[ecrea] CFP: Artists, Amateurs, Alternative Spaces: Experimental Cinema in Eastern Europe, 1960-1990

CFP: “Artists, Amateurs, Alternative Spaces: Experimental Cinema in
Eastern Europe, 1960–1990,” a special issue of Studies in Eastern
European Cinema (Spring 2016)

Guest editors: Joanna Raczynska and Ksenya Gurshtein, National Gallery
of Art, Washington; Sonja Simonyi, New York University

Submission deadlines: Those interested in writing a 6,000-7,000 word
article should submit a proposal by July 15, 2014 consisting of a
title and a 300-500 word abstract, along with the author's (or
authors’) bio(s) or CV(s). Submissions should be sent to
(ecee.special.issue /at/ gmail.com)
Authors will be notified in mid-August 2014; the deadline for
completed manuscripts is January 15, 2015.

Today, there exists a substantial and growing body of literature on
the history and significance of the feature films, both fiction and,
to a lesser extent, documentary, that were produced in former Eastern
Europe in the socialist era. Seen largely through the lens of national
film schools, the cinematic “waves” that emerged forcefully in the
1950s, 1960s and beyond (such as the Polish School, Czech New Wave,
and Yugoslav Black Wave) have received considerable attention, as have
the oeuvres of many individual auteurs.

What has received much less consideration is the history of the
various forms of experimental and alternative cinema that also existed
and at times even thrived throughout the region prior to 1989. Often
seen in art historical rather than film studies contexts, films made
by amateurs (such as those who participated in the extensive networks
of amateur film clubs in Poland and the former Yugoslavia) and visual
artists (the OHO group in Slovenia; Ion Grigorescu and Geta Bratescu
in Romania; Tibor Hajas, Tamás St. Auby, and Dora Maurer in Hungary;
and the KwieKulik Group in Poland, among many others) are rarely
discussed as part of larger national or international film cultures in
the region. Similarly, films by professionals who found ways to make
highly experimental work at state-funded studios (such as the Béla
Balázs Studio in Hungary, Neoplanta Studio in Serbia, or the Riga Film
Studio in the former USSR) and film schools (such as the Lódz Film
School and its Workshop of the Film Form) await further consideration,
especially in a transnational context.

In the spring of 2014, the Department of Film Programs at the National
Gallery of Art is hosting a series of screenings titled “Artists,
Amateurs, Alternative Spaces: Experimental Cinema in Eastern Europe,
1960–1990,” which through a combination of thematic and
country-specific programs aims to begin mapping the full of range of
experimental filmmaking in the region, from the work of such
acknowledged masters as Dus?an Makavejev to films that have rarely
been screened in public fora, such as the work of the Serbian amateur
Ljubomir Šimunic.

As an academic counterpart of this project, the special issue of
Studies in Eastern European Cinema seeks scholarly contributions that
expand our knowledge of experimental film production in the former
Eastern Bloc, which we define broadly to include all of the Warsaw
Pact countries (including the former USSR), as well as former
Yugoslavia. The films to which we seek to give greater visibility are
those that straddle the worlds of professional and amateur filmmaking
and those that transgress classificatory boundaries, being neither
purely fictional narratives nor traditional documentaries. Of
particular interest are studies that shed light on films and
filmmakers who conducted formal artistic explorations of the medium,
often while also pursuing other aesthetic or political goals. What is
the significance of such films within the larger cultural landscape of
post-war, socialist Eastern Europe? And how does a history of the
region’s cinema that incorporates artists, amateurs, and the creative
output of ‘alternative spaces’ look differently from the one we know
today?

Suggested topics to be explored in this special issue may include, but
are not be limited to:

- Studies of artistic schools, national schools, or individual
filmmakers who created significant experimental or avant-garde
oeuvres, including experimental animation

- Histories of studios, film schools, art schools, festivals and other
official, state-funded entities that supported experimental filmmaking
at the local, national, or regional level

- Connections and relationships between official and unofficial modes
of production and distribution, with amateur film clubs as a subject
particularly ripe for in-depth study and theorization

- The impact of available technological and other resources on the
aesthetic choices of both professional and non-professional
experimental filmmakers

- Histories of exchange both within individual countries and
internationally and both on the level of official structures and
individuals that shed light on networks of mutual support and
influence among experimental filmmakers

- Connections and relationships between the work of experimental
filmmakers and celebrated auteurs

- Questions of periodization of experimental filmmaking in either
individual countries or across the region, particularly as they relate
in the context of political “thaws” and “freezes” and changes in
cultural policy

- Interaction between popular cinemas (both domestic and foreign) and
experimental filmmaking

- Relationship of experimental cinema in Eastern Europe to other
genres; the utility of “experimental” as a genre designation,
particularly in the Eastern European historical context

- Shared themes, stories, leitmotifs, and aesthetic strategies that
possibly define a regional film language; themes, stories, and motifs
particular to certain countries and possible reasons for such
particularity

- The role of censorship in shaping experimental filmmaking in Eastern 
Europe


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