[ecrea] CFP Life through the Lens: The British Biopic in Focus

Life through the Lens: The British Biopic in Focus


31st May 2014 at Watershed, Bristol


Keynote speaker: Belén Vidal, King’s College London


Symposium fee: £20 salaried; £10 student/unsalaried (includes tea/coffee)


Deadline for proposals: Friday 7th March 2014


Organised by the UWE Film and Television Studies Research Group


The Execution of Mary Stuart (1895) tells us that the desire to 
represent historical lives has been present since the inception of 
cinema, while the continued commercial and critical success of biopics, 
from The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) to The King’s Speech (2010), 
indicates that the genre has long been important to the British film 
industry. The funding for ‘British’ biopics such as 12 Years a Slave 
(2013, UK/US) andMandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013, UK/South Africa) 
exemplifies the globalisation of an industry and problematises the 
conflation of production context, subject matter and claims to national 
specificity. The Iron Lady (2011) and Diana (2013) provide contemporary 
examples of the biopic’s sometimes contentious place in the shaping of 
history and the development of discourses around public figures. The 
diversity of the genre is illustrated through the different forms and 
approaches the biopic has taken: historical epics and intimate character 
studies, larger-budgeted productions and experimental works. However, 
while biopics made in Britain and about British subjects continue to 
proliferate, scholarly work in this area is limited.


This symposium therefore seeks to place the British biopic under the 
spotlight and to consider appropriate paradigms which reflect the 
specificities of British production. It welcomes new angles on canonical 
texts and introductions to films that are less familiar. The symposium 
will highlight the genre’s sustained and continuing influence on British 
filmmaking, and its commercial and critical success - both domestically 
and internationally.


Topics may include, but are not restricted to:

- Biopics and stardom, significant actors and the intersection of star 
personae and casting.

- Industry-focused papers focusing on the specificities of production, 
promotion, distribution and exhibition. Specific producers/directors of 
biopics.

- Genre based papers examining cycles, conventions, themes and subject 
matter. Papers could address different approaches to subjects 
(celebratory, reverential, critical and interrogative).

- The biopic’s ties to documentary, truth claims, techniques and styles.

- Lesser known and marginalised texts.

- The colonial, gendered, racial and ageing discourse that circulate 
within the genre.

- The notion of ‘prestige’ in relation to production, casting and awards.

- Genre and technology – the connection between text and contemporary 
cinematic technologies.

- Issues regarding adaption, and the intersection between written and 
visual media.



Please submit a 250-word abstract for a twenty-minute paper to 
(Matthew5.Robinson /at/ live.uwe.ac.uk) by Friday 7th March.


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