Archived News can be found on our new Archived News Page.

“FANTASTISCH” – GERMAN SCIENCE-FICTION FILMS Area 2008 Film & History Conference
“Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond” October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
www.filmandhistory.org
First-Round Deadline: November 1, 2007
AREA: “Fantastisch” – German Science-Fiction Films
This Area looks at German history and its distinct epochs (or even transepochal aspects) via the genre of the Science Fiction film.  Ranging from the ‘paper-mâché’-ish beginnings of early German cinema to the digital high-gloss landscapes of today’s virtual worlds, the Science Fiction film has responded to historical currents by gauging (often unconsciously) the moods, anxieties, hopes, and fantasies of a society.  How has German culture reinvented itself through fantasy films?  How has German SF, as a genre, reacted to the politics, the technology, popular culture and of its day?

The paper topics could, for instance, focus on the following themes:
-          the dreams and/or nightmares resulting from the incipient industrial modernism in early silent
            pictures
-          the articulated presentiments and paranoia emerging against the background of
            totalitarianism during the time of the Weimar Republic and the early 1930s (e.g., the German
            exile movie)
-          the desire for purity and the staging of fascist fantasies of ‘Weltherrschaft’ during the
            National Socialism movement
-          the attempt to draft new and better worlds during immediate post-war periods in order to overcome the culpable past and to recreate the society
-          utopian sites in the course of revolts towards the end of the 1960s and in the new social
            movements as from the 1970s
-          dystopian projections of the future during the Cold War and societal upheavals during the
            1980s
-          (post-)apocalyptic scenarios of doom after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, especially after 9/11

Further analytical topics are possible:
-          the sci-fi movie of the GDR
-          transnational effects and their cinematic adaptation
-          other historical events or historiographies

Both trans-epochal aspects and intra-epochal aspects intrinsic to the genre of German Science Fiction films are likewise possible:
-          utopias/dystopias of gender
-          animals/monsters
-          science and mechanization
-          the writing of history projected into the future
-          bodies and automatons
-          religious or apocalyptic projections in the course of the 20th century
-          historical analysis of the reception of foreign/US-American Science Fiction films

Although this Area identifies cinematic productions, television programs and serials, as well as the adaptation of film to and from television, are likewise most welcome.

Please send your 200-word proposal by November 1, 2007 to
Massimo Perinelli, Chair of the German Science-Fiction Area Anglo-Amerikanische Abteilung
Historisches Seminar
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
University of Cologne
D-50923 Cologne
+49 (0)221-470 2412
Email to: perinelli@gmx.ch

Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for first-round proposals: November 1, 2007.

This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film & History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Film and History. Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and author of Visions of the Apocalypse and Disaster and Memory, will be a Featured Speaker. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website

2007 University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana - International Summer Institute: World Cultures Through Literature and Film
Location: Illinois
Date: 2007-06-20
Description: 2007 Summer Institute: World Cultures Through Literature and Film Welcome to the 6th Annual International Summer Institute! June 25-29, 2007 The International Summer Institute is organized jointly by the area studies centers and other international studies programs at the University of Illinois.
Contact: mtyoungb@uiuc.edu
URL: www.i2i.uiuc.edu/2007_Summer_Institute.php
Announcement ID: 156121
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=156121

ARSC Conference 2007 -- Early Registration Deadline Approaching
The following message has been posted by the Outreach Committee of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC). If you have any questions, please click on one of the links or the e-mail address below.

The 41st annual ARSC Conference will be held at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center, 509 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 2-5. April 9 is the deadline for discounted rates:

1. Full Conference Registration -- $155 for ARSC members, $180 for non-members, and $115 for student members.

2. Single-Day Registration -- Thursday and/or Friday, $35 per day members, $45 per day non-members, $25 per day student members. For the all-day outing to the Victorian Palace, Saturday is $90 members, $105 non-members, $80 student members.

3. Pre-Conference Workshop Registration -- $75 for members, $85 for non-members, and $40 for! studen t members.

To qualify for the discounted prices, your registration must be postmarked by April 9. After that date, registration fees increase.

April 14 is the last day to reserve a room at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center at the special conference rate of $119 per night, single or double. To reserve a room, visit:
http://www.arsc-audio.org/hotel2007.html. Click on the hotel link at the bottom of the page, and you will be transferred to the Hilton Web page for the ARSC Conference. If you have questions about or problems with your reservation, call the hotel directly at 414-271-7250. For more information about the conference, check out our website at: http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference2007.html

Questions about the conference should be directed to the Conference Manager, Kurt Nauck, at nauck@78rpm.com or 281-288-7826.

SOUTH EAST ASIA PACIFIC AUDIO VISUAL ARCHIVE ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE - 20-25 AUGUST 2007 - PHNOM PENH and ANGKOR WAT - CAMBODIA
Theme: ESTABLISHING MEMORY – Building archives for our great-grandchildren

The 2007 conference of the South East Asia Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) will take place in the capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is a historic city located at the confluence of three rivers, the Mekong, the Bassac and Tonle Sap. The city is divided into three sections - the north, an attractive residential area; the south or the French part of the city with its ministries, banks and colonial houses; and the centre or the heart with its narrow lanes, markets, foods stalls and stores.

The 11th SEAPAVAA conference will explore and debate the challenges of building and protecting national audiovisual memories – be they technical, financial, political, practical and conceptual – and present a range of innovative and cost-effective answers. Symposium and workshop topics will include collection development and management strategies, ethics and policy issues, the reinstatement of materials from abroad, economical storage solutions, digital standards, and developing and implementing low cost digitisation systems.

The conference venue is in the centre of Phnom Penh, and accommodation options to suit all budgets will be available. The program will include institutional visits and sightseeing. The international airport is serviced by several major airlines. VISIT ANGKOR WAT! The conference program will include a two-day excursion to the famed, spectacular temple complex at Siam Reap, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the greatest glory of the ancient Khmer kingdom. This may be your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience this fabled place. A call for papers will be issued shortly.

Further information will be progressively posted at www.seapavaa.org and if you would like to receive email updates please advise the SEAPAVAA secretariat at seapavaa@yahoo.com.

Title: Fellowship in Documentary Editing at the Thomas A. Edison Papers
Date: 2007-05-15
Description: The award-winning Thomas A. Edison Papers Project (Rutgers University) is accepting applications for a 2007 / 2008 Fellowship in Documentary Editing sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The fellowship is for a calendar year commencing 1 September
Contact: pisrael@rci.rutgers.edu
URL: edison.rutgers.edu
Announcement ID: 156063 http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=156063

The DEFA Film Library’s 4th East German Summer Film Institute
SOLIDARITY! DEFA and Latin America Cuba-Film Festival
25-29 June 2007 / 23-24 June 2007
Held in the beautiful Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, the DEFA Film Library’s biennial Summer Film Institutes provide an opportunity for scholars to spend a week together in a relaxed setting watching movies and discussing East German film from a variety of perspectives. Under the direction of Professor Barton Byg, the 2007 East Film Institute will explore the relationship between East Germany and Latin America in the domain of film and filmmaking. The Institute will be preceded by a weekend Cuba Film Festival, featuring films about Cuba and by Cuban directors, which will provide a counterpoint to East German titles screened during the Institute.

