Archive for 2017

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[ecrea] CFP: Southeast Asia on Screen: From Independence to Financial Crisis

Thu Feb 23 07:30:00 GMT 2017




*/CALL FOR PAPERS/*

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*/Southeast Asia on Screen: From Independence to Financial Crisis/*

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In the last two decades there has been an increase in English-language scholarship addressing Southeast Asian Cinema. Such research focuses upon, among others, national film histories (PhAe?Ae?ng 2007; Nugroho and Herlina 2015; Muthalib 2016), national cinemas (Tolentino 2001; Uhde and Uhde 2010; Tan 2008; Millet 2006; Lewis 2006; Khoo 2006; Margirier & Jean-Pierre Gimenez 2011), specific filmmakers (Cheah 2004; Quandt 2009; Mai 2015) and the filmmaking boom in the digital era (Baumgartel 2012). However, while such research is a welcome addition to an underexplored area of film scholarship, there is as yet no concise collection addressing Southeast Asian cinema from the post-WW2 era up to the 1990s, before the revival of these region cinemas and the advent of digital filmmaking.


This anthology will be the first comparative analysis across Post-WW2 Southeast Asian national cinemas. Following the end of World War 2, after which many Southeast Asian nations gained their national independence, and until the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, film industries in Southeast Asia had distinctive and colourful histories. Much of this was shaped by national or domestic conditions, and cinemas in Southeast Asia have therefore been largely conceptualized as distinctive national cinemas, albeit ones shaped by global forces and developments. Whilst acknowledging the importance of respective national contexts, this collection aims to offer the first comparative overview of SE Asian cinemas by exploring thematic connections between Southeast Asian countries and their filmmaking histories. At various times, these nations experienced similar historical events that shaped their respective cinemas, making them more similar than different. All countries underwent a period of national formation in the aftermath of WW2 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore) giving form to anti-colonial and nationalist movements and shaping concepts of culture, belonging, and modernity. The rise of authoritarian regimes (Burma 1962, Indonesia 1966-, Philippines 1972, Thailand 1976, Cambodia 1979) increasingly defined film production through its relationship to the state, producing films addressing both state ideology and political resistance. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s meanwhile, many local industries flourished, catering to a mass local audience, while, at the same time, auteur figures emerged in each country, as did art cinema.


In addressing the similar themes, histories, trends, technologies, and socio-political events that have shaped the art and industry of film in this region, this edited volume seeks to identify the unique characteristics that continue to shape cinema, spectatorship and Southeast Asian filmmaking in the present and future. Such issues could address the conditions that have given rise to today???s burgeoning Southeast Asian cinemas as well as the gaps that manifest as temporal belatedness and historical disjunctures in the more established regional industries. As the tenth anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Cinemas conference (triggered by the 1990s film revival) approaches, this retrospective of Southeast Asian Cinemas past will provide a timely analytical history while also remaining rooted in the contemporary and reflecting on the future.


The editors seek chapters that will fit into the following thematic sections for a book publication with a reputable academic publisher:


1. Independence and Post-WW2 era: films that grappled with what it means to be postcolonial, dealing with issues of modernity, development, and nation-building.


2. Golden Eras, Studio Systems and Festival Success: for example, the golden eras for Philippines, Malaya/Singapore, Cambodia.


3. War, Propaganda and the Military: how and when have Armed forces and armed struggles have been venerated; these can include a focus on Vietnamese cinema(s), Myanmar, Indonesia, or Malaysia.


4. Under Martial Law and military authorities: many of the countries of SE Asia experienced periods of martial law or authoritarianism including Indonesia (1966-1998), Philippines (1972-1981), and Thailand (1976-1988). How did these periods shape film production either in service of the regime or in resistance to it?


5. Cheap Quickies: Exploitation, Sex, and the Popular: prolific production gave form to popular culture but also cultural debates.

6. Art Cinema and Auteurs: this could focus on Rattana Pestonji, Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, Mike de Leon, Usmar Ismail, Teguh Karya, etc.

We are aiming to get the book out for the 10^th Association of Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference. Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words complete with a 100 word bio by 15 April 2017 to: (Gaikcheng.Khoo /at/ nottingham.edu.my) <mailto:(Gaikcheng.Khoo /at/ nottingham.edu.my)>, (Mary.Ainslie /at/ nottingham.edu.cn) <mailto:(Mary.Ainslie /at/ nottingham.edu.my)>, and (Thomas.Barker /at/ nottingham.edu.my) <mailto:(Thomas.Barker /at/ nottingham.edu.my)>


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