[ecrea] CfP Commitment in English Language Cinema

Commitment in English Language Cinema
SAES conference, Film studies workshop
June 4-6 Toulon, France

The figure of the committed filmmaker is a constant feature in the 
history of English-speaking cinema from Charles Chaplin and Oscar 
Micheaux to Ken Loach, Kathryn Bigelow and Oliver Stone. Are some genres 
(political thriller, social drama, war film, dystopia) or forms 
(documentary, naturalistic fiction) more appropriate to political 
commitment than others? Contributors may consider the case of the 
political thriller of the 1970s (All the President’s Men, Three Days of 
the Condor, Klute) and its avatars in the United States and elsewhere 
(The Pelican Brief, Hidden Agenda, Night Moves). Such examples suggest 
another crucial issue, which is the relationship between politically 
committed cinema and independent cinema. This has notably been one of 
the main concerns of African-American cinema from Melvyn Van Peebles, 
the L.A. Rebellion collective to Spike Lee.

The question of reception should also be addressed: is committed cinema 
necessarily a cinema of its time because it is too closely linked to a 
specific socio-political context? The question of the legibility of such 
films and of their interpretation (which is necessarily coded) cannot be 
separated from the question of censorship: political, social or 
environmental commitment is often motivated by a context where freedom 
of expression is limited. From this perspective, it could become 
relevant to consider the distinction between truly committed works (such 
as deepa Mehta’s “elements trilogy”) and more superficial ones, such as 
works of memory that do not presuppose any real risk taken by the 
filmmakers (the case of Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi springs to mind).

In the end, we may wonder about the potential contradiction between 
commitment and aesthetic achievement: can a filmmaker be an auteur while 
claiming to be politically committed? Is this even what such filmmakers 
have in mind? Isn’t there a contradiction, or at least some tension, 
between the process of signing a work—and thereby inviting a more 
aesthetic spectatorial position—and the practical end that commitment 
implies, as witnessed by the examples of British collectives of the 
1930s (Kino) or 1970s and 1980s (Amber, Sankofa) and by American 
collectives of the 1930s (Film and Photo League), 1940s (Frontier) and 
1960s (Newsreel)? Indeed, American, British and South African militant 
documentaries have often been collective works.

Of course, commitment is not just about directors. English-speaking 
actors and actresses have also broadcast their commitment to political, 
social and humanitarian causes, like Stephen Fry, Angelina Jolie, Brad 
Pitt and George Clooney, or Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart before 
them, or even a whole company like Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Does such 
a form of commitment inform the construction of the star’s persona or of 
the company’s identity in a way that influences the way the films can be 
read?
300-word abstracts should be sent to Jean-François Baillon 
((jfbaillon /at/ sfr.fr)), Isabelle Le Corff ((cils /at/ wanadoo.fr)) and David Roche 
((mudrock /at/ neuf.fr)) by January 31, 2015.

Select bibliography

Barnouw, Erik. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. Second 
Revised Edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993 [1973].

Bolter, Trudy, dir. Cinéma anglophone et politique. Paris: L’Harmattan, 
2007.

Comolli, Jean-Louis. Voir et Pouvoir. Paris: Verdier, 2004.

Dickinson, Margaret, ed. Rogue Reels. Oppositional Film in Britain, 
1945-90. London: BFI Publishing, 1999.

Friedman, Lester, ed. Fires Were Started. British Cinema and 
Thatcherism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.

Hill, John, Ken Loach: The Politics of Film and Television. Basingstoke: 
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Hogenkamp, Bert, Deadly Parallels: Film and the Left in Britain 
1929-1939. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1986

Lamberti, Edward, dir., Behind the Scenes at the BBFC. Film 
Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age, Londres, BFI / 
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Leigh, Jacob, The Cinema of Ken Loach: art in the service of the people, 
Londres: Wallflower Press, 2002

Macpherson, Don, dir., Traditions of Independence. British Cinema in the 
Thirties. London: BFI Publishing, 1980.

McEnteer, James. Shooting the Truth: The Rise of American Political 
Documentaries. Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2006.

Pilard, Philippe. Land and Freedom. Ken Loach. Paris: Nathan, 1997

Ramonet, Ignacio. Propagandes silencieuses : Masses, Télévision, cinéma. 
Paris: folio actuel, 2000.

Rancière, Jacques. Le Spectateur émancipé. Paris: La Fabrique, 2008.

---. Malaise dans l’esthétique. Paris: Galilée, 2004.

Rosenthal, Alan and John Corner, eds. New Challenges for Documentary. 
Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 2005 [1988].

Sand, Schlomo. Le Vingtième siècle à l’écran. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 
2002.

Saunders, Dave. Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the 
Politics of the Sixties. London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2007.

Waugh, Thomas, ed. Show Us Life. Towards a History and Aesthetics of the 
Committed Documentary. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1995.



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