1. Call for Papers: African Film Conference, Fall 2007
2. Call for Papers: Foreign Language Film Conference: Cultural
Correspondences and the Camera, October 2007
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1. Call for Papers: African Film Conference, Fall 2007
Abstract submission deadline: May 31, 2007 Conference date: November
9-10, 2007
Place: Center for African Studies
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
The African film conference in Urbana-Champaign will explore how an
appreciation of films as mode of expression and form can be combined
with an understanding of their content. Cinema has a more pronounced
public dimension than some of the other arts; it creates an audience and
depends on it for its survival, and filmmaking itself can be situated
within the history, economy, politics, and broader cultural trends of
postcolonial Africa. The conference will aim to foster a dialogue
between film scholars, critics, and the social science interpreters,
users, and enthusiasts of African films, and will try to achieve, among
other things, a greater sensibility for film as a medium among the
latter. We seek abstracts from scholars and writers interested in
participating in this project.
We invite contributions on thematic and stylistic development in African
filmmaking and on the way the films reflect and feed upon urban popular
culture. A subset of related themes involve the connections to
international film making styles or to the ethnographic and documentary
film traditions, including considerations of emerging regional and
national styles within Africa. We would like to see sober and carefully
documented studies of continuity with older African verbal, dramatic,
and visual arts, or of the emergence in film of new expressive manners
breaking away from them. Film music and soundtracks, the use of
traditional and popular musical genres in the films, the influence of
international film scores, and a documentation of the impetus that films
give to national musical composition could enrich our reflection on
modern Africa. Who the domestic audiences of these films are, the
reactions of these audiences to the films, and the training and careers
of African direc!
to!
rs and actors can as well bear more sustained attention. Of particular
interest to us are the popular film and video industries on which
relatively little gets written, for example the one in Nigeria. Finally,
our understanding of the subject matter and the style of African films
can be deepened by an understanding of the broader political economy of
the African film industries, the role of public and private financing
from home and abroad, the share in revenue of domestic and export
markets, the initiatives for co-production or the sharing of
post-production facilities, among African countries and between them and
the countries of the north.
Please send abstracts of 250-300 words to either one of us, by e-mail or
by post.
Mahir Saul
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois
Davenport Hall
607 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
[log in to unmask]
Ralph Austen
Department of History
University of Chicago
Pick Hall 214
5828 S. University Avenue
Chicago IL 60637
[log in to unmask]
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2. Call for Papers: Foreign Language Film Conference: Cultural
Correspondences and the Camera, October 2007
Interested scholars are invited to submit papers on aspects of film from
traditions other than English, for the first-annual Foreign Language
Film Conference at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. The
conference, sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and
Literatures and the College of Liberal Arts, will take place October
11-13 2007, in the scenic region of southern Illinois.
See here for further information: http://www.siu.edu/~flfc
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