After the Second World War, the commitment to international solidarity framed relations between East Germany and leftist liberation struggles around the world. This Institute will explore how international solidarity was represented in feature and documentary films, and to what extent it countered preconceived notions of race and culture common to Germany and Europe. Institute discussions will crystallize around two “case studies:” the early importance of Cuba coincided with an optimistic period in European communism, between the Twentieth Soviet Party Congress and the crack-downs effected in the GDR in 1965/66 and in Prague in 1968; later events in Chile provide a strongly contrasting case, with a revolution carried out at the ballot box and then subverted by the US-supported Pinochet. Specific topic areas covered during the Institute will include: Solidarity East German Documentary Classics; Cold War and Neo-Imperialism; Exploration and Romanticism; Colonialism, Race and Resistance; and Exile, Longing, Globalization. The focus on DEFA and Latin America raises a series of important questions, including: How did antifascism and Cold War conflicts affect relations between the GDR and Latin America? What was the cultural impact of GDR Solidarity Committees and of cultural, political and economic exchanges? What role did the presence of exiles play within GDR culture as a whole?

The classic expression of international solidarity appeared in two world-renowned East German documentaries, Lied der Ströme (Ivens, 1954) and Mein Kind (Ivens & Machalz, 1956). We will also investigate the intensification of Cold War politics manifested in the controversial investigative approaches of documentarists Heynowski and Scheumann. More complex perhaps than documentary films is the relationship of East German feature film production to international relations. Feature films address a wide range of themes, including long-standing European attitudes towards the exotic, postwar internationalist commitment, the experience of exile and Cold War politics. Well-suited to an exploration of the first two themes are films situated in the historic past, such as Die Besteigung des Chimborazo (Simon 1989), which portrays the Latin American expedition of Alexander von Humboldt, and anti-colonial themes in films such as Osceola (Petzold 1971) and Das Licht auf dem Galgen (Nitzschke 1976). Issues of exile and longing are thematized in feature films such as Blonder Tango (Warneke 1986). Analysis of co-productions, such as Kurt Maetzig’s Cold War thriller, Preludio 11 (GDR/Cuba, 1964), can give us insight into both representational issues and bi-lateral institutional relations.

Application deadline: 20 April 2007

General Information: The Institute will be held in English and is open to faculty, advanced graduate students and other educators across disciplines. Cost of the Institute will be $525; this covers a dormitory room for 8 nights, twelve meals and an Institute reader. Please contact us if financial assistance is needed to make your participation possible. For more details, see: www.umass.edu/defa

Application: please submit a 2-3 page letter outlining your interest in participating in SOLIDARITY! DEFA and Latin America, along with one letter of recommendation and a cv, to the DEFA Film Library, Attn: Sky Arndt-Briggs, 508 Herter Hall, University of Massachusetts, 161 Presidents Drive, Amherst, MA 01003. (sky@german.umass.edu)

The Black International Cinema - Workshops
The Black International Cinema, a multicultural multimedia organisation based in Berlin, is presenting a series of workshops and presentations in that city. Details can be found at:

http://www.fountainhead-tanz-theatre.de.
http://www.black-international-cinema.com/

'Camouflage: Militarised Representations'
Supported by the Institute of Advanced Studies
ALL WELCOME, especially postgraduate students. Contact Nikki Cooper (n.j.cooper@bris.ac.uk) or Paul Higate (p.higate@bris.ac.uk) for futher details. All meetings will take place in the Verdon-Smith Room of the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Royal Fort House, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UJ, from 2-5pm

2 May 2007
- Trish Winter (Newcastle) Photographic Representations of British Service Personnel
- Jocelyn Alexander (Oxford) War Stories: Guerilla Narratives of Zimbabwe's Liberation War
- David Machin (Leicester) The Uses of the Archive: Visual Representations of Conflict

23 May 2007
- Paul Gough (UWE) Representing Bodies, Objects and Military Hardware
- Ruth Blakeley (Kent) US Foreign Policy and Torture

This series of workshops is intended to facilitate dialogue between disciplines and disciplinary approaches around a common research theme. A core of common research interests has already been established across faculties at Bristol, and informal meetings have thrown up interesting questions concerning methodology and approach which could be explored fruitfully in a more concerted way. By further exploring the overlap between politics/sociology/modern languages/cultural studies/history this series of workshops hopes to contribute to the burgeoning discipline of War and Culture Studies. The intention of the series is to catalyse debate around issues arising from the various methodological approaches to the subject area. By inviting a series of speakers from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds (human geographers, art historians, area specialists, sociologists, academics working in IR and politics, military historians, cultural studies specialists etc), the series hopes, ultimately, to synthesise these different perspectives with a view to making a significant contribution to the creation of an important interdisciplinary sub-discipline with a clearly-defined critical agenda.

Visual cultures in modern France
Dear Colleagues,
I attach a flyer about a one-day conference in Cardiff on Thursday 5th April entitled 'L'histoire vue et vecue: Visual Cultures in Modern France'. If you are interested please contact the organisers at the University of Cardiff, not myself. If you have any problem in opening the attachment, reply to me and I will paste it into a mail message or send a hard copy by ordinary mail.

Helena Scott
EHCS Research Support
Room 115
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages University of Westminster
32-38 Wells Street
London W1T 3UW
Tel. 020-7911-5000 ext. 2307
Fax 020-7911-5870

NYT Editorial on the National Archives
Many of you probably know that the Op-Ed piece below appeared today in the NYT.  It covers the very same issues we have been discussing, which is wonderful news.  Perhaps there will be more coverage yet.

By DAVID KAHN
Published: March 19, 2007
Great Neck, N.Y.
 
EVERYBODY knows how to use a library. You look up the card catalogue in the computer, type in the subject, find the Dewey Decimal System number, walk to the shelf and get the book.
 
It's different with an archive, where unpublished memorandums, reports, notes and letters are organized not by topic but by the agency that created them. You have to know which agency did the work you are interested in, and whether more than one was involved. The complexity of government means first-time archive users need help.
 
Alone among the world's great archives, the National Archives of the United States has offered such assistance to visitors. At Britain's Public Record Office, for instance, a courteous official points to rows of volumes listing the contents of files for the Admiralty, the Foreign Office, Scotland Yard. After that, you're on your own. It is much the same at France's Archives Nationales and Germany's Bundesarchiv. Only at the big modern Archives II building in College Park, Md., will an archivist sit down and guide a user through the maze.
 
But that precious advantage is being lost - and it's all started to change in the last few months. More than a million cubic feet of documents, nearly enough to fill the Washington Monument, need to be organized, described and filed. This "document surplus" - a term the archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein, prefers to "backlog" - was caused in part by the wait for a new archives building and by a new emphasis on electronic records. But mainly, with no increase in its budget in years, it comes down to a lack of money.
 
As a result, the archives have hired less-experienced personnel to organize the records, often resulting in people having to hunt longer for what they need. And although 50 professionals have recently been moved to processing, that has left only 22 archivists to deal with the public - and with records they do not know well. Moreover, instead of conferring at their desks, with reference books at hand, the archivists now answer the questions of walk-ins in a glass-enclosed room on the busy main research floor.  

Written requests for information should be answered in 10 working days, something the archives once did 95 percent of the time; this year it is 75 percent. In the military and civil branch the backlog of unanswered letters used to be 15 to 30; now it is 115 to 130. The financial squeeze has also cut off-peak hours to two nights and one Saturday each month, making research difficult for visitors from afar, and for anyone who works a 9 to 5 job.
 
Why does this matter? Because the National Archives does more than display the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. From its astonishing riches emerge not only the records of one's immigrant grandparents but the documents and images that produce books and telecasts about this country. Without the services of the archives, the nation risks amnesia and loses direction. The president should ask for the few millions the archives needs to do its job right, and Congress should appropriate it. America must not forget itself.

New Accusation in Running of Smithsonian
The Smithsonian-Showtime arrangement has come under further scrutiny as reported in this New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21museum.html

The BBC is sponsoring a conference on 'Rethinking Television Histories' from April 19-21 2007
Rethinking Television Histories: Digitising Europe’s Televisual Heritage
Strand Campus, King’s College, University of London
19-21 April 2007

Provisional Schedule (times and panels may be subject to change):
Thursday 19 April
9.30am Registration and coffee

10.00am Welcome and introduction

10.30am Plenary Session: Why Does Old TV Look so Weird? Professor John
Ellis, Royal Holloway, University of London

When the blind interview liars: researching television memories Jerome
Bourdon, University of Tel Aviv

12.00am Plenary Session: Critical issues in the selection and
representation of European television history in a web based project. Rob
Turnock, Royal Holloway, University of London And other members of the Video
Active team (tbc)

1.30pm Lunch

2.30pm Parallel Sessions:

Sessions: Archive Session 1; Television Historiography 1; Nations,
People and Programmes

Archive Session 1
Hugh Chignell Bournemouth University Issues of content selection and
‘significance’ in a radio archive – the LBC/IRN collection

Kurt Deggeller Memoriav, Assoc. for the Preservation of the Audiovisual
heritage of Switzerland Beyond clips and highlights: what kind of access to
TV archives do we really need Irini Stathi and Ruggero Lancia University of
the Aegean Digital Television Archives as a tool for the construction and
conservation of a European literary audio-visual memory

Peter Kaufman and Jeff Ubois Intelligent TV, US Collaborations between
archivists, educators and producers: Toward a set of best practices

Television Historiography 1
Rachel Moseley and Helen Wheatley University of Warwick Television for
women: feminist historiography? Cathy Johnson Royal Holloway, University of
London Quality in television history Monika Bernold University of Vienna
Television in Television. Self-Reflexivity and Television History Nations,
People and Programmes

Professor Ib Bondebjerg University of Copenhagen Constructing the reality of
a nation: the historical birth of TV documentaries Professor Sonja de Leeuw
Utrecht University It needs a tall man for television. Transnationality
in Dutch (pre)television: the role of central actor Erik de Vries

Tamara Chaplin Matheson University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Broadcasting the Nation: French philosophers on television, a case study
Professor Fritz Hausjell, University of Vienna, and Alexander Hecht, ORF
Between tradition, recycling and innovation. Some remarks on recurring
television formats.

4.30pm Tea

5.00pm Plenary Possibilities for Audio-Visual Archives in the Digital Age
Professor William Uricchio, MIT

Friday 20 April
9.00am Coffee

9.30am Parallel Sessions:

Sessions: Archive Session 2; Television Historiography 2; European
Television Events

Archive Session 2
Leo Enticknap University of Leeds Moving Image Archives and the Mis-use
of Technology

Paul Collard Ascent Media Group Ltd Migrating to a File Based Platform –
Challenges and Solutions for Television Archives

Adnan Hadzi Goldsmiths College, University of London What is Deptford TV?
A platform for collaboration

Michaël Van Bossuyt, Gert Nulens, Simon Delaere and Pieter Ballon Vrije
University of Brussels Business models for electronic television archives
Television Historiography 2

Huub Wijfjes and Bas de Jong University of Groningen Multimedia History in
Dutch Public Television Mitja Čepič Institute of Culture,
Ljubljana, Slovenia Problems of Analysing and Comparing Television Content
Juan Carlos Ibáñez Fernádez and Concepción Cascajosa Virino Carlo III
University of Madrid Alternative Histories: Studying Television to
Understand Spanish Cinema (and Vic e Versa).

Christina Adamou Aristotle University of Greece Contemporary and future
issues in Greek television historiography.

European Television Events
Mari Pajala University of Turku The Limits of National Television:
Lessons from the Eurovision Song Contest

Federico Ruozzi University of Modena The Television Representation of the
Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican – 1962

Dana Mustata Utrecht University Manufacturing the Alienated Nation: Media
Events in Communist Romania

Professor Aldo Grasso and Massimo Scaglioni Catholic University of Milan
Memory on the Screen. The new wave of historical narrative on contemporary
Italian television and its cultural impact.

11.30am Coffee

12.00pm Plenary Session Comparative Television Histories Professor
William Uricchio, MIT Pierre-Yves Saunier, University of Lyons Andreas
Fickers, Utrecht University

1.30pm Lunch

2.30pm Plenary Session - Archives:

Steve Bryant BFI National Archive Selecting TV output for the BFI
National Archive: the development of new policies and practices.

Roei Amit INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, France) Archives for
All

4.30pm Coffee

5.00pm Parallel Sessions:

Sessions: Archives Session 3; Cultural Transfers and Transnationality;
Politics and History

Archives Session 3
Marion Hewitt North West Film Archive, UK BBC Regional Programmes in a
Regional Film Archive – a case study

Elaine Sheppard Screen Archive South East, UK A Tangled Web? Online film
and television resources and higher education

Cultural Transfers and Transnationality

Professor Jonathan Bignell University of Reading Transatlantic Spaces:
Production, location and style.

Eggo Müller Utrecht University Is there a ‘national identity’ of
‘transnational’ TV formats?

Politics and History
Ralph Negrine University of Sheffield Party election broadcasts on
television, 1951- 1964: archiving British political communication history

Professor Tom O’Malley University of Wales, Aberystwyth Television and
the Labour Movement 1949-62

Leah Panos University of Reading Reappraising Socialist Histories within
British Television Drama

Saturday 21 April
9.00am Coffee

9.30am Parallel Sessions:

Sessions: Archive Session 4; Regional Television; Strategies of
Scheduling and Programming

Archive Session 4

Professor Edgar Lersch Südwestrundfunk (SWR) Digitisation of German TV
Archives and access for Television Historians

Professor Tomasz Goban-Klas Jagiellonian University Krakow Tangled past:
Who controls television archives in Poland?

Ruth Hungerbühler and Ursula Ganz-Bläettler University of Lugano, Not
just bytes and pieces, please. Audio-visual documents as e-learning
resource: notes from a Swiss experience

Regional Television
Alexander Dhoest University of Antwerp Flemish television history: Where’s
the entertainment? Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano University of Malaga
European television history from a Regional View: Andalusian Audiences,
Television Memory and the Future of Nostalgia in the Digital Era

Jamie Medhurst University of Wales, Aberystwyth A Love-Hate Relationship:
Television and the Welsh Nation

Strategies of Scheduling and Programming

Professor Reinhold Viehoff Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg The
Formation of a Pictorial Canon and the Construction of Media Icons by
Television and the Media

Hilde Van den Bulck University of Antwerp The Last Yet Also the First
Creative Act in Television? An Historical Analysis of PSB Scheduling
Strategies and Tactics. The Case of Flemish Television

Susanne Volberg University of Leipzig (Mental) Pictures as module of a
programme history: Relevance and Function of Political-ideological Mental
Images Exemplified by the GDR Television

11.00am Coffee

11.30am Plenary Session

Professor John Corner University of Liverpool Television Historiography
and Questions of Value Professor Michele Hilmes University of
Wisconsin-Madison Thinking Through the National: A Transnational Approach
to the Cultural History of Broadcasting

1.00pm Final Comments and Farewells

Conference ends
Rethinking Television Histories: Digitising Europe's Televisual Heritage
Conference dates: 19-21 April 2007, Kings College London

Registration form:

Contact details:

Name Institution Street City/Town Region/county Postcode
Country Telephone E-mail

Registration fees (please shade or circle): The registration fee includes
admission to plenary events, presentations and workshops, and also lunch and
coffee breaks during the conference.

Standard registration fee 3-day registration £190
Euros 290€ 1-day registration £90 Euros 140€

Postgraduate/Video Active partner/ETHN registration fee 3-day registration
£120 Euros 185€ 1-day registration £60 Euros
95€

A very small discretionary fund is available to support fee waivers. An
application for such exemption should be addressed to
videoactivereg@rhul.ac.uk . There are a limited number of places for
exemption, and delegates should only apply if they can demonstrate need.

Method of payment (please select): Cheque/Bank transfer

Signature Date

This form can be sent by e-mail to videoactivereg@rhul.ac.uk . Cheques (made
payable to Royal Holloway, University of London) should be sent by post
(with a hard copy of this form) to the Conference Administrator, Department
of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20
0EX, United Kingdom. Delegates preferring to transfer money from themselves
or their institution will be sent an invoice.

Fulbright Scholar Program for US Faculty and Professionals
The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering 12 lecturing, research or combined lecturing/research awards in film studies during the 2008-2009 academic year. U.S. Fulbright Scholars in 150 countries and all regions of the world enjoy an experience of a lifetime, one that provides a broad cultural perspective on their academic disciplines and connects them with colleagues at institutions around the globe.

Awards range from two months to an academic year. Faculty and professionals in film studies may apply not only for awards specifically in their field, but also for one of the many "All Discipline" awards open to any field. Grants are awarded to faculty of all academic ranks, including adjunct and emeritus. In most countries lecturing is in English, though awards in Latin America, Francophone Africa, and the Middle East may require proficiency in another language.

The application deadline for Fulbright traditional lecturing and research grants worldwide is August 1, 2007. U.S. citizenship is required. For other eligibility requirements, detailed award descriptions, and an application, visit our website at www.cies.org, or send a request for materials to apprequest@cies.iie.org.

Search For Lost Films
Visitor's to the IAMHIST website might like to know that the search for lost films is on going. This list gives an update on some recent developments...

Part Four
2007-03-01

Part Three
2005-12-27

Part Two
2005-01-02

Part One
2001-01-28

And the AFI/The Museum of Television and Radio list

10th British Silent Cinema Festival
Please see below details of the 10th British Silent Cinema Festival, 26 -29th April at Broadway in Nottingham. A booking form and more details are available. These can also be downloaded as PDF files on
http://www.britishsilentcinema.com/downloads/pdfs/2007_bookingform.pdf
http://www.britishsilentcinema.com/downloads/pdfs/2007_flyer.pdf

A full timetable will be posted on the website shortly. Please also see the website for details of hotels and accommodation

http://www.britishsilentcinema.com

Corrie ten Boom Fellowship Program
Location: California, United States
Fellowship Date: 2007-03-15 (Archive)
Date Submitted: 2007-03-07
Announcement ID: 155865

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education announces the availability of the Corrie ten Boom Fellowship Program. Named for the Dutch rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust and funded by the Ahmanson Community Trust, these fellowships are designed to facilitate research in the video archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. Applicants should either be post-doctoral scholars or dissertation writers whose research focuses on rescue and survival, broadly defined.

The term of the Fellowships will vary from one month to six months, depending on the research program of the Fellow. Fellowship awards will cover the cost of round-trip economy class travel to Los Angeles and a stipend that will vary depending upon the seniority of the applicant. Fellowships are available beginning March 15, 2007 through December 31, 2008. Fellows will have access to the entire collection of 52,000 video testimonies in the Institute’s collection, training in the use of the Institute’s digital library software, work space in the Institute, and access to funds and facilities that will facilitate the copying of testimonies for later use.

Applicants should submit a 1,500 word description of their proposed research, a curriculum vitae, and a letter proposing the terms and dates of their fellowships to TenBoomFellows@college.usc.edu. All materials should be sent in Microsoft Word format or as PDF files. Applicants are strongly urged to consult the Institute’s website at www.usc.edu/vhi for full information about the Institute, its holdings, and programs.  

USC Shoah Foundation Institute
Leavey Library
650 West 35th Street, Suite 114
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2571
Phone: (213)740-6001
Fax: (213)740-6044
Email: tenboomfellows@college.usc.edu

Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films - Call for Entries
The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films & Short Film Market, also known as Palm Springs ShortFest, one of the most acclaimed short film showcases in the World, is scheduled August 23-29, 2007 at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs. Film submissions are now being accepted through May 31, 2007.

Now in its 13th year, the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films has become known world-wide for the extraordinary community of filmmakers it attracts, and for the quality and scope of its programming. This celebrated event is the largest festival of its kind in America, showcasing over 350 short films each year from more than 40 countries, with a library of more than 2200 films available to film buyers, industry and press in the Film Market running concurrently with the Festival. Included are seminars, technological demonstrations and scheduled 'one-on-one' meetings with industry experts and filmmaking professionals, free to all filmmakers who participate in the Festival. Best of all, all films submitted to the Festival are eligible for free inclusion in the Film Market and made available to all attending industry and press for viewing at our Film Market headquarters & screening center.

The Festival includes twenty awards in six competitive categories, with award cash or film production prizes in each category ($70,000 worth of prizes, in all), as well as "Best of the Fest" and "Future Filmmaker" awards. All first place winners in the Live Action and Animation categories are automatically eligible for nomination consideration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Since the Festival's inception, 53 short films featured at the event have gone on to garner Academy Award nominations.

We also offer reduced entry fees for students. The early entry deadline for is April 6, 2007 and the regular entry deadline (both deadlines with reduced submission fees) is May 11, 2007. The final deadline is May 31, 2007 for all entries. We encourage all interested filmmakers to apply and experience the art of short cinema in our beautiful desert oasis. Entry forms are available at www.psfilmfest.org or by calling (760) 322-2930.

ASSOCIATION OF MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVISTS
2007 Silver Light Award - 2007 Dan and Kathy Leab Award
The AMIA Awards Committee seeks nominations to receive AMIA's Silver Light and Dan and Kathy Leab Award. The deadline for nominations is APRIL 30, 2007

The Dan and Kathy Leab Award is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to his or her institution or to the field as a whole. The Silver Light Award recognizes outstanding career achievement in moving image archiving. Individuals, institutions, and organizations are eligible for this award and need not be AMIA members. For more information on both of these awards and to download the nomination form, please visit the AMIA Webpage: http://www.amianet.org/awards/awards.html

The nomination forms are guides. Longer submissions are most welcome. Please mail nominations to: AMIA Office, 1313 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028. Please mark the envelope: ATTN: AWARDS Committee. If you have any questions, or wish to submit a nomination via e-mail for the Silver Light or Dan and Cathy Leab Award, please contact : William O'Farrell, Awards Chair, woofa@canadianfilm.com

Media History: What are the Issues? Call for Papers
University of Texas at Austin - October 11-13, 2007

Autodidacts produced the first histories of film and television; academicians contributed tomes from the 1960s on, with waves of fact-philia and empiricism-phobia following. Now, after 100 years of writing media histories, it seems opportune both to take stock and to move forward, perhaps optimistically.

This conference seeks to ask: Where are we now? What are the issues today in writing media history and histories? What have we accomplished? Where might we go? For whom and why? Papers may present historical work in progress but should indicate a metahistorical or historiographical contribution. Papers may deal with a single medium or the problems of writing multi-media or convergent histories. Papers may consider a "single" production/reception space (e.g., Bollywood, Hong Kong, the Kayapo, Ingmar Bergman, Al Jazeera, MySpace, YOUTUBE, the ColbertNation) or cultural flows.

Confirmed keynote speakers are:
Michele Hilmes, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Hamid Naficy, Northwestern University
Kathleen Newman, University of Iowa
Chon Noriega, University of California at Los Angeles
Gaylyn Studlar, University of Michigan

Abstracts of no more than 750 words and author biographies of no more than 150 words should be sent to Janet Staiger jstaiger@uts.cc.utexas.edu by May 1, 2007. Notification of acceptances will be sent by June 1, 2007. We may consider creating an anthology of the papers; thus, we request right of first publication if we accept your proposal for the conference. Notification regarding the anthology will be made no later than January 1, 2008.

UT Organizing Committee: Katie Arens, James Buhler, Jennifer Fuller , Lalitha Gopalan, Sabine Hake, H-B. Moeller, David Neumeyer, Charles Ramirez Berg, Joe Straubhaar, Janet Staiger, and Lynn Wilkinson.

Rethinking Television Histories: Digitising Europe's Televisual Heritage
Central London, 19-21 April 2007. Confirmed speakers include:
· Ib Bondebjerg, University of Copenhagen
· Jerome Bourdon, University of Tel Aviv
· John Corner, University of Liverpool
· John Ellis, Royal Holloway, University of London
· Michele Hilmes, University of Wisconsin-Madison
· William Uricchio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

There will also be presentations by BBC Future Media and Technology (UK), the BFI National Archive (UK) and INA (France), and from European academic and archive partners in the EU funded Video Active project.

Details and registration information are available at:
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/media-arts/videoactive/
And Video Active project and conference information at
http://videoactive.wordpress.com/

ASSOCIATION OF MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVISTS - 2007 MARYANN GOMES AWARD
Applications are now being accepted for the 2007 Maryann Gomes Award , providing funding assistance for regional moving image archivists, librarians, and curators to attend the annual Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Conference in Rochester, New York, September 26-29, 2007. http://www.amiaconference.com

AMIA established this award in 2003 in memory of Maryann Gomes, who was instrumental in the creation of AMIA's Regional Audio-Visual Archives Interest Group and served as its first chairperson. Founding Director of the North West Film Archives at Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England, Ms. Gomes promoted the depth and diversity inherent in regional moving image collections and tirelessly championed their historical research value.

The purpose of the award is to increase participation in AMIA by archivists, librarians, and curators who have been financially unable to take advantage of AMIA membership benefits; to provide active learning opportunities and interaction with a wide variety of audio-visual professionals from around the world; to give award recipients the opportunity to add to their professional development in a positive and inclusive atmosphere; and to expand AMIA's outreach and foster internationalism.

Award: Up to maximum of $1,000.00 U.S. cash reimbursement (post-conference) for appropriate travel expenses, a complimentary conference registration, a one-year individual membership, and one pre-conference workshop registration (if desired by applicant). Total approximate value of award: $1,500.00.

Eligibility: Eligible applicants will be working archivists, librarians, and curators employed in collecting, preserving, and making accessible archival moving images, and who have not previously attended an AMIA conference or who have not attended one during the last five (5) years. For more information regarding selection criteria, please see the AMIA website at http://www.amianet.org/awards/gomes/gomes.html.

Application Form and Instructions: Available for download through the AMIA website at
http://www.amianet.org/awards/gomes/gomes.html.

Application Deadline: The original plus eight (8) copies of the application, essay, and résumé must be received in the AMIA office by APRIL 30, 2007. Applicants will be notified before the early-bird conference registration deadline. Note: Applicants are responsible for any required travel documentation. Please mail (faxes will not be accepted) your application form, statement, and résumé to:

AMIA Office, 1313 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028
Please mark the envelope: ATTN: GOMES AWARD

FOCAL INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCE FINAL NOMINATIONS
FOR 4th PRESTIGIOUS AWARD CEREMONY TO BE HELD SAVOY HOTEL LONDON 14 MAY 2007

FOCAL International the trade body representing the world’s footage archives, professional footage researchers, consultants and facility houses is pleased to announce the final nominations for the 2007 4th FOCAL International Awards in association with AP Archive .

A record 207 submissions from 22 countries were entered into this year’s FOCAL International Awards, spanning the 14 categories designed to recognise productions which have used library archive and stock footage in an imaginative and innovative way.

The Awards Jury comprising 43 industry professionals based in the UK, France, the USA and Canada was sponsored by ABC NewsVideoSource and led by Jerry Kuehl, a previous FOCAL Lifetime Achievement Awards winner and veteran history producer.

For this initial nomination decision the jury was split into separate panels, each with the task of viewing all the submissions in their particular category and short-listing them to the resultant 3 nominations per category. The nominations, representing productions from the UK, Canada, USA, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Austria and India cover the use of archive in all forms of content creation from factual through to entertainment, the arts, sport, natural history, commercials, full length features, training and corporate communications aired on any platform or channel.

