Still from film

Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako is an audacious film. It encourages us to ponder over the conceit of rational argumentation and the irrationality of rations for the world’s poorest. The film presents a trial of the IMF and World Bank, set in the courtyard of a multi-family dwelling in the capital of Mali with the African civil society acting as plaintiff. Though Bamako runs the risk of being labelled a “festival film” due to the subject and treatment, the film’s modest juxtaposition of modernist argumentation in a courtyard filled with the banal, the sick and the low-brow lays bare the futility of discussions about ethics in the African public sphere. [Read more →]

NEMLA, April 7-11 2010, Montreal, Canada

Cinematic Representation of Immigration, Spaces and Identities: The representation of immigration and immigrants through films is very often linked to the space in which they choose to live. How could we define the dynamic between the notions of immigration, spaces and identities through movies in today’s cinema from different countries? How do immigration spaces foster the immigrants that live in them? How do these spaces affect their identity? Do immigrants also reshape the place where they have found asylum? This is the main frame of analysis that this panel will explore. [Read more →]

Virginia Bonner/SAMLA 2009 Conference in Atlanta

In keeping with the theme of the 2009 SAMLA Atlanta convention, this panel seeks papers that address the link between human rights and the humanities via national cinema(s). Possible topics may include but are not limited to: Ethics, Theories of Spectatorship, Documentary, Memory and Trauma, Individual vs. Collective Consciousness, Living in Exile, and Politics and Humanities. By June 14, 2009, please send proposals of approximately 500 words with presenter’s name, academic affiliation and contact information (including e-mail and mailing addresses) to Virginia Bonner, Clayton State University, at vbonner@clayton.edu

One of the founder members of The Independent, UK, David Lister offers a frank description of the state of apple polishing, er film criticism, which could perhaps be now called a universal affliction — journalists who truckle at the sight of film stars and producers. A sample:

I will never forget the press conference given by Charlton Heston a few years ago, when the late actor was still performing. This was the first “question” from a Lebanese film critic: “Mr Heston, you are a god in my country. You are my father, my mother, my sister and my brother.”

For more read here (link)

A delight for anybody interested in film culture: Deniz Pinar from Turkey has started a blog on Turkish film posters. Visitors will relish the set of “Turkish Fantastic Cinema”. My favourite is Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (Turkish Star Wars movie).

Head over to:

http://turkishposters.blogspot.com/

Music, Sound, and the Moving Image is the first international scholarly journal devoted to the study of the interaction between music and sound with the entirety of moving image media – film, television, music video, advertising, computer games, mixed-media installation, digital art, live cinema, et alia. [Read more →]

The Gallaudet University WORLDEAF Cinema Festival will showcase competitive short films, feature films, videos and vlogs created by deaf and hard of hearing filmmakers. The festival will take place November 4-7, 2009 at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.. Academy Award-winning actress, Marlee Matlin, is the festival’s honorary chair. The festival seeks to increase awareness of deaf cinema within the greater film and media industry, and provide international deaf filmmakers with unique professional networking opportunities. Hearing filmmakers are also invited to submit their visual media products that include the deaf experience. For additional information, view the website at http://wdcf.gallaudet.edu. [Read more →]

According to Dr Luke McKernan, founder of Screen Research, the website is “designed to be an online centre for anyone interested in the study of the moving image. It is aimed at researchers, lecturers, students, archivists, curators, educationalists, information specialists, scholars of the new media – anyone with a serious interest in screen history and screen practice today. It has news about upcoming conferences, festivals, and publications; [Read more →]

Society for Animation Studies members are invited to submit conference papers from SAS or other conferences, past and present in the growing subject area of animation studies. Non-members are welcome to submit papers, but must join the society before an accepted paper can be published. (Membership details available at http://animationstudies.org ). [Read more →]

(Continuously updated) As Rahman enters the hunt for Oscars, we keep track of the madness that unfolds in Indian media. The latter is known to go give importance to any western recognition to Indians in asign of its readers’/audiences’ westward cultural orientation and sensitivity.  Already we can notice that all the media reports are identical as they are dependant on news agencies, telling us something about the economics and sociology of news production and the structural characteristics of media. Besides this journalism studies perspective there is the other issue of the valorisation of awards instituted in the west. Does this reflect a cultural imperialism and hegemony?  These are issues we can perhaps reflect on. [Read more →]