Call for Papers Edited Volume: The Films of Jess Franco Editors: Antonio Lázaro-Reboll (University of Kent) and Ian Olney (York College of Pennsylvania) Jesús “Jess” Franco (1930-2013) is one of the most prolific and madly inventive filmmakers in the history of cinema. His remarkable career spanned more than half a century and produced almost two hundred films shot in Spain and across Europe. He is best known as the director of jazzy, erotically-charged horror movies featuring mad scientists, lesbian vampires, and women in prison, but dabbled in a multitude of genres from comedy to science-fiction to pornography. Although he made his career in the ghetto of low-budget exploitation cinema, he managed to create a body of work that is deeply personal, frequently political, and surprisingly poetic. Franco’s offbeat films command a devoted cult following; they have even developed a mainstream audience in recent years, thanks to their release on DVD and Blu-Ray. To date, however, they have received relatively little scholarly attention. The Films of Jess Franco seeks to address this neglect by bringing together original essays on Franco and his movies written from a variety of different theoretical perspectives by noted scholars around the world. Ultimately, its aim is to encourage a reassessment of this critically undervalued director and his significant contributions to popular European cinema. The editors of this proposed volume invite original essays on any aspect of Jess Franco’s work; all theoretical approaches are welcome. Possible topics might include: • Franco as Horror Auteur • Gender and/or Race in Franco’s Films • Queer Franco • The Franco Soundtrack • Franco’s Non-Horror Films • Late Franco (Films of the 1990s and 2000s) • Franco as Spanish Filmmaker • Franco as Transnational Filmmaker • Franco and the Art Film • Franco’s Influences • Sex and Eroticism in Franco’s Films • Franco and Film Adaptation • Performance and Stardom in Franco’s Films • The Politics of Franco’s Films • The Cult of Franco • Franco’s Legacy Please send abstracts of 500 words to Antonio Lázaro-Reboll ([log in to unmask]) and Ian Olney ([log in to unmask]) by July 30, 2014. Final essays will be due January 30, 2015. Essays should be 6,000-8,000 words in length and should follow MLA guidelines for citation and documentation. ---- Learn to speak like a film/TV professor! Listen to the ScreenLex podcast: http://www.screenlex.org