Please distribute: Institute of Film Studies University of Nottingham In Collaboration with the Broadway Cinema, Nottingham Defining Cult Movies: the cultural politics of oppositional taste An International Conference to be Held Friday 17 November - Sunday 19 November 2000 Jeff Sconce has stressed the sheer diversity of the films that have been brought together under the term 'cult movies'. Indeed, there is debate over whether films become cult movies on the basis of their modes of production, exhibition, internal textual features or through acts of appropriation by specific audiences. This conference will look at the analysis of cult movies: how they are defined; who defines them; and the cultural politics of these definitions. The definition of the cult movie, after all, relies on a sense of its distinction from the 'mainstream' or 'ordinary'. This also raises issues about the perception of it as an oppositional form of cinema, and its strained relationships to processes of institutionalisation and classification. In other words, cult movie fandom has often presented itself as being in opposition to the academy, commercial film industries and the media more generally, but has been far more dependent on these forms than it has usually been willing to admit. For example, the history of academic film studies and that of cult movie fandom are inextricably intertwined. The conference is therefore interested in a wide variety of papers and positions, but is particularly interested in papers on the different international and gendered contexts of film production, exhibition and consumption. An edited collection of papers from the conference will also be published in book form, and several publishers have already expressed interest in the project. Possible topics might include: … Definitions: what constitutes the cult movie within the academy and within fan cultures themselves? … Production contexts and practices … Exploitation Cycles … Censorship, Regulation and the Law … Forms and Genres: High Budget and Low Budget; Bad Cinema; Erotica; Horror; Science Fiction; Exploitation; Classic Hollywood; Bollywood; Hong Kong Action Movies; Industrial and Educational Movies; etc. … Auteurs: Dario Argento; Dorothy Arzner; Walerian Borowczyk; Larry Cohen; Roger Corman; Jess Franco; Jose Larraz; Russ Meyer; Jean Rollin; Stephanie Rothman; John Walters; Ed Wood; etc. … Festivals, Conferences and Networks … Repackaging the Cult Movie … Cult Movies and the Classic … Cult Movies as Art Cinema … Internal and External representations of cult fandom … Cult movies and cultural Identity … Collecting and Trading … Accessibility and Exclusivity in Cult Movie Fandom Please send proposals of approximately 200 words by 1 February 2000 to: Defining Cult Movies Conference, Institute of Film Studies, School of American and Canadian Studies, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom. Tel: 44 (0) 115 951 4250. Fax: 44 (0) 115 951 4250. Email Antonio Lazaro: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/film ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]