Call for Papers
Code Breaking: Low & High Tech Spooking and Whodunits Area
2008 Film & History Conference
"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"
October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
www.filmandhistory.org
First-Round Deadline: November 1, 2007
AREA: Code Breaking: Low & High Tech Spooking and Whodunits
Successful military or political code breaking is akin to glancing at an
opponent's hole card in Texas Hold 'Em. This is a secretive art often left
unexamined by professional historians. In 1950, Punch magazine labeled
Brigadier Desmond Young's Rommel: The Desert Fox "brilliant." But Young
later learned that both Rommel and the British command were deciphering
each other's messages throughout the war.
Breaking the Japanese Purple code did not prevent Pearl Harbor(Tora, Tora,
Tora,) but it brought victory at Midway (Midway). Other films probing this
clandestine world include many of the James Bond productions, political
thrillers (from Three Days of the Condor to Sneakers), historical romances
(Enigma), buddy films (Windtalkers), or military adventure dramas (U-571).
And documentaries investigate the activities of Bletchley Park and the
National Security Agency's "The Puzzle Palace."
Whodunits and mysteries abound, be they fact, semi-fiction, or fantasy. You
may wish to explore situations in which code breakers, to preserve their
secret, did not impede an enemy action. Or perhaps speculate on what other
code-breaking treasure troves might be awaiting later-generation
historians. Whose interests does each code-breaking film represent? What
patterns in plot and characterization emerge? Which histories are
embellished or tarnished through these kinds of films?
Please send your 200-word proposal by November 1, 2007 to
Keith Wheelock, Chair
Code Breaking: Low & High Tech Spooking and Whodunits
325 Mountain View Road
Skillman, NJ 08558
Email: [log in to unmask]
Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each
presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for
first-round proposals: November 1, 2007
This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film
& History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Film and
History. Speakers will include founder John O'Connor and editor Peter C.
Rollins (in a ceremony to celebrate the transfer to the University of
Wisconsin Oshkosh); Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of Visions of the
Apocalypse, Disaster and Memory, and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering
Phantom Hollywood; Emmy award-winning writer and producer John Rubin, and
special-effects legend Stan Winston, our Keynote Speaker. For updates and
registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History
website (http://www.filmandhistory.org).
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