stories and flash fiction, television series, and even commercials. Today, most horror creators work primarily in the short form; with the continually prohibitive costs associated with a sustained feature-length filmmaking career, many filmmakers and creators—particularly those marginalized by race, gender, or socioeconomic status—prefer, or are compelled, to explore the creative and professional possibilities of short-form media. 

While the number of BIPOC, queer, and women-identifying creators who have established and successful careers in horror filmmaking remain few and far between, the short-form market is brimming with content from these often-marginalized voices and is, therefore, one of the most productive media niches for theorizing issues of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and the intersectionality of these identifiers in the horror genre. In attending to the richness of the short form, how can scholars, makers and curators not simply diversify the content and canon of horror as a field, but also challenge our assumptions of how we read, analyze, consumer and react to horror media?

*CFP* "GROOVES AND MOVEMENTS", IASPM-US 2022 CONFERENCE

Grooves and Movements

IASPM-US 2022 Conference

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor/Detroit Michigan: May 26-28, 2022

 

The International Association for the Study of Popular Music-United States chapter (IASPM-US) invites proposals for its annual conference, which will take place in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan on May 26-28, 2022. We welcome abstracts for individual papers, organized panels, roundtable discussions, and alternative (non-paper) presentations on all aspects of popular music, broadly defined, from any discipline or profession. We especially encourage submissions on the many rich popular music histories of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to normalize virtual connections in local and global settings and to reconfigure physical spaces for social distancing, the present moment calls for an examination of the virtual and physical modalities of music-making. The theme for this year’s conference “Grooves and Movements” intersects with Detroit and its storied place in rhythm and blues, rock, punk, hip-hop, and electronic dance music, and is intended to connect the histories, philosophies, and practices of urban spaces to other historical and global popular music communities.

*CFP* "COMEDY IN CRISIS", MIXED BILL: COMEDY AND GENDER RESEARCH NETWORK CONFERENCE

Comedy in Crisis Conference

Mixed Bill: Comedy and Gender Research Network

Birmingham City University, 14th and 15th January 2022

 

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, comedy (and social uses of humour) have become increasingly vital as a method of coping with adversity on both a local and global scale. Shared laughter can provide a temporary relief from the anxieties that continue to dominate a socially distanced existence, and thus bring people together whilst physically apart. In this context temporary humour communities have become increasingly significant. This conference will creatively explore how comedy (both in terms of content and industrial practices related to live and mediated forms) adapts and engages with times of crisis.

Although we anticipate a significant amount of discussion will look to recent events related to the pandemic, we also actively seek presentations engaging with wider conceptions of personal, social, political and environmental crises. We therefore invite abstracts for presentations, performances and creative responses on the following topics. Note our examples below are from a UK context, but please do not let that constrain your responses:

*CFP* "DISTANT SHORES: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE AUSTRALIAN NEW WAVE", ONLINE CONFERENCE

Distant Shores: International Perspectives on the Australian New Wave

Online Conference

28-29 October 2021

Menzies Australia Institute (King’s College London)

 

Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of both Wake in Fright (Kotcheff, 1971) and Walkabout (Roeg, 1971) appearing in London cinemas on the same weekend, this two-day online conference seeks to explore the range of international and transnational perspectives that helped shape the Australian New Wave of the 1970s and 80s.

Coming after a prolonged period of production ‘drought’, the Australian New Wave has typically been framed via the rhetoric of cultural nationalism, and celebrated for its articulation of a range of ideas, histories, and narratives about the Australian nation. 

*CFP* "DOCUMENTARY FILM IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: THEORY AND PRACTICE", EDITED VOLUME

This interdisciplinary edited volume seeks to illuminate theoretical and practical perspectives on the production, reception, and analysis of ethnographic and documentary film in Latin America and the Caribbean. We invite scholars, critics, filmmakers, and other interested authors to submit proposals as outlined below.

While there is a substantial and growing literature on narrative films of the global south, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the theoretical and practical issues of making, producing, distributing, and watching documentary and ethnographic films within the region. Such work is long overdue given the increasing number of high-quality documentary and ethnographic films that continue to emerge from and about Latin America, the Caribbean, and its myriad diasporas. Therefore, this edited volume represents an important step toward thinking about issues relevant to the production and analysis of documentary and ethnographic film across the global south.

