Call for Papers Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference Philadelphia, USA March 6-9, 2008 Technologies of the Filmic Self The reflexive focus on the technological aparatus in first person filmmaking has preoccupied filmmakers virtually since the inception of the cinema. Instances of such self inscription abound, from Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera, to the myopic virtuosity of early American independents Ross McElwee and Jim McBride, to feminist interventions of Joyce Chopra, Lordes Portillo, Agnes Varda and the identity and/or cultural politics of the likes of Sadie Benning, Andres di Tella, Jonathan Cauoette, Shu Haolun, David Achkar and many others. First person films from around the world posit the apparatus as a venerable conduit and instrumental focal point in the construction of the self. This panel will explore aspects of first person documentary filmmaking practices internationally, with a special emphasis on the question of technology and ways in which changing media (interactive, multi-media, digital camera, mobile phones, etc.) influence and enable constructions of subjectivity and conditions of intersubjectivity, exemplified in increasing instances of "shared textual authority" [Renov, 2004] between filmmaker (Benning, DuBowski, et al) and those who traverse the camera's field of vision. In what ways does the technology (new or established) shape the contours of the filmic self? How is the self and its others (family, ethnicity, nation, etc.) technologized, or to adapt Foucault's apt phrase: how can we account for and interpret, if not genealogize, the filmic technologies of the self? Styles of narration, authorship, performativity, and tendencies toward confessionality, narcissism, and political efficacy, may all be addressed in relation to recent innovations in the technical apparatus. The merger or "nesting" of older, obsolete, technologies within the new can also be a feature of the presentations. Please send paper proposal (300 word abstract, bio and biblio) or inquiries via email to Alisa Lebow [log in to unmask] and Angelica Fenner [log in to unmask] by August 15. Accepted papers will be notified by August 20. ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu