Posts from — December 2008

Slavoj Zizek

IJZS (International Journal of Zizek Studies), edited by Paul Taylor and David Gunkel, seeks to spread the message of the Slovenian philosopher in an essentially Zizekian way, to attempt what others have ignored. Academic journals of the online kind mostly subsist on the ephemeral advantages of being online and seldom leverage the character of being online as an ideological mission. The IJZS seeks to be different and sees an ideological mission in being online. One implication of the same is its true international character, if not in the spread of content, at least in the number of world languages in which reflections on Zizek find their voice for the first time ever. This is probably the only peer reviewed international journal that is international in the true sense of the word. IJZS attempts to host content in disparate languages such as Spanish, Tamil, Portugues, Chinese, Polish and a host of other languages.

Last week saw the publication of the key articles in Vol.1 No.1 of IJZS in Tamil and marked the first ever initiative to bring the writings on a living continental philosopher through the medium of a peer reviewed journal in Tamil. With the support of volunteer translators willing to spread the message of Zizek in Tamil, a full-fledged Tamil edition of IJZS will become a reality soon.

Selvaraj Velayutham’s edited work “Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India’s Other Film Industry” is a welcome addition to a growing body of works on Indian cinemas. The book focuses on the cultural politics and history of Tamil cinema. Selvaraj’s introductory note sets the tone for the book’s ambition to break a new ground.

The Link to the book is here

"Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" brings cheer to exhibitors after six months.

According to the widely-circulated Indian business newspaper Economic Times, the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Dir: Aditya Chopra) has bailed out the Indian exhibition sector. The last film to have given the sector cheer was the August release of Singh is Kinng (Dir: Anees Bazmee). It is impossible to obtain accurate and reliable data on the Indian exhibition sector, but if we go by reports in the business and economic newspapers we get the picture that all is not well with the industry. Discussions about Hindi cinema post-90s is filled with the buzz word — corporatisation. Let us call it modernisation, given the history of discourse about its “backward” or “not-yet” nature. The Economic Times reports sums up the problem of modernisation well: [Read more →]

via email: VANYA (an enterprise of Deptt of Tribal welfare, Government of Madhya Pradesh) and iiMC (Indian Infotainment Media Corporation) take pleasure to announce its Second Edition of “International Festival of Films on Tribal Art & Culture 2009” (IFFTAC-2009) at Indore, Madhya Pradesh which will run from Feb 6-9, 2009. The festival will culminate with a screening and awards ceremony on 9th Feb 2009. It will be an International event that will bring the best films on Tribal culture and art from all over the world. [Read more →]

The second in the series. First one here

The Animation Area of the Popular Culture Association seeks individual-papers and panel proposals for presentation at the 2009 National Conference of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, to be held at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel (New Orleans, Louisiana) April 8-11, 2009. [Read more →]

Due to high levels of interest in B for Bad Cinema, the Conference conveners have extended the call for papers to a second round, with a new closing date of January 30, 2009. Link here. [Read more →]

The Third International Conference and Festival on Global Cult Film Traditions Presents

Beyond Life: The Undead in Global Cult Media [Read more →]