[Commlist] Jaco Van Dormael - Bloomsbury Screen Storytellers series (Call for Abstracts/Chapter Proposals)

*Call for Abstracts/Chapter Proposals*
*/SCREEN STORYTELLERS: The Works of Jaco Van Dormael/*
*Edited by Albert Lee*
*
*
This edited volume will be part of the SCREEN STORYTELLERS series 
published by Bloomsbury Academic. Conceived as the first 
English-language volume dedicated to the works of Jaco Van Dormael, this 
book will focus on the Belgian storyteller’s work as a screenwriter. 
Seeking 250-word abstracts for previously unpublished English-language 
chapters on a broad range of topics that shed light on Van Dormael’s 
approach to story and screenwriting craft, international reception of 
his French- and English-language works, and his cultural impact, unique 
perspective, and creative process. Final chapters will be 3,000-3,500 
words, written for an audience of student readers.

The SCREEN STORYTELLERS series is designed for students, professors, and 
afficionados of film, television, and new media who seek information 
about contemporary and historically significant screenwriters that is 
both accessible and critically rigorous. The series aims to bring 
much-deserved attention to screen and television writers who have 
created noteworthy films and television series of significant aesthetic 
or cultural achievement, critical acclaim, or commercial success, and to 
offer close readings of these films and series from the perspective of 
story, screenwriting craft, audience reception, and cultural impact. The 
series places a strong focus on examining works by screenwriters often 
left out of classroom syllabi, including women, writers of color, 
LGBTQIA+ writers, and international writers, with most volumes exploring 
the works of a single screen storyteller.

*/The Works of Jaco Van Dormael/*
Over the past four decades, Jaco Van Dormael has touched film audiences 
worldwide as one of the leading lights of contemporary Belgian cinema. 
In addition to working internationally in French and English as 
writer-director on the feature films /Toto the Hero/ (1991), /The Eighth 
Day /(1996), /Mr. Nobody /(2009), and /The Brand New Testament /(2015), 
he has written and directed more than a dozen short films including the 
award-winning “Maedeli the Breach” (1979) and    “È pericoloso 
sporgersi” (1985). His films are marked by their innovative storytelling 
structure, often built on fractured narratives, shifting timelines, and 
flashbacks as he plays with genre conventions and populates his richly 
imagined story worlds with unforgettable characters who are delightfully 
idiosyncratic, tragically flawed, and deeply human. His collaborative 
approach to storytelling and performance has also led to groundbreaking 
work in representations that center the perspectives of people with 
disabilities. While taking up universal themes of coming-of-age, family, 
and memory, his work also touches upon philosophical concerns 
surrounding ethics, free will, possible worlds, and “the strange 
experience of being alive.” As a visual storyteller, he has worked 
across platforms in film, theatre, and graphic novels, often taking 
creative collaboration from one medium to another, with a keen sense of 
humor and a desire to understand what it means to be human. His 
ephemeral film /Kiss & Cry/ (2011), for instance, is a real-time stage 
work shot before a live audience with human hands taking the central 
role. More recently, he has contributed to the European Union’s #EUandMe 
campaign to promote freedom of expression with “The Shape” (2019), while 
continuing to explore new forms of creative collaboration with “On the 
Wings of Hermès” (2023) at the invitation of the French fashion house 
Hermès.
Chapters in this volume may focus on individual works or take up a 
single theme or question across multiple works. Possible essay topics 
could include but are not limited to:

  * Contextualizing Van Dormael’s work within the sphere of
    Belgian/Francophone filmmaking and cinema
  * Connecting Van Dormael’s screen storytelling with his work in other
    mediums such as theatre and graphic novels
  * Philosophical concerns surrounding free will, possible worlds, and
    “the strange experience of being alive”
  * Death, mortality, aging, and time in /Toto the Hero/, /Mr. Nobody,/
    and /The Brand New Testament/
  * Nostalgia and the reconstruction of memory in /Toto the Hero/,/The
    Eighth Day, /and/Mr. Nobody/
  * Religion, universality, and considerations of the absurd in /The
    Brand New Testament/
  *
    Representations of childhood and innocence in “Maedeli the Breach,
    “È pericoloso sporgersi,” /Toto the Hero/, and /Mr. Nobody/
  * Representations of disability in “The Imitator,”/The Eighth Day,
    /“The Kiss,”// and/The Brand New Testament/
  *
    Representations of love, marriage, or intimacy in “È pericoloso
    sporgersi,” /The Eighth Day, Mr. Nobody, /and/The Brand New Testament/
  * Representations of women, gender, and motherhood in /The Eighth
    Day,  Mr. Nobody/,//and/The Brand New Testament/
  * Magical realism and fantasy as it pertains to screen storytelling in
    /Toto the Hero/, /The Eighth Day/, and /The Brand New Testament/
  * Unreliable narrators in /Toto the Hero/ and /Mr. Nobody/
  *
    Genre-blending—e.g., fantasy, sci-fi, tragicomedy—in /Toto the Hero,
    Mr. Nobody, /and /The Brand New Testament/

Questions or inquiries may be directed to _alee248@kennesaw.edu_ 
<mailto:(alee248 /at/ kennesaw.edu)>. I welcome contributions from scholars of 
film and television, media studies, theater, literature, philosophy, and 
popular culture at all stages of their careers, as well as practicing 
and aspiring screen and television writing professionals. Please share 
this announcement with colleagues whose work aligns with the focus of 
this volume.

*Deadline for submissions: Monday, Oct. 19, 2026*
*
*
Along with your 250-word abstract/proposal, please submit a 150-word bio 
note to Albert Lee, Asst. Professor of Screen and TV Writing 
(_alee248@kennesaw.edu_ <mailto:(alee248 /at/ kennesaw.edu)>). Please title the 
subject line of your email: Abstract – The Works of Jaco Van Dormael.
*** For further information about the SCREEN STORYTELLERS series, 
contact series editor Anna Weinstein: _aweinst6@kennesaw.edu_ 
<mailto:(aweinst6 /at/ kennesaw.edu)>. ***


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