These accolades represent the only global competition dedicated to the celebration of the use of footage by producers together with the recognition of achievements of professionals within the archive industry. Further awards will go to the best archive restoration work, the best footage library plus the annual Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2007 awards and keynote speech are to be presented by founding chief executive of Channel 4 Sir Jeremy Isaacs. Widely recognized as one of the most colourful and influential men in British television, Sir Jeremy has worked at the forefront of broadcasting for 45 years. Celebrated British film-maker Lord Puttnam, FOCAL International’s Chair of Patrons will host the event.

Lord Puttnam said, "I have long been a supporter of the footage archives, the skills that help make effective use of it and the contribution they make to the creative media. We sincerely hope that acknowledging and rewarding excellence in the footage industry will draw even more attention to this vital element of the creative processes at work in audio visual production.’

The FOCAL International Awards will be presented to the winners on 14th May 2007 at the Savoy Hotel, London. Hosting the event will be Lord (David) Puttnam CBE, Chair of Patrons and Sir Jeremy Isaacs will deliver the keynote speech and present the awards. Ticket Reservations: Print application form on www.focalint.org/awards07_tickets.pdf.

Copyright exceptions post Gowers and Taking Down Television a BUFVC Learning on Screen conference at the British Library Conference Centre Monday 2nd April 2007

Nearly 20 years after the last major revision of UK copyright law, there are significant changes recommended by the recent Gowers Review which may be implemented by autumn 2008. One aim of the review was to 3improve the balance and flexibility of intellectual property rights to allow individuals, businesses and institutions to use content in ways consistent with the digital age2. This one-day meeting, organised by the BUFVC, will engage with two related themes.

Firstly it will explore the views of commentators who have been involved in the recent Gowers Review consultation* as librarians, archivists and service providers. Some of the Gowers recommendations will have an influence on access to, use and preservation of moving image, sound and related media. These media may now be drawn into established Œfair dealing1 exceptions, so putting time-based media alongside text and artistic works in this part of the legislation, which will be a significant shift. Another recommendation proposes that legislation be varied to allow formerly broadcast content, acquired under copyright exception or licence, to be delivered for study at a distance using secure authenticated access via VLEs.

Secondly, the conference will focus specifically on access to and re-use of broadcast content and will offer an opportunity to see demonstrations of systems and services which are being deployed to support further use of broadcasts, moving image and sound in learning, teaching and research under new licence arrangements.

The meeting will be of interest to librarians, information services managers, media services managers, e-learning specialists, archivists and curators.

PROGRAMME OUTLINE
9.00 am Registration Desk open Coffee and Tea
10.00 am Lynne Brindley Chief Executive, The British Library
10.15 am Richard McCracken Head of Rights, The Open University
10.45 am Barbara Stratton Senior Copyright Advisor CILIP Secretary of the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance
11.15 am Laurence Bebbington Law Librarian, University of Nottingham
11.45 am Andrew Yeates Legal Advisor, Educational Recording Agency ERA+
12.30 pm LUNCH during the extended lunch break BUFVC member representatives will be invited to join a short General Meeting of the BUFVC
2.00 pm Marianne Open and Markeda Cole British Universities Film & Video Council Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching - Online Ordering
2.30 pm Ed Zedlewski EDUSERV ATHENS and Shibboleth - secure authentication
3.00 pm Andrew Milburn Planet e-Stream
3.30 pm Tea
4.00 pm Tony Blake and Ian Mottishead Cambridge Imaging Systems
4.30 pm Murray Weston British Universities Film & Video Council
5.00 pm meeting closes

Registration charge: £119 (inc. VAT) for BUFVC/SSBL members and staff in BUFVC member institutions in case you are in any doubt about your membership status, please call 020 7393 1512 £149 (inc. VAT) standard non-members charge Please go to www.bufvc.ac.uk/learningonscreen/bookingform.html for a downloadable booking form. Payment is required with booking in advance by cheque or credit card, or by invoice against an official order. Further booking information from Nancy Prall 020 7393 1512 or nancy@bufvc.ac.uk

Pittfilm Travel to Collections Grant (University of Pittsburgh)
The University of Pittsburgh's Slavic and East European video and DVD collection is the leading collection outside of the Russian Federation, with a holding of more than 6,000 items, including extensive holdings in Russian, Slovak, and Central Asian cinema. Online information about the Pitt collection, which is non-circulating, is available at http://www.pitt.edu/~slavic/video/index.html.

Supported by Pitt's Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, the Russian and East European Studies Center (REES), the Slavic Department, and the Film Studies Program, the 2007-2008 Pittfilm Travel to Collections Grant solicits applications from scholars with developed research projects that would benefit from on-site access to this collection. The selection committee would look favorably on those applications that include a research presentation as a public lecture.

Travel awards are $ 1,200 each, intended to defray costs of domestic airfare, two nights' lodging, and a modest per diem for three days. Two scholars will be chosen in the 2007-2008 competition, one for each semester of next academic year. DEADLINE: 1 April 2007. Recipients will be notified by 15 May 2007 and funds must be spent by 30 April 2008.

Interested scholars should send an electronic copy of a one-page, single-spaced project description (including preferred dates and a list of anticipated research materials in the Pitt collection) to Prof. Vladimir Padunov at padunov@pitt.edu with the Subject Heading "Pittfilm Travel-to-Collections Grant."

African American and African Studies Film Festival 2007 Blacks in Film 1969-2006
Blacks In Film 1969-2006: RACE IDENTITY REVOLUTION University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 12-15 April 2007 www.aaasfilmfestival.com
This film festival will be held in collaboration with The African American and African Studies Program, The Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center and OASIS (Office of Academic Support and Intercultural Services) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The festival will screen six films that represent black experiences in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. The festival begins with the Blaxploitation tradition featuring Superfly (1972) and Foxy Brown (1974); and continues with films that address revolutionary and post-colonial movements: Sugar Cane Alley (1983), Burn! (Queimada) (1969), Flame (1996), and Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (2006).

The purpose of the AAASFF is to make known to a multiplicity of groups black cinema outside of the more popular Hollywood mass marketed film community. The mission of the AAASFF, therefore, is to bridge scholarly and community criticism of black cinema and blacks in film, and to provide the audience with some tools to think of cinema as more than "just entertainment." To these ends, panel discussions led by university scholars, film enthusiasts, and community activists will follow each film screening. The audience will participate in question and answer sessions.

Featured keynote speakers and festival facilitators are Jeffrey C. Wray, (MFA), Assistant Professor of English and Co-Chair of the Film Studies Department at Michigan State University and film director, Tama Hamilton Wray. They will deliver a keynote address entitled "Past and Future Directions in Black Cinema and Film Studies" and screen their independent film China (2003).

Full details of the festival, including a registration form, hotel accommodations, film synopses, and guest speaker biographies, can be found at the festival website-
www.aaasfilmfestival.com. If you need any additional information please call 402-472-1816 or 402-472-3299.

ARSC Annual Conference 2007
You are invited to join friends and colleagues for the 41st annual conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 2-5. The event, hosted by the Ward Irish Music Archives, in conjunction with the Sanfilippo Victorian Palace, will take place at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center, 509 West Wisconsin Avenue. The lovingly restored Art Deco structure, completed in 1928, opened as the state's tallest and largest hotel. The Shops of Grand Avenue, the Historic Third Ward, the Water Street entertainment area, Pabst Theater, Milwaukee Public Museum, and Milwaukee Art Museum are just some of the nearby attractions.

During the conference, the Hilton Milwaukee City Center is offering a special room rate of $119 per night, single or double. To reserve a room, visit: http://www.arsc-audio.org/hotel2007.html Click on the hotel link at the bottom of the page, and you will be transferred to the Hilton Web page for the ARSC Conference. If you have questions about or problems with your reservation, call the hotel directly at 414-271-7250. To receive the special rate, rooms must be reserved no later than April 14.

This year, full conference and Saturday single-day registrations include round-trip transportation, lunch, ARSC Awards Banquet, and organ concert at the Victorian Palace, Barrington, Illinois. Read more about the Victorian Palace in the "Tours" section of this announcement. Register early and save! Full conference registration postmarked by April 9 is $155 for ARSC members, $180 for non-members, and $115 for student members. After that date, registration is $180 for ARSC members, $205 for non-members, and $140 for student members.

Single-day registration fees are as follows: Thursday and/or Friday, $35 per day members, $45 per day non-members, $25 per day student members. Saturday is $90 members, $105 non-members, $80 student members. After April 9, Thursday and/or Friday, $45 per day members, $55 per day non-members, $30 per day student members. Saturday is $115 members, $140 non-members, $105 student members.

For the complete preliminary program, registration form, and further details about the conference, visit: http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference2007.html

For further information (including exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities), contact Kurt Nauck, Conference Manager, at nauck@78rpm.com or 281-288-7826.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM
ARSC is dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings -- in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. Reflecting this broad mission, the upcoming conference offers a diverse array of talks and sessions that will appeal to both professionals and collectors. Scheduled talks include:
-- "The Sound Directions Project: Best Practices for the Digitization and Long-Term Preservation of Ethnographic Audio Collections" (Mike Casey) -- "Tape Degradation Factors and Predicting Tape Life" (Richard Hess) -- Copyright Committee Report on Recent Activities and Developments -- "The Potential for Use of Voice Recognition Software in Appraisal of Oral History Tapes" (Sonia Yaco) -- "The Birth of the Intravenous Drip Machine" (Marie Azile O'Connell) -- "Could Audio Archives Be the Next Hot Location for Field Research?" (Aaron M. Bittel) -- "Archival Cylinder Box: An ARSC Design and Engineering Project" (Bill Klinger) -- "Arturo Toscanini: In Memoriam, 1957-2007" (Seth Winner) -- "Where Did You Find That? How NPR and the CBC Audio Collections Support Engaging, Non-Commercial Radio Programming -- On Deadline! (Hannah Sommers and Lorne Shapiro) -- "The Jazz That Made Milwaukee Famous: Newly Digitized Tapes from the John Steiner Collection at the Chicago Jazz Library." (Deborah L. Gillaspie) -- "Wreck Up a Version: King Tubby, Dub Reggae, and the Roots of Sampling" (Brandon Burke) -- "The Golden Age of Irish Music Recording" (Harry Bradshaw) -- "Nadia Boulanger: The Polish Relief Concert -- April 4, 1941" (Gary Galo) -- "The Masters of Finnish Folk Music: Releasing Erkki Ala-Koenni's Historical Folk Music Recordings" (Lari Aaltonen and Pekko Kaeppi) -- "How to Play a Record: A Method for Optimizing the Stylus/Groove Interface" (Doug Pomeroy) -- James P. Leary on his recent book, "Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music"

The topic of this year's Technical Committee Roundtable is "Small-Scale Audio Preservation Storage and Management Issues and Solutions" Talks planned for this session are: -- "The Best-You-Can-with-What-You-Have Practices: Digital Audio Preservation in a Small Non-Profit Institution" (Andy Kolovos) --"The Bits That Bite at the New York Philharmonic: The Long-Term Storage Conundrum" (Adrian Cosentini) -- "The Transitional Repository -- A Safety Net for Small Digital Preservation Projects" (John Spencer)

On Friday evening, bring your technical questions to the "Ask the Technical Committee" session, or share your expertise or favorite collecting story at the "Collectors' Roundtable."

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP: "Preservation of Audio in the Digital Domain"
This one-day workshop covers the basics of preserving audio in the digital domain, addressing difficult issues concerning equipment, technical metadata, workflow, and storage. Archivists, librarians, and collection managers -- anyone who works with archival sound recordings -- will receive guidance on formulating solid digital-preservation strategies, and a greater understanding of the issues involved in working effectively with IT personnel, audio engineers, and others pursuing the preservation endeavor.

The workshop will be held Wednesday, May 2, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., at the hotel's Regency Ballroom. The workshop registration fee is not included in the conference registration fee. Early workshop registration (postmarked by April 9) is $75 for ARSC members, $85 for non-members, and $40 for students.

Detailed information about the workshop can be found at:
http://www.arsc-audio.org/Workshop_Flyera.pdf

CINEFEST 27
CINEFEST is an annual festival of archival motion pictures which is presented by the Syracuse Cinephile Society. Established by the late Phil Serling in 1980, the event is still going strong, attracting classic film enthusiasts from around the world to the Holiday Inn on Electronics Parkway in Liverpool, New York. This year’s CINEFEST will run four days from Thursday, March 15th through Sunday, March 18th. Nearly thirty silent and sound feature films produced between the early 1900’s through the early 1940’s will be screened as well as many rare selected short subjects. Other highlights include an auction, a special 35mm show at the Palace Theatre, film-related dealer rooms and notable special guests.

Sunday morning will feature Cinefest’s annual memorabilia auction hosted by noted film critic, author and historian Leonard Maltin. Other attendees include representatives from such notable film archives as the Library of Congress, George Eastman House, plus several private archivists. Silent films will include live piano accompaniment provided by world-renowned musicians Jon Mirsalis, Dr. Philip C. Carli and Gabriel Thibaudeau.

This year’s film highlights include the features “The Night Of Love” (1927) with Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky, “Beau Brummel” (1924) with John Barrymore and Mary Astor, “I Was A Spy” (1933) with Madeleine Carroll, Herbert Marshall and Conrad Veidt and “The Captain Hates The Sea” (1934) with John Gilbert and Victor McLaglen.

The event will also welcome two in-person guests... Noted author and film historian Richard Bann and former child actor Jerry Tucker. Mr. Bann will be presenting rare Hal Roach-produced silent and early sound comedy shorts from his private collection throughout the event, and Mr. Tucker will be presenting his popular slide show of stars and scenes from his years in Hollywood. Mr. Tucker appeared in various “Our Gang” comedies of the 1930’s and portrayed Junior Tracy in the 1938 Republic serial “Dick Tracy Returns”. He also appeared in feature films with Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Barbara Stanwyck, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore and Mickey Rooney.

The registration fee for all four days is $70.00 or a daily charge of $25.00. The fee includes admission to the hotel’s film screenings and the memorabilia dealers’ rooms. Film showings begin at 9:00 am on Thursday and run through 5:00 pm on Sunday.

There will also be a special screening of 35mm films on Saturday morning, March 17th at the historic Palace Theatre in Eastwood, New York (about 15 minutes from the Holiday Inn where Cinefest is based). The Palace was built in 1924 and has been recently renovated, but still retains its nostalgic appeal. The program’s spotlighted features will be “The Spoilers” (1930) with Gary Cooper and “Her Husband’s Trademark” (1922) with Gloria Swanson.

Separate admission for the 35mm program is $25.00 and includes bus transportation from the hotel to the Palace Theatre and back to the hotel at the conclusion of the 35mm program. The motion picture related memorabilia dealers’ rooms will be open to the general public on Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Photographs, posters, videos and miscellaneous movie related items will be on sale. Admission to the dealers’ rooms on Saturday is $5.00 and may be credited toward a full day’s Cinefest admission.

Program, hotel and registration information may be found by logging onto: www.picking.com and selecting the "Cinefest 2007" icon. Cinefest is sponsored by the Syracuse Cinephile Society. For more information, please contact Bob Oliver at (315) 409-4625 before Wednesday, March 14th.

Kansas Silent Film Festival - Feb. 23-24
White Concert Hall, Washburn Univeristy - Topeka, Kansas
Most films are shown with live accompaniment by organists Marvin Faulwell and Greg Foreman or by the Mount Alto Orchestra; film historian Denise Morrison will introduce each film, and film restoration expert David Shepard will make a presentation on the afternoon of the 24th.
http://www.kssilentfilmfest.org/kssff2007/promo.html
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/movies/16697993.htm

UCLA Film & Television Archive's Research and Study Center is offering a Visiting Researcher Stipend program for 2007
To support the work of scholars and encourage access to collections, the UCLA Film & Television Archive's Research and Study Center is offering a Visiting Researcher Stipend program for 2007. Two stipends in the amount of $2000 will be awarded, with applications closing on May 21, 2007. Applications are open to current students, faculty and staff from all academic disciplines. For eligibility and application information, visit the Archive's website at:
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/access/researchstipend.html
or contact Mark Quigley, Manager, Archive Research & Study Center, at arsc@ucla.edu.

Subject: Call for Contributors -- Mockumentaries (3/1/07)
A limited number of contributors are being sought for additional entries to an edited volume on mockumentaries.

In an entertainment era overwhelmed by "reality" shows, the parody and satire of the mockumentary, or "fictional documentary," take on even greater appeal. From the BBC's 1957 April Fool's broadcast of Panorama's "Swiss Spaghetti Harvest" to the genre's latest addition, To Kill a Mockumentary (2006), mockumentaries have critiqued, lampooned, and had a good, hard laugh at everything from the taken-for-granteds of everyday life to our most cherished cultural icons. This volume will explore the powerful social and cultural commentary inherent in fictional documentaries, as well as their evolving roles in the wider cultural contexts from which they emerge.

Of particular interest are essays on historical mockumentaries, mockumentaries commenting on social class, mockumentaries originating outside the United States, as well as authorship of these fictional documentaries -- particularly articles written by mockumentarians about their film projects.

Please direct inquiries and proposals no later than 1 March, 2007 to:
Cynthia Miller
Scholar-in-Residence
Emerson College
cymiller@tiac.net

The Department of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences at Rhode Island School of Design would like to invite applications from scholars who would be interested in teaching an intensive six-week undergraduate seminar during its 2008 Wintersession term (January 3 - February 13).
The Department offers a concentration in media studies for the B.F.A. degree and serves students from across the College, including those from RISD's Film/Animation/Video Department. The course topic should explore the history, practice, and/or cultural meanings of documentary film, past or present. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in an appropriate field, but the rank is open. Salary would be for the course only.

Please send (e-mail preferred) a letter of application, with a CV and draft course description, by March 15, 2007, to:
Professor David Warner, Department Head
Department of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences Rhode Island School of Design
2 College Street
Providence, RI 02903

Films from the Home Front – Website Launch - A new website featuring films of life on the home front in Britain during the Second World War is has just been launched.
http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/homefront

Screen Archive South East, at the University of Brighton, in partnership with six other English Regional Film Archives, is launching the site as part of a £225,000 film archive project which forms part of the Big Lottery Fund’s £10 million Their Past Your Future (TPYF) programme, and was created with funding distributed by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

Over the last year all of these archives (London Screen Study Collection, Media Archive for Central England, Northern Region Film and Television Archive, Screen Archive South East, South West Film & Television Archive, Wessex Film & Sound Archive, Yorkshire Film Archive) have researched and digitised significant World War Two films from their collections for integration into this new online historical resource. The site, ‘Films from the Home Front’, offers free public access to these selected films, the majority of which are being made available to the public for the very first time.

This new lifelong learning resource is dedicated to giving people of all ages the opportunity to discover more about the impact of the Second World War and the immediate post-war period on everyday life. It offers a unique perspective on the lives of ordinary people in Britain on the home front as seen through amateur films and home movies and alongside more ‘official’ sources such as newsreels and government films.

Margaret Cooney Big Lottery Fund Deputy Director Policy and Partnerships said: "This last strand of funding will bring about a new and enhanced dimension to the way in which we view our recent history. The quality and accessibility of the new digitisation project will provide a highly effective tool for learning, both inside and out of the classroom, to help people of all ages to understand and recognise the importance of sacrifices that people made during the Second World War."

Justin Cavernelis-Frost, MLA’s Head of Archive Development, said: "This website connects us to our past and to our involvement in the Second World War. The MLA is pleased to have contributed to its creation and that these archives stand strongly alongside traditional educational resources."

The site is organised into major themes, which explore issues characterising life during the war. These include: Children in War-time, Civil Defence, Community Life, Displaced People, Home and Family Life, Women's Role on the Home Front and Victory Celebrations in 1945.

They explain how the films reveal many dramatic changes that took place in the country during this period. In addition, each of the archives has its own section on the site highlighting how the films fit into the story of their region during the Second World War.

Films from the Home Front is part of the wider ‘Moving History’ website which presents other films from UK archives on all subjects and aspects of film history across the twentieth century.

‘Films from the Home Front’ can be visited at: http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/homefront

Further information/contacts:

Screen Archive South East: 01273 643213
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 3940

The partner archives involved in the scheme are:

London Screen Study Collection / London’s Screen Archives: the regional network
Media Archive for Central England - 0116 252 5066
Northern Region Film and Television Archive - 0191 277 2250
Screen Archive South East - 01273 643213
South West Film & Television Archive - 01752 202650
Wessex Film & Sound Archive - 01962 847742
Yorkshire Film Archