[ecrea] CFP Independence in the Cinema France/United States

Call for papers
 
Independence in the cinema, France/United States: cross-cultural perspectives
CRIDAF: University Paris 13, November 5^th , 2010

 

 
In France and in the United States, where the media and arts environment is dominated by international corporations, it is debatable that such a thing as a truly independent cinema really exists.
This has been particularly true since the 1970s, when the film industry was subjected to massive economic change in both France and the US. Since then, there has been an unprecedented increase in the use of such terms as “independent cinema” and “auteur cinema”, as well as numerous controversies on the very validity of using them.
Even if auteur cinema and independent cinema are separate notions, there is little doubt that they largely overlap. This is all the more so as cultural transfer between American and French independent cinema intensified in the 1950s and the 1960s, especially when the French “politique des auteurs”, turned   “auteur theory,” reached the US thanks to Andrew Sarris.
Hence the crucial importance of a cross-cultural approach to French and American cinema seeking to reassess the differences between the numerous terms that refer to independent cinema. This conference will mainly focus on the 1990s and 2010s, during which it is especially relevant to compare such labels as American Independent Cinema and Young French Cinema (“Jeune cinéma français”).
This one-day conference will focus on the mid-budget films that French director Pascale Ferran called “films du milieu” in a speech she delivered at the French Cinema Award ceremony in 2007, describing them as “films which, while they show viewers the complexity of the world, combine artistic ambition with the pleasure of entertainment”. Though the concept of films du milieu was coined about French films, it is also relevant for American films. Reflection on this topic may consider esthetic, ideological, or economic aspects.
We seek proposals for papers that ponder whether Young French Cinema and American Independent Cinema present esthetic alternatives to mainstream cinema. Presentations may deal with narrative organization, characterization, the representation of the body, the treatment of space, or the ways in which these films deal with film genre. How can we make better sense of the “originality” of independent films?
How do independent films resist the economic and ideological domination of mainstream cinema? Comparisons between American and French cinema will be favored, especially on the following themes: the authenticity in the representation of “reality,” the interrelationships between independent and national cinemas, the representations of the “weak” or of minorities.
Economically speaking, how do directors manage to finance their films? In France, the idea of independence is linked with numerous scattered undertakings and declaration of principles originating from directors, distributors and producers alike. As to American independent cinema, shouldn’t its independence be considered mostly as a myth, knowing how much independent and Hollywood cinema often overlap?
300-word abstracts in French or in English, along with a short biography and bibliography, should be submitted by June 25 to both:
(anne_paupe /at/ yahoo.fr)
(CelineMurillo /at/ hotmail.com)