Call for papers Film/culture adaptation: Asia Film/cinema arrived in different countries at different times and in different ways. In some countries (Britain and France are good examples), locally-produced films were also the first films screened, while in others (like China and India) there was a period when only imported films were available for screening: though the centenary of cinema has already been celebrated around the world, there are still many places where the centenary of film production has still not been reached. Film always built upon the local culture: so in Australia and USA it appeared first in vaudeville performances in live theatres and in open air fairgrounds, while in Japan the Benshi tradition continued from live theatre into film exhibition. 'Screening the past' is planning an issue devoted to this phenomenon of the adaptation of film to the culture/s it colonised and of culture/s to the new phenomenon of film production and exhibition. We are interested not so much in the story of how film arrived in any particular place as in the accommodations that took place between the new medium and the culture into which it was being interpellated. The sorts of questions that may be raised include (but are not limited to): - Where did the first films screened in the country or area come from? If from outside the local culture, how did local people respond to them, or even understand them? If from inside the local culture, what other entertainment forms or media influenced the kind of films that were made? - Where were the first films screened? to what sorts of audience? what other entertainment media influenced audience expectations? how did film exhibitors build upon or bypass these expectations? - Did other cultural activities (such as live theatre) or forms (such as narrative structures) change as a result of films? Did entertainment structures adapt to include film or to compete with it? Did film influence religion? or education? or lifestyles? - Did film / cinema adopt cultural structures from the 'indigenous' culture: narrative structures, religious forms, educational practices and philosophies, etc? The current Call for Papers concerns specifically Asian cultures, but we would also be interested to hear proposals from people whose area of interest is outside Asia, as we may well devote later issues to a similar discussion of other parts of the world. Proposals (approx.500 words) should reach the editors by 1 March 2000. Completed papers (following house style, as described in our Style Guide) will be required by 1 August 2000. Ina Bertrand Screening the past [log in to unmask] ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html