The Centre for Film Studies, is making a call for papers for its Cinema and the City international conference to be held at University College Dublin, Friday 12 March to Sunday 14 March 1999.
In the final year of the millenium, the conference will examine the history of representations of urban space in narrative cinema (broadly defined), the relationship between cinema and architecture, the modern and post-modern city, urban alienation, social conflict, and escapism.
It will analyse the city in narrative cinema as a site of play, wonder and magic, social cohesion and productivity, focusing, for example, on the suburban family home as a zone of stability and harmony. It will also examine the city in narrative cinema as a space of ideological conflict between, for example, corporate, military and governmental power and radical social formations, subcultures and the underclass. The conference will seek to explore and define likely representations of the city in these terms in the 21st century.
Finally, the conference will give attention to the relationship of the Cinema and the City at the levels of production, distribution, exhibition, and reception - examining the changing historical role and operation of the cinema in the urban/suburban marketplace. Of particular interest will be the relationship between these objective historical developments and their articulation in terms of cinematic theme and form - for example, in the case of the drive-in cinema.
Proposals for papers are invited in the following areas:
Cinema, Architecture, and Capitalism
The Human Body in the City
Mobility, Escape, and Urban Alienation
Utopian and Dystopian Visions of Urban Space
the City and the Country - the Natural vs. the Built-Environment
Suburbia and the Cinema - Histories and Representations
Local histories of particular film industries and their home cities
the City as Cinema Marketplace - Reception and Consumption
Contributions are specifically sought from the following disciplines (although interested speakers from other disciplines, whose work relates substantially to film, will be considered):
Film Studies, Communications and Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Art History, Architecture, American Studies, Politics and Political History.
Papers will be of 30 minutes duration each. Additionally, there will be one graduate session in which papers will be of 20 minutes duration each. It is anticipated that selected papers from the conference will be published in book form. Further details will be available shortly.
Abstracts of 300 words should be addressed to the conference organisers at the following address, to arrive no later than 20 November 1998:
Post:
Mark Shiel and Tony Fitzmaurice,
The Cinema and the City Conference,
Centre for Film Studies,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland.
email: Abstracts will also be accepted by e-mail to the following address: mashiel@ollamh.ucd.ie or mashiel@tinet.ie
Papers will be selected, panels formed, and speakers informed by letter, by 15 December 1998. Details of the keynote and other speakers will then be published on this page.
Other information:
The Centre for Film Studies is located on the Belfield campus of University College Dublin which is situated approximately two miles from Dublin city centre and is excellently provided for by all forms of transport.
Accommodation for participants and attendees at the conference is available at a number of convenient locations:
CD Belfield Halls of Residence
Contact the conference organisers.
Local Bed and Breakfast accommodation.
Local and City Centre Hotels
eg. The Montrose Hotel, beside UCD Belfield campus: 62 single, 67pp double
eg. Harding's Hotel, in the city centre's Temple Bar district: 38 single, 55 double.
eg. Jury's Christchurch Inn, in the city centre: 62 single, 62 double.
Those who wish to make their own accommodation arrangements are advised to contact the Dublin Tourist Information Centre (01-6057700 or 6057777) which operates an accommodation-booking hotline service.
Additionally, these sites are useful for information on Dublin, and accommodation in the city:
http://www.city.net/countries/ireland
http://doras.tinet.ie/Doras.nsf/Index
http://www.irish-insight.com/
All participants and attendees are advised to make arrangements for accommodation in Dublin as early as possible.
Visits and trips will be organised to the following places of interest according to demand:
Ardmore Studios, Ireland's premier film production facility located on the outskirts of Dublin city in the town of Bray; Dublin Castle, and Trinity College Dublin (http://www.tcd.ie/); St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Christchurch Cathedral; The James Joyce Centre and the James Joyce Tower (http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/); the National Museum of Ireland; the National Gallery of Ireland.
Our website will be updated regularly over the coming months. Please check back for further details. The provisional timetable for the conference and other details will be published shortly.