[ecrea] CFP - Representations of cinema and spectatorship in Francophone Africa - Marrakech

*Call for Papers*

*International Conference – ESAV Marrakech (Morocco) – May 24-25, 2016*

*/Representations of cinema and spectatorship in Francophone Africa/*

**

**

Research on African cinemas has until recently remained quite limited in
scope. The films, filmmakers, and the political contexts as well as the
images of the regions conveyed by the films have been the main focus of
interest. The circulation of the films, film exhibition, cinema as a
leisure activity, the ways in which people watch films are questions
that have remained marginal in the production of knowledge, treated by
isolated researchers whose work has been largely overlooked.

More recently, a few historians have raised the issue of film as
spectacle in colonial Africa (Goerg 2015) or the development of cinema
as a leisure activity in Tunisia at the end of the colonial period
(Corriou 2011). Other research projects have explored other forms of
public film screenings, the video-clubs in Tchad (Ndiltah 2012) or
festival activity in North Africa, from a geographical perspective that
brings together North Africa and the Middle East (Iordanova et de Peer
2014). The MENA Cinemas project « MENA Cinémas: Cartographie, enjeux,
acteurs, publics des cinémas en presence en Afrique du Nord et au Moyen
Orient » (MSH Paris Nord – Universités Paris 3, Paris 13 et de
Strasbourg), in its first conference in Saint-Denis (May 2014) focused
on the circulation of films and its second conference in Strasbourg (May
2015) looked at audiences. These two events provided an opportunity for
researchers from different disciplines to explore cinema in the context
of increasingly diversified practices of film spectatorship, from
commercial cinemas, legal or otherwise, screenings in cultural centers,
all the way to pirated screens. The Strasbourg conference shed light on
the necessity to redefine spectatorship in the global age of the digital
circulation of films. Research on piracy, the informal economy and the
circulation of films via multiple platforms and media have contributed
to a shift in perspective (Mattelart 2011, Lobato 2007, 2011). Such work
is all the more necessary as these digital, economic and cultural shifts
have radically transformed the relationships of the public to films.

The research project “Representation of cinema and spectatorship in
Francophone Africa: Comparative empirical approaches” funded by the Idex
attractivité of the University of Strasbourg, brings together
researchers from four different countries. It proposes to address the
issues raised above through comparative studies of film practices, based
primarily on several thousand questionnaires filled in by people living
in Morocco, Chad, Togo and Tunisia.

The objective of the conference is to bring together researchers from
different disciplines and to develop a comparative study of film
spectatorship and audiences in Francophone North and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Abstracts are invited on several issues related to spectatorship in Africa:

·Reception theories, their relevance and applicability to the African
context in the digital age

·Multiplication of methods for the dissemination of films: the role of
cinemas, itinerant film screenings, television, video and the internet.

·Impact of these different methods on film spectatorship
(individual/collective, regular/occasional, official/secret)

·Definitions of audiences and film spectatorship in the post-cinema era

·Realities of film and television programming available to the public as
well as analyses of the resulting range of films. What is the impact of
this offer on the film culture of various audiences?

·New film cultures, where are they located and how are the films
assessed in these contexts?

·The representation of cinema in countries that no longer have any movie
theatres.

**

*The papers, which can be presented in French or in English, are
strictly limited to thirty minutes. *

**

The conference will include contributions and workshops featuring teams
that have been researching these questions in other countries, as well
as professionals working in the area.

The contributions to the conference will form the basis for a publication.


This conference is supported by the Université de Strasbourg, Idex
Attractivité, ESAV - Marrakech

**

*Send your abstracts (300 words / 5 bibliographical ref. /short bio) to: *

*(abdel.benchenna /at/ orange.fr)* <mailto:(abdel.benchenna /at/ orange.fr)>*,
**(patricia.caille /at/ unistra.fr)* <mailto:(patricia.caille /at/ unistra.fr)>*,
**(c.forest /at/ unistra.fr)* <mailto:(c.forest /at/ unistra.fr)>**

*Deadline: January 15, 2016.*

__

_Scientific Committee_:

Abdel Benchenna, Université Paris 13

Patricia Caillé, Université de /Strasbourg///

/Morgan Corriou, Bibliothèque nationale de France/

Kevin Dwyer

Claude Forest, Université de Strasbourg

Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb, Université d’Avignon

Odile Goerg, Université de Paris 7

Lamia Guiga Belkaied, ESAC, Tunisie

Nolwenn Mingant, Université Paris 3 Sorbonne nouvelle

Patrick Ndiltah, Université de N’djamena, Tchad

_Organising Committee_: Mariam Ait Belhoucine, Abdel Benchenna, Patricia
Caillé,Claude Forest




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