<[log in to unmask]> *Rome, Open City: Examining the legacy after seventy years* Thu, 12 Nov - Fri, 13 Nov '15 An international conference held at the Department of Film and Television Studies, University of Warwick, 12-13 November, 2015 Organised by Louis Bayman, Stephen Gundle, Karl Schoonover The release of Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City in September 1945, just months after the Liberation of Italy, is a landmark in both cinema and Italian history. The film’s tale of popular resistance in Nazi-occupied Rome brought Italy to international audiences. It announced a new aesthetics of cinema - neorealism - that would have a global impact, attracting attention and often controversy for its bold assertion of the necessary relationship between art and politics. The film is a central reference point for cinematic realism and aesthetic radicalism, influencing movements from the French New Wave to Brazilian Cinema Novo, British social realism and Dogme 95. It remains a key influence for contemporary filmmakers as well as an important reference point in areas as diverse as cultural geography, gender studies, performance, historiography, aesthetic philosophy, and the study of war, fascism and torture. Proposals are invited for papers that address the reasons for the film’s unique legacy, and the continued attention it receives. Of key importance will be the opportunity to foster new scholarly perspectives on the film and to challenge how it is conventionally understood. The conference will be linked to a special issue of the *Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies*. Send abstracts (300 words) by *09 July 2015 *to: [log in to unmask] Papers will last twenty minutes and MUST be in English. Topics may include, but are not limited to, *Rome, Open City *and: ---- History, film history and historical memory ---- Cinema and popular culture ---- Neorealism and global cinema ---- Critical culture and film theory ---- Style, theme and aesthetics ---- Representations of violence and the ethics of war ---- Location, urban studies and cultural geography ---- Stardom, performance and the body ---- Gender and sexuality *Keynote speaker*: David Forgacs, Guido and Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò Chair in Contemporary Italian Studies, New York University, USA Additional confirmed speakers include: Stella Bruzzi, University of Warwick, UK Emiliano Morreale, Director of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, University of Turin Sergio Rigoletto, University of Oregon, USA Vanessa Roghi, La Sapienza, Rome, Italy Maurizio Viano, Wellesley College, USA Co-sponsor: [image: Inline image 1] ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu