[Filmfestivalresearch] Fwd: FW: [Frameworks] ** Art House Convergence Currently Accepting Proposals for 2020 Conference **

[ger zielinski, ph.d.]

Call for conference papers with a distinct festival emphasis. via a
colleague.

*From: *FrameWorks <frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com> on behalf of
Alison Kozberg <akozquez at gmail.com>
*Reply-To: *Experimental Film Discussion List <
frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
*Date: *Friday, August 9, 2019 at 3:04 PM
*To: *"frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com" <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
*Subject: *[Frameworks] ** Art House Convergence Currently Accepting
Proposals for 2020 Conference **



Calling all film exhibitors, distributors, vendors, and enthusiasts — Art
House Convergence <https://www.arthouseconvergence.org/>, a North American
associated dedicated to advancing excellence in media exhibition, is
currently accepting proposals for panels, workshops, networking sessions,
and other programming for its 2020 Annual Conference *January 19 –23, 2020 *in
Midway, Utah.  *Submit your ideas here by August 13
<https://www.arthouseconvergence.org/index.php/2020-call-for-proposals/>*.
We are also accepting scholarship
<https://www.arthouseconvergence.org/index.php/2020-emerging-leadership-initiative-and-scholarships/>
 and volunteer
<https://www.arthouseconvergence.org/index.php/get-involved-with-art-house-convergence/>
 applications.



*The Conference *



As the largest annual gathering of art house cinema and festival
professionals, AHC's annual conference attracts participants from across
the world. *By defining our field, creating a shared vision and vocabulary,
and identifying best practices, the Art House Convergence Annual Conference
strengthens efforts to sustain art houses cinemas and film festivals* of
various sizes, operating structures, and programming philosophies. Our goal
is to engage art house theaters, film festivals, film societies, museums,
and other exhibition-oriented organizations in conversations of great
relevance to our field.



*2020 Conference Goals *



Each year Co-Chairs for the Art House Convergence Annual Conference
consider the tremendous challenges and opportunities facing the field of
exhibition. In advance of the 2020 Conference, Co-Chairs Miriam Bale (Indie
Memphis) and Michael Orange (MATATU Nomadic Cinema) have identified key
topics that inspire an ambitious and innovative consideration of how we can
serve our communities, challenge ourselves, and reach beyond our status quo
to imagine new creative and collaborative possibilities for the theatrical
experience.


*I. Accountability and Responsibility *As an international alliance of
cinemas and film festivals, we recognize our role as curators of the public
imagination and work to sustain the art house as a thinking space and
sanctuary for documentation and representation of the human experience. We
acknowledge our power as exhibitors and commit to leaning beyond
conventional models towards a more equitable framework in operations,
programming, leadership, and representation.


*II. Politics of Aesthetics *There has been a recent tendency to split film
appreciation and interpretation into aesthetic OR political camps. It’s
important to emphasize that all art is political. Every visual, narrative,
and technological choice is political. Coming together to watch and discuss
films is political, and the choices of who guides those discussions and how
are also political. It’s important to move beyond calls for representation
and towards aesthetic analysis of every choice (even, or especially, the
choices to be “anti-political” or to replicate dominant and usual forms
without interrogation).

 *III.*
*Place & Proximity *What role do our physical locations play in our
institutional identities? How are our decisions, both on and off the
screen, influenced and informed by the public? How may we better recognize
our economic, social, and cultural impact? As place-based organizations, we
have a tremendous responsibility to the people who entrust us with their
stories and spaces. How may we ensure that a plurality of perspectives
inform our community-based work, moving beyond transactional relationships
towards equitable partnerships?


*IV. Sustainability *There is an urgent need to make sure our environments
are sustainable: ecologically, financially, and culturally.  How are we
dealing with changing marketplaces and new ways of promotion and
communication? What small and big daily choices are we making to create
less waste and damage? Our lived, shared cultural experiences more
sustainable than individual cultural consumption? If our organization wants
to widen its cultural reach, how does our own workplace reflect that
desired outcome? Can we change that workplace by hiring new people and
forming new partnerships? If so, are those relationships and new hires
sustainable?


* V. Radical Imagination *Change requires imagination. As film
professionals we are in a privileged position to be daily inspired by the
art of the cinema: past, present and future. In honor of this chosen field,
we commit to pursuing creative decision making*.*



-- 

Alison Kozberg

akozquez at gmail.com