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> >Subject: CFP: Cinema in Europe: Networks in Progress (Netherlands) >(12/31/04; 6/23/05-6/25/05) >Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 12:50:51 +0200 >From: "Valck, M. de" <[log in to unmask]> > >CINEMA IN EUROPE: NETWORKS IN PROGRESS >UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM - JUNE 23-25, 2005 > >Proposals for 25-30 minutes papers should be submitted as a 200 words = >abstract by 31 December, 2004 either to Prof. Thomas Elsaesser = >(elsaesser@ uva.nl) or Dr Eloe Kingma ([log in to unmask]).=20 > >The European cinema - that of auteurs, national styles and new waves - = >has traditionally been identified with a dual cultural legacy: that of = >the 19th novel and of the 20th century artistic avant-gardes. It helped = >draw a boundary between the work of the great directors, representing = >the nation, and domestic star and genre cinema, entertaining the masses, = >while also setting off the 'Europe' of film art against the 'Hollywood' = >of commerce.=20 >It is a commonplace to note that these legacies and distinctions have = >proven increasingly untenable over the past decades. But what has = >replaced the European art- and auteur-cinema, what has become of = >independent cinema, of 'modern cinema' and how can we best discuss these = >changes? Is European cinema now part of world cinema in the age of = >globalisation? Between the festival circuit and late-night television, = >is there an audience for European films? Has it become a cinema of = >cities: Paris, Berlin, London, Warsaw, Madrid, Rome, Marseille? Is it = >the medium for a multicultural Europe and its migrating Multitudes? A = >cinema of history, place and memory? Cinema in Europe: Networks in = >Progress aims to explore the new connections, network and nodal points = >that have emerged in the wake of boundaries overcome and hierarchies = >overturned. But every re-drawing of the map delineates new divides and = >demarcations. >The cinema is a global phenomenon. As an entertainment form and an art = >of self-expression it attracts some of the most gifted individuals in = >every country. As a complex industry and a seductive means of = >communication and persuasion it deeply affects every new generation. Yet = >the power-relations that sustain it are a-symmetrical, with Hollywood = >more than ever the dominant player. At the same time, the international = >dynamics that spotlight a film, a country or a director are cyclical, = >and the cinema's cultural significance has always been a delicate web of = >political urgency, passing fashion, and eternal moral verities. If the = >last twenty years of Hollywood blockbusters have seen the cinema's = >popularity grow all over the world, Europe, too, has benefited from the = >trend, if not quite in the same way as Asian cinema or even the popular = >cinema of the Indian sub-continent. Hence the shifts that have = >de-centred the old 'national' cinemas are as much external as internal = >to the cinema and its institutional contexts. Internal factors are the = >technological changes in production, spearheaded by the digital = >revolution and underpinned by various national, trans-European and even = >regional film financing systems, existing in parallel to the box-office = >and television sales. Exhibition has become dependent on a factor often = >overlooked: the increasing importance of film festivals. They have = >become the network nodes for distribution, the interfaces of European = >talents and world cinema, for they generate and help circulate the = >cultural capital that gives a film media attention and exposure. >External factors for the changing media landscape shaping European = >cinema include the contested nature of the contemporary nation state, = >the emergence of a 'Europe of the regions and the capitals', the = >expansion of the European Union eastwards, and the demographic = >transformation of Europe's populations into multi-ethnic and = >multi-cultural communities. Taken together, these factors are a = >work-in-progress on the very definition of Europe in respect to its = >geopolitical position, economically still one of the epicentres of the = >global economy, but now also often seemingly at the margins of major = >cultural and political developments. Cautious and conservative, European = >citizens have on the whole been slow to respond to the often virulent = >identity-politics of populations elsewhere. Yet as so often in the past, = >the cinema has been a sensitive and acute barometer, responding to the = >new demographics that are re-centering Europe around the Mediterranean = >and the East. These new audiences are also putting pressure on the = >cinema, demanding new media representations that reflect both their old = >ethnic identities and their new self-definitions as global citizen. >Cinema in Europe: Networks in Progress will look at the consequences of = >these changes by rethinking the habitual notions of nationally specific = >film cultures and their distinct authorial or stylistic signatures. = >Participants are encouraged to suggest new conceptual tools, propose new = >maps of the cinematic terrain - mainstream, avant-garde and independent = >- and establish new links within European media-scapes and media-spaces, = >as well as between European and world cinema. >The conference takes place over three days and is organised by the = >Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), in cooperation with the = >Department of Media and Culture, University of Amsterdam. Possible = >topics and panels include: > * New authorship studies > * National Cinemas and New Waves > * Cinephilia: Classics, Cults, Markets > * European Animation Film > * Re-Mapping the 'Old' and 'New' Europe: Central and >Eastern European = >Cinema after 1989 > * Americanising Europe or Europeanising Hollywood?=20 > * Memory, Heritage, Literature and European Cinema > * Festivals, Film Financing, Media Policy > * European Stars and Genre Cinema > * Puttnam, Eichinger, Zentropa, Canal +: More Power to Producers? > * Documentary Europe > * Digital Europe > * Diaspora Cinema and the New Cosmopolitans > * European Cinema, the Museum and the Avant-garde > * Theologies in Film > * Europe's Cinematic Cities > ******************* The German Studies Call for Papers List Editor: Stefani Engelstein Assistant Editor: Meghan McKinstry Sponsored by the University of Missouri Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html