CALL FOR PAPERS
The India Media Centre, University of Westminster,
In association with the London Indian Film Festival, presents
AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
What?s New? The Changing Face of Indian Cinema:
Contemporary and Historical Contexts
Friday 8th and Saturday 9th July 2011
Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Invited speakers include
Filmmakers, Anurag Kashyap and Rituparno Ghosh,
Rachel Dwyer, (School of Oriental and African Studies, London),
Shohini Ghosh, (Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi),
Lalitha Gopalan, (University of Texas at Austin).
THE TOPIC
Is mainstream Indian cinema moving into a
?post-Bollywood? era? In recent years a growing
number of popular (and not so popular) films
made for commercial release have been
challenging the conventions of the mainstream
multi-genre, song and dance extravaganzas. These
films are being made - both within and outside
the prevailing studio system - in Mumbai,
Chennai, Kolkata and elsewhere. From Dev D to
Just Another Love Story, Udaan or Peepli Live,
cinematic language is being explored, songs are
disappearing or being used in different ways,
and strong alternative storylines are presenting
a new face of modern Indian society. These
films? hybrid sensibilities are increasingly
appealing to the global aspirations of India?s urban ?multiplex? generation.
The London Indian Film Festival was set up in
July 2010 to showcase this trend, bringing
cutting edge Indian films and filmmakers to
London audiences. Alongside this summer?s
festival, the India Media Centre at the
University of Westminster, in association with
the London Indian Film Festival, is hosting a
conference that will bring together filmmakers,
industry professionals and academics to explore
this new phenomenon within both a contemporary and an historical context.
What are these films and why are they emerging
now? Are they simply the latest in a long line
of such moments in Indian cinema ? from the
first song-less Hindi film in 1937, to the
Bengali art house movements of the 1950s and
1960s or the so-called parallel and middle
cinemas of the 1970s and 1980s, and much
besides? What lessons can this history teach
us? What, if anything, do these films mean for the future of Indian cinema?
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Papers are invited that explore any aspect of
the current and historical challenges to the
mainstream form of Indian cinema and its
hegemony over the popular cinematic imagination
of India and the South Asian diaspora. Papers
may deal with film-making in any language and of
any era or region, and can include ? but are not
restricted to ? the textual, industrial,
commercial and reception contexts of films that
subvert the mainstream, and/or the critical
contexts within which they have been debated.
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS
The deadline for abstract submission is Thursday
31 March 2011. Successful applicants will be
notified by Thursday 21 April, 2011. Abstracts
should be 200 words long. They must include the
author?s name, affiliation, email and postal
address, together with the title of the paper
and conference name (What?s New). Please email
to Helen Cohen at
<mailto:(indiamediaconferences /at/ westminster.ac.uk)>(indiamediaconferences /at/ westminster.ac.uk)
.
General enquiries: please contact Daisy Hasan:
<mailto:(D.Hasan /at/ westminster.ac.uk)>(D.Hasan /at/ westminster.ac.uk)
Conference team: Rosie Thomas, Daisy Hasan, Radha Dayal, Helen Cohen.
