[Commlist] CFP for ViCTOR-E Conference "Migrating Archives"

Migrating Archives of Reality
Programming, Curating, and Appropriation of Non-fiction Film
Online conference
6/7 May 2021

Call for papers

The digital turn, which has created new modes of access and circulation 
for films, underscores and amplifies what has been the fate of 
non-fiction film since the beginning of its existence - it has always 
been, and continues to be, a migrating archive of reality. While 
non-fiction films featured prominently in early cinema programs, the 
ascendancy of the feature-length fiction film as the dominant format of 
distribution and exhibition since the 1910s has rendered the position of 
nonfiction film in mainstream movie theatres contested and malleable, 
both restricted and supported by various legislative measures. At the 
same time, an intensive international circulation of non-fiction films 
developed beyond the cinema, through the exchange of newsreel shots, the 
exhibition of non-fiction films in circuits of alternative/nontheatrical 
distribution (notably educational, etc.), and later at festivals. 
Non-fiction footage also found its place in both documentaries and 
fiction films, etc. Driven by the massive digitization of cultural 
heritage and possibilities of content sharing platforms and new 
streaming services, which enable non-fiction film content to constantly 
migrate across venues, platforms, but also cultures, geopolitical 
barriers, artworks etc., these movements intensified in the digital 
media ecology.

As they increasingly appear in (but also often disappear again from) 
online archives, channels, virtual exhibitions, social media, YouTube 
etc., non-fiction films can be easily appropriated by artists, fans, and 
memory communities. The push towards mass digitization and public access 
to historical materials offers new avenues for decanonization and 
decolonization. As the established power differentials between official 
and private collections change, works and topics which were hitherto 
barred from view or even forbidden can now become visible. However, 
practices of digitization, online programming, digital curation, 
appropriation (including colorization of black and white archival 
footage), and sharing, open up new spaces and layers of meaning. 
Moreover, they also alter and sometimes overwrite the original or 
historical meaning of non-fiction films, with significant epistemic, 
political, and ethical consequences. In particular, the new modes of 
digital access carry the danger of misuses or misunderstandings of the 
historical content (and in some cases also of the form, aesthetics, and 
the materiality) of non-fiction film. Thus, the digital circulation of 
non-fiction films contributes to both the consolidation and the 
disintegration of public spaces for debate, and as such, it calls for 
responsible and sustainable curatorial practices based on thorough 
contextualization.
The conference strives to address these challenges, taking into account 
the diverse views of (media and film) historians, archivists, (digital) 
curators, and artists, who could comment on issues of programming, 
curation and appropriation (especially archival) of non-fiction film in 
history and today.

Please send your abstracts (200 words, short bio) to: 
(victore.prague /at/ gmail.com)

Schedule:
Deadline for abstracts: February 1, 2021, acceptance announcement 
February 19, 2021.
Participants will be asked to send a 10-15 min. video of their 
presentation by April 9, 2021.
The presentations will be published on a special conference website on 
April 22, 2021, and there will be an interactive discussion of the 
individual panels via the zoom platform according to the program on the 
days of the conference.
This discussion will be attended by panelists, pre-established 
respondents and a registered audience.

The conference is organized as a part of the research project Visual 
Culture of Trauma, Obliteration, and Reconstruction in Post WW II Europe.
More info at www.victor-e.eu.


Main organizer:
Institute for Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
in cooperation with
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Università degli Studi di Udine
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
European Film Gateway


The project VICTOR-E is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research 
Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by BMBF via DLR-PT, CAS, 
ANR, MIUR and the European Commission through Horizon 2020.

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