[Filmfestivalresearch] CFP: Pre-Constituted Panel for SCMS 2015 Montreal (March 25-28)

[Ger Zielinski]

Dear Colleagues,


If you are doing work on language and film festivals, do consider sending us a proposal!


Best,

Antoine Damiens and Ger Zielinski​​

CFP: Pre-Constituted Panel for SCMS 2015 Montreal (March 25-28)

Panel title: “Between the Lines: On Film Festivals and the Politics of Language”

Organizers: Antoine Damiens ( a_damie at live.concordia.ca ), PhD student in Film and Moving Image, Concordia University, Montreal, and Dr. Ger Zielinski ( geraldzielinski at trentu.ca ), Cultural Studies Department, Trent University (Canada)

Natural language has been with film from its very beginning with written titles and intertitles to spoken language and subtitles with the introduction of sound. Different distribution territories will receive translations of the film, dubbed or subtitled, and posters and other publicity suited to the designated culture. While English has become the de-facto lingua franca of most types of film festivals around the world in general, as international critics and filmmakers circulate through the various interlinked festival circuits, any individual festival proves to be a rich site for types of analysis that take into account the use, status and importance of language.

Building on research done on accented cinemas, subtitles and translation (into what language(s)?), publicity (local or international?), and so forth, we are keen to extend and develop new approaches to understanding the play of language(s) in the multifaceted context of film festivals.

Questions to consider include, among others, which language(s) was (were) selected for a festival and why? How do funding or other policies influence how languages are represented or used? What cultural, social or political aspects are brought into relief or suppressed through these putatively pragmatic decisions? What is the character of the translations in the various texts that permeate the festival, from catalogues to posters to subtitles or dubbing?

Suggested paper topics (not exclusive):
Controversies at film festivals over language(s) represented (and not).
Translation in (international) film festivals.
How festivals are accented.
Film festival and language policy.
Film festivals, language and funding.
Politics of language at film festivals.
How festivals negotiate languages in principle and in practice.
Regional versus inter/national languages.

Following SCMS's guidelines, please include 1) your full name and academic affiliation (email address that you will use when registering on the SCMS website), 2) title of paper, 3) a summary no longer than 2500 characters including spaces and hard returns, 4) 5 complete bibliographic sources, and 5) a short academic biography of no longer than 500 characters.

Email your proposal (in the body of the email, not as an attachment) to both Antoine Damiens ( a_damie at live.concordia.ca ) and Ger Zielinski ( geraldzielinski at trentu.ca ) by Monday, July 28, 2014. Should we receive enough quality proposals to constitute more than one panel of four presenters, we would gladly arrange for that. We plan to inform those, who submit a proposal, of our decision within a week of the deadline.

SCMS's FAQ:
https://cmstudies.site-ym.com/?page=conference_faq

SCMS Notice on Montreal conference:
https://cmstudies.site-ym.com/news/178601/Montreal-Proposal-Forms-Now-Online.htm

If necessary, consult a guide on how to write a conference proposal, e.g.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/752/01/

Advice from SCMS on what to include in your conference proposal:
“A good proposal will clearly and succinctly identify several key elements: 1) the thesis of the argument or research to be presented; 2) the scholarly context of the paper's thesis and/or intervention; how does this thesis forward previous understanding? Why is it important? And 3) the methodology of the research/analysis; how will this paper accomplish its goals? This latter point might entail identifying new evidence or a new methodology. In addition, effective abstracts are well written, present a synthesized version of the paper-to-be-presented and conform to the length requirement of the proposal system. Abstracts should be articulated to the format in which the research will be presented (individual paper, workshop, pre-constituted panel). If you are unfamiliar with writing a conference paper proposal, we suggest that you show your abstract to an experienced colleague for editorial suggestions and guidance.”



--
Ger Zielinski, PhD
Assistant Professor of Film and Media
Cultural Studies Department
Catherine Parr Traill College, Scott House 202
Trent University
300 London Street
Peterborough, ON K9H 7P4 Canada

T: +1 705 748 1011 X6113 (Office: Traill College, Wallis Hall 113)
F: +1 705 748 1826
http://trentu.ca/culturalstudies/Zielinski.php