Plenary speakers are renowned scholars in the field, including Mette Hjort, author of The Cinema of Small Nations, and Randall Halle, author of Toward a Transnational Aesthetic: German Film after Germany.
Abstracts of papers are invited on the following topics, while not ruling out other pertinent themes and points of departure:
Theorizing the concept of "small cinema”
- History in the making ― i.e., how various historical decisions (the unification of Europe, for instance) have influenced changes in small European cinemas
- Small vs. regional
- Centre vs. margins/periphery
- Ethnicity
- Diversity
- Multiculturalism
- Globalization and nationhood
Themes in Small Cinemas
- Border dynamics: issues of migration, immigration, emigration
- Regional sensibilities vs. national sensibilities
- Historicizing of the recent past
- Presentation of "the other" ― the disenfranchised, the underprivileged, etc.
- Issues of gender and sexuality
- New directors and new films ― generational shifts
- Films of national diasporas
- Minority film practices (examples: indigenous, migrant cinemas )
Discussion of Administrative and Policy Changes
- Means of production (e.g., transition from state to private production; new production companies; multinational productions; role of television broadcast companies in promoting small European cinemas etc.)
- Co-productions, co-financing, and co-operations
- Changes in documentary aesthetics
- Film festival as an aspect of cinema topography
- National cinema/filmmaking and the national vs. the international market
- DVD format, the archive and accessibility
Abstracts of circa 200 words for individual papers or pre-constituted panels consisting of three 20-minute papers to be submitted by April 30, 2009. Please send abstracts to Professor Janina Falkowska, falkow@uwo.ca
Janina Falkowska
Professor
Department of Film Studies
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
University College
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
Canada N6A 3K7
Tel: 519 661 2111 x 85805
Fax: 519 850 2967
http://www.uwo.ca/film/