[Commlist] CFP: Robert Vas in Context

    _Call for Proposals_: *Robert Vas in Context*

    CHANGE OF DATE AND EXTENDED CFP DEADLINE

    A one-day symposium and screening of /Nine Days in ’26/, Robert Vas’
    film about the May 1926 General Strike

    *Note change of date*: Friday 27 March 2026, Birkbeck, University of
    London

    Proposals are invited for 20-minute presentations for a symposium
    about the films of Robert Vas and about distinctive documentary
    engagements with the themes that drove his work: refugee experience,
    Jewish culture, the film archive, memory and history.


    “Robert Vas [was] a unique and important figure in the history of
    documentary… The key to all Vas’s s work was his moral fervour.
    Concern, commitment, passion – these were the words he used over and
    over again, and which guided him. Plus compassionate understanding,
    which was the force that bound everything together.’

                 Alan Rosenthal, /The Documentary Conscience/, 1980


    Born in Hungary, Robert Vas (1931-1978) fled his country in 1956 and
    came to England, where he made two notable shorts for the BFI’s
    Experimental Film Fund, /Refuge England/ (1959) and /The Vanishing
    Street/ (1962). His first film for BBC Television was The
    /Frontier/ (1964).

    In the next decade and a half he directed films about, among other
    subjects, the story of the magic lantern, Alexander Korda, the films
    of Humphrey Jennings, the music of Bela Bartok, the Katyn Forest
    Massacre, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the television archive, Stalin,
    Laurel and Hardy, and the survivors of Hiroshima. All this despite
    the “Christmas Tree” mark on his personnel file identifying him as a
    potential political subversive.


    The symposium marks two anniversaries. One is the 100^th
      anniversary of the May 1926 General Strike in the United Kingdom,
    about which Vas made his most controversial film, /Nine Days in
    ’26/ (1974). The other is the 70^th  anniversary of the October 1956
    uprising in Budapest against the Soviet-controlled government, the
    crushing of which led Vas and his family to flee their homeland and
    settle in Britain. His 1976 film /My Homeland/ about the Hungarian
    Revolution remains perhaps his most personal and powerful film.


    Robert Vas’ distinctive, poetic and committed films deserve to be
    far better-known, and this symposium is conceived to spotlight his
    achievements, to celebrate his productions, and to extend the
    processes of critical and creative engagements with his legacy.

    At the same time, the symposium is concerned to situate and
    contextualise Vas and the central themes of his work within creative
    documentary practice that similarly explores those themes with
    personal and poetic approaches.

    Although this is far from a comprehensive list, papers might address:

      * Individual films by Robert Vas
      * Documentary culture of BBC television in the 1960s and 1970s
      * Essay filmmaking for television
      * Creative documentary engagements with refugee and migrant 
experience
      * Distinctive documentary engagements with Jewish experience and
        culture
      * Films about the Hungarian Revolution
      * Imaginative explorations of archival film
      * The influence on filmmakers of Humphrey Jennings’ work
      * Revising historiographical and methodological approaches to
        researching film and television histories of migrant experiences
      *
        Teaching documentary: university curricula and the question of
        film and TV canons


    It is intended that a publication will be developed from the papers
    that are presented.

    *Robert Vas in Context* is organised by Professor James Jordan,
    University of Southampton; Dr Eleni Liarou, Birkbeck, University of
    London; and Professor John Wyver, University of Westminster.

    Proposals of no more than 300 words and a brief CV, along with any
    queries about the topic and event, should be sent to John Wyver,
    (j.wyver /at/ westminster.ac.uk) <mailto:(j.wyver /at/ westminster.ac.uk)> by
    *Monday 8 December 2025*.

    Notifications of acceptance will be sent by Monday 22 December 2025.

And here is John Wyver's short blogpost with an update about the symposium:

 https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/robert-vas-symposium-updated-details/
 <https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/robert-vas-symposium-updated-details/>


all best
Eleni

Dr. Eleni Liarou
Senior Lecturer in Film and Television
Programme Director, BA Film and Media/ Film and Media Practice/Film with 
Screenwriting/Film, Media and Language
School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
Birkbeck, University of London

Forthcoming:
E. Liarou, S. Carlos, M. Green, "Decolonising the BBC archive: 
challenges, opportunities, ethics of care and access", /View: Journal of 
European Television History and Culture///[December 2025]

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------