CALL FOR PROPOSALS Contemporary American Realism panel at
SCMS 2010
Chair: Justin Horton, Georgia State University
(justinbhorton /at/ gmail.com)
Given that one of the goals of SCMS 2010 is to consider the ?ways
in which the past informs current practices,? this panel endeavors to explore
contemporary American realist films and filmmakers in light of a recent debate
surrounding New York Times critic
A.O. Scott?s suggestion of an American
?neo-neorealism.? This moniker drew vehement
objection from New Yorker blogger Richard Brody and a
subsequent weighing in from David Bordwell on his blog. Clearly, the debate
over cinematic realism, one of the medium?s most enduring problems, remains
unsettled. What are we to make of contemporary film that evinces a neorealist
influence? Is it simply postmodern pastiche or
the re-flourishing of a tendency
that never really went away? Further, why does the United States prove to be a
particularly fertile ground for realism and why now? It is the goal of this
panel to interrogate contemporary American cinematic realism, its antecedents,
its consequences, and its contexts.
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
-
?Mumblecore? films (Swanberg, Bujalski, Katz, The
Duplass Brothers)
-
The work of Rahman Bahrani and Transnational American cinema
-
Issues of cinematic ontology in light of digital
technologies (production, exhibition, distribution)
-
The impact of the web/social networking/user-generated
content on conceptions of realism
-
The possibilities of realism in a postmodern era
-
Classical theories of cinematic ontology (Bazin,
Kracauer, Cavell) vs. contemporary theories (Rodowick, Deleuze, Perez)
-
Political, ethical, and aesthetic consequences of
realism
Please send 250-450 word abstracts, a brief list of anticipated
sources, and a one-paragraph biography to Justin
Horton ((justinbhorton /at/ gmail.com)) by August 15,
2009.