Topics for essays could include but are not limited to considerations of

• a film or group of films 
• the work of a filmmaker or group of filmmakers 

*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* "LGBT+ VISUAL ARTS AND POLITICS IN ROMANIAN CINEMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, EAST EUROPEAN FILM BULLETIN

With a penal code (article 200) inherited from the Ceausescu regime, which criminalized same-sex relationships, and which was only repealed in 2001 as a way for the country to enter the European Union, Romania remains a largely traditional society regarding LGBT+ rights. However, customs and mores are slowly changing thanks to political, legal as well as artistic fights. Audiovisual art has substantially contributed to this change. Films such as Mungiu's Beyond the Hills (2012) or Olteanu’s Several Conversations about a very Tall Girl (2018); installation and video art, pioneered by artists such as Sorin Oncu, are prime examples of Romania’s emerging queer art. Showing such films in Romania often causes quite a stir. Campillo’s 120 Beats Per Minute had one of its screenings interrupted by a Romanian Orthodox movement in Bucharest, exemplifying a divided society struggling with its communist past and the state of capitalist democracy. This also poses the question of what type of LGBT+ culture Romania can put at the forefront, whether through western European/American films, or domestic productions.

‘In an increasingly less tolerant context which led to the recent ban of gender studies in Romanian universities, such an issue is more than warranted.

*CFP* "PHONE CAMERA AT THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, AND TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING", ISSUE 18, FRAMES CINEMA JOURNAL

In view of recent and current global events, the phone camera has emerged as an important and effective political apparatus. The centrality, proliferation, and prominence of phone footage across contemporary screen media and media platforms suggests that the phone camera is no longer just an indulgent phone fixture, but rather, an invaluable truth-telling tool. Practical, accessible, and autonomously used, the phone camera has been an essential technology to the present-day exposures of injustice, violence, and corruption around the world.

Media scholars have examined how the advent of phone camera technology has presented a new communicative strategy, challenged the epistemology of documentary truth, and disrupted prevailing models of representation—as well as present new modes of cinema—via its documenting and creative potential. Building on this body of work, Issue 18 of Frames Cinema Journal seeks to examine the political and inventive power of the phone camera, and its footage, by considering its complex intersections with technology, ideology, and other media. Frames invites considerations of phone footage’s formal, technological, and narrative properties as well as its relation to other networks of media and their transnational dissemination to contribute critically to the flowering academic discourse on the subject.

*CFP* "MIGRATING ARCHIVES OF REALITY", PROGRAMMING, CURATING, AND APPROPIATION OF NON-FICTION FILM ONLINE CONFERENCE

Migrating Archives of Reality

Programming, Curating, and Appropriation of Non-fiction Film

Online conference

6/7 May 2021

 

The digital turn, which has created new modes of access and circulation for films, underscores and amplifies what has been the fate of non-fiction film since the beginning of its existence - it has always been, and continues to be, a migrating archive of reality. While non-fiction films featured prominently in early cinema programs, the ascendancy of the feature-length fiction film as the dominant format of distribution and exhibition since the 1910s has rendered the position of nonfiction film in mainstream movie theatres contested and malleable, both restricted and supported by various legislative measures. At the same time, an intensive international circulation of non-fiction films developed beyond the cinema, through the exchange of newsreel shots, the exhibition of non-fiction films in circuits of alternative/nontheatrical distribution (notably educational, etc.), and later at festivals.

*CFP* "FALLING OFF A CLIFF? WOMEN, AGEING AND THE SCREEN INDUSTRIES", BOOK CHAPTER

Scholars researching (self-identifying) women and ageing in the screen industries are invited to send chapter abstracts for an edited collection provisionally entitled Falling off a Cliff? Women, Ageing and the Screen Industries. The book will explore the gendered challenges facing women over 50 yrs. as they attempt to carve out and/or maintain a career in the screen industries, in front of and behind the camera. Research relating to on-screen representation has shown that women over 50 yrs. are relegated to supporting roles primarily; they are less likely than men to be cast as protagonists or central characters; they are characterised by ageist stereotypes and sexually active older women are absent with some recent tentative exceptions.

To date, there has been much less focus on the experiences of women over 50 behind the camera; in key creative roles or as crew. Anecdotally, practitioners speak of becoming invisible as the years pass, being overlooked or leaving the industry and finding it extremely difficult to regain a foothold.  Who is behind the camera. especially in key creative roles, is important and can have implications for the kinds of stories being told and the employment and creative opportunities available to other women.

*CFP* LLAMADA A PROPUESTAS, JORNADAS SOBRE MÚSICA KANTATZEN DUTEN HERRIAK

Que la música no pare, incluso en tiempos de pandemia. Con ese objetivo, este año también celebraremos las jornadas sobre música Kantatzen Duten Herriak (Los pueblos que cantan) en su cuarta edición. Será en el campus de Bizkaia de la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), los días 10 y 11 de diciembre, y en un formato mixto, presencial y virtual.

Las jornadas abordan el estudio social de la música desde las diferentes disciplinas académicas. Pero también desde la experiencia y experimentación, por lo que así mismo recibimos propuestas musicales. Coincidiendo con las jornadas, además, la revista de investigación en arte AusArt dedicará una edición a trabajos de investigación y reflexiones en torno a las músicas urbanas.

La recepción de propuestas para las jornadas, tanto de comunicaciones académicas como de propuestas musicales o experimentales, está abierta hasta el 11 de noviembre. Envíalas, indicando el formato preferido (presencial u online) a kdh.the@ehu.eus

*CFP* "INMERSIVE STORIES. VIRTUAL REALITY, POST-CINEMA AND STORYTELLING", 19TH ISSUE, CINERGIE JOURNAL

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a new frontier of innovation and experimentation within what is known as “immersive entertainment” — gaming, art, museum exhibitions, TV and cinema. The proliferation on the market of new headsets (from the expensive HTC VIVE and Oculus to the popular Google Cardbox), the spread of platforms, apps and also VR cinemas around the world, and the inclusion of VR productions in international film festivals (e.g. Sundance, Tribeca, Venice) are trends demonstrating that VR is no longer just a fascinating 1980s-inspired literary or cinematic subject (from Tron to the Matrix trilogy, to the recent Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One). VR is also a new way of designing and creating an experience in which the spectator is more directly, immediately, and effectively involved and entertained through immersion and a strong sense of presence, i.e. the illusion of being part of an alternative world.

Moreover, VR (and immersive technologies in general) have seen a real explosion of new interest during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, due to the need to avoid travel and social contact. The global crisis led many companies to adopt VR as a tool for their marketing and communication strategies. The entertainment industry has realized that the experience of simulating exploration and social interaction in safe conditions offered by VR deserve to be further developed.

*CFP* "REFOCUS: THE FILMS OF KIM KI-YOUNG", CHAPTER BOOK

Many contemporary world-renowned South Korean film directors, including Pak Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho, cite Kim Ki-young (1919-1998) as the most influential Korean director relative to their work. Over 30 years of his career (1953-1990), Kim Ki-young produced thirty-three films which were regarded as the most sensual, grotesque, provocative films within Korea, the themes and aesthetics of which far exceeded the social and cultural norms of the period. Born and educated during the Japanese colonial period, Kim Ki-young began his film career under USIS (United State Information Service) making small documentary films. Despite the fact his work was largely created during the 30 years of military dictatorship, Kim’s films manage to both retain an eccentric aesthetic style and mirror the lived reality of this incredibly tumultuous period of modern Korean history.

Perhaps Kim Ki-young’s most renowned films are the “housemaid series.” Within the productions The Housemaid (1960), Woman of Fire (1971), Insect Woman (1972), Killer Butterfly (1978), Water Lady (1979), and Beast of Prey/Carnivorous Animal (1984) Kim repeats similar themes and female/male iconography, creating an unseen perverse sexuality within Korean films of the period. 

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF FANTASTIC GENRE, AUDIOVISUALS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

The International Congress of Fantastic Genre, Audiovisuals and New Technologies is an activity of scientific and academic divulgation that is part of Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX, and which has the collaboration of the Miguel Hernández University.

Its mission is to transmit research studies in all the different thematic lines of the Fantastic Genre, covering all its possible variants and platforms: cinema, television, theater, literature, comics, videogames, virtual reality, plastic arts, etc. Ways of participation:

Option 1:

The summaries of the Communications will be sent following the main thematic line of the new edition of the Congress and the Festival: Crime and the fantastic, through these four possible variations:

*CFP* "RE-CENTERING CULTURAL PERFORMANCE AND CREATIVE PRACTICE IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICA. DIPLOMACY, SOFT POWER, AND SUSTAINABILITY", EDITED BOOK

Africa’s fifty-four states are diverse, resilient and rich in culture and traditions. It is no doubt that the continent has had its share of phenomenal events that have created a turn in its growth and development – the slave trade, colonialism, civil wars, military coups etc. Also, “the danger of a single story”, the shameful realities of African politics, and the social-economic experiences of many Africans have given the continent a negative reputation and poor image in the world. Among other things, the above realities have created a generalized evaluation of the continent which negatively affects the identities, realities and inter-relations of the African in international spaces other than own. Unfortunate examples of racism, police brutality, unfavourable visa regimes, and undue politico-economic influence on Africans or people of African descent are prevalent today.

Yet, African cultural resources and traditions are still sought after. From the tangible to the intangible aspects of culture including but not limited to the Safaris, cultural festivals, architecture, performances, and film industry. African cultural resources remain so attractive that even the return of looted artefacts from colonial times has become a controversial debate, especially in Europe. These cultural facts, artefacts and materials serve as a poster for the world about the continent. While this in itself can be problematic, it is worth exploring how such cultural performances and creative practices can be converted to become an enabling tool for advancing transformation on the continent. 

*CFP* "EKITI", VOL. 2, Nº 2 SECIAL ISSUE, OYE: JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND POPULAR CULTURE

Oye: Journal of Language, Literature and Popular Culture is an academic journal domiciled in the Department of English and Literary Studies of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. 

It seeks to publish insightful research from established and emerging scholars on all aspects of English Language, Literature and Popular Culture, especially as they relate to Africa and to the Black Diaspora.

For its third edition which will be published in December 2020, Oye will be focusing on the language, literature and popular culture of Ekiti State.

We are especially interested in submissions with an interdisciplinary focus. Papers might examine, but are not limited to the following issues:

*CFP* CALL FOR WORK: FIRST ANNUAL SMALL FILE MEDIA FESTIVAL

What do cat videos, facial recognition and porn all have in common? You can find them at the first annual Small File Media Festival!

The coronavirus pandemic is showing us how dependent people are on streaming media. Streaming media currently is responsible for over 1% of our global carbon footprint and rising fast.

Use your artistic voice to contribute to climate change action and cool down the planet. We’re going to make HD, 4K, and 5G look unnecessary, unsexy, and so last decade. Small file videos are intellectual, innovative, attractive, creative, and fun. We encourage you to explore experimental processes through low-energy technologies and deconstruct the fetishization of the pristine image.

If we can get together physically, the Small File Media Festival will be held August 10-12 in the beautiful cinema at Simon Fraser University in glorious Vancouver, Canada, and streamed in curated programs of tiny files. Selected works will be screened live and receive a rental fee. We will be featuring an “obsolete” media viewing platform for submissions with alternative technologies, and an anti-facial-recognition fashion show and workshops alongside the festival. Additionally, all accepted works will have the option of being curated and streamed online through energy conscious means.

*CFP* "SILVER SCREENS: AGEING MASCULINITIES IN FILM AND VISUAL CULTURES", CONFERENCE AND EDITED COLLECTION

Silver Screens: Ageing Masculinities in Film and Visual Cultures

conference and edited collection

NUI Galway Sept 4-5th 2020

Film and Visual Cultures [TV; advertising; photography; media] are instrumental not only in reflecting but in constructing and reinforcing popular images and narratives of ageing.

As western cinema makers and audiences are “greying”, it is to be expected that explorations of the theme of ageing and representations of mature characters are becoming more popular and diverse.

This is confirmed by the success of recent European films such as Pain & Glory (2019) Toni Erdmann (2016), Youth (2016) A Man Called Ove (2018), 45 Years (2015), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and Amour (2012), among others. American cinema has also generated a range of texts in recent years such as The Old Man & the Gun (2018), The Mule (2019), Nebraska (2013).

*CFP* "GLOBAL FESTIVAL CULTURE", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

“Global Festival Culture”

International Conference

18 July 2020 – London, UK

organised by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Festival Culture, Research and Education Network

Global festival culture is a one-day inter-, multi-, trans-, and cross-disciplinary conference that aims to explore the creative practices, social benefits, economic development, tourism, multiculturalism, diversity, local community involvement, partnerships, religion and music entrepreneurial networks that festivals offer.

There are many festivals around the world; they all manifest in varying ways and all possess their own social, religious and cultural practices. Festivals both past and present – be it folk, religion, cultural or community-based – illuminate discourses of hegemony, homogeneity, race, politics, nationalism, identity and religion etc. As an emerging discipline, it is important to examine festivals from varying perspectives to understand, broaden and articulate the scope of festival studies.