CfP: Cinema and Media Studies Conference in Transylvania

posted by SHorváth on 2009/05/31 21:07

[ Call for Papers - Call for Entries ]

The registration deadline for submissions of paper proposals to the XII. International Cinema and Media Studies Conference in Transylvania:

NEW WAVES

organised by the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (Department of Photography, Film and Media), taking place in Cluj-Napoca, October 23-24, 2009 is July the 15th, 2009.

Call for Papers: NEW WAVES

>>In 2009 we celebrate 50 years since the beginning of the French New Wave, a cinematic phenomenon that became the origin of several greatly influential tendencies in film that introduced new perspectives in the filmic representation of reality and became exemplary through the daring and playful experimentations with the language of film. The year 1959 meant the premiere or the production period of such films as Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, François Truffaut's Four Hundred Blows, Hiroshima mon amour by Alain Resnais, Robert Bresson's Pickpocket and Claude Chabrol's The Cousins. The example of the rebellious new generation protesting against "le cinéma de papa" established a new concept in the cultural history of cinema to be used ever since: anywhere and anytime, when a new generation affirms itself with a similar outstanding success and introduces a new aesthetics, we are speaking about newer and newer "new waves."
At the same time, it is also 20 years since the 1989 Eastern European political events shook the world of communism, and as a consequence a new film-making generation emerged who had an attitude just as critical vis-à-vis "le cinéma de papa" of the communist era, as did their French predecessors. The young filmmakers of the French New Wave asserted themselves with a particular self-confidence, relying on an unprecedented symbiosis with film criticism and film theory. The post-1989, young Eastern European filmmakers were not helped by a similar and stable background in film criticism, and in many cases we could witness bitter generational debates between them and older generation of filmmakers. Therefore, it seems even more appropriate to evaluate these films from critical and theoretical vantage points at this time.
Finally, in the last decades, we have seen the constant appearance of filmmakers with fresh perspectives, who seem capable of repeatedly redrawing the existing map of world cinema.
In our conference we wish to explore the conceptual field of the new wave(s) and propose to re-examine the French New Wave in order to discover what proves to be worthy of re-evaluation, what features and films have remained touchstones over the decades. We ask the question: is it justified to widen the concept to cover phenomena of contemporary Eastern European and ‘World Cinema'? We also encourage participants to investigate what they consider new and defining tendencies in today's cinema, in contemporary experiments with film language.<<
 

The organizers invite participants - not only university scholars and researchers but also students of PhD programs, or even M.A/undergraduate university students who wish to engage in a debate on the given topic - to address the following issues:
 
  • The reinterpretation or re-evaluation of the more or lesser known works of the French New Wave, from the historical perspective of the five decades that passed since, and by way of employing new theoretical approaches.
  • Questions of ‘reality' and ‘fiction', the combination of elements of cinéma vérité and intellectual abstraction appearing in the aesthetics of French New Wave, and their legacy taken over by newer films. (This can be considered a continuation of the previous, 2008 conference topic.)
  • The analysis of the influence of French New Wave films on different national films, on the (independent) American cinema or on popular culture (e.g. Hal Hartley, Quentin Tarantino).
  • Parallel phenomena between developments in post-1989, post-communist Eastern European cinema, and the New Wave. Highlighted topic: "new waves" in contemporary Hungarian and Romanian cinema.
  • "New waves," generational stylistic phenomena in the context of "World Cinema" that may be compared to the French New Wave. (For example the authors of the new American generation of filmmakers grouped in different formations, who often reference and revere French New Wave filmmakers, like the so-called American new moralists: Todd Solondz, Neil La Bute, or the representatives of the so-called "post-pop" cinema, who sometimes collaborate in a manner reminiscent of the New Wave: Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Todd Haynes, etc.) Compared to the analysis of individual works we favour those presentations that examine the oeuvre/several films of an author or the works of several filmmakers in order to describe a particular tendency that can be considered a "new wave."

The official language of the conference is English and Hungarian (with papers presented in parallel sections). The time for presentations is limited to 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute debate.

The best papers written based on the conference presentations will be published in English in a special edition of the department's international scientific journal (Acta Universitatis Sapientiae. Film & Media Studies). The deadline for the papers submitted for publication is the 15th of December, 2009.

Conference fee (which includes participation, conference buffet and banquet): 100 EUR, special fee for university and PhD-students: 50 EUR. The fee is to be paid on the occasion of conference registration.

Registration: please complete this registration form and send it as an attachment to the following address: 2009.new.waves@gmail.com

For more details visit: http://film.sapientia.ro/en/conferences/international-cinema-and-media-studies-conference-in-transylvania-12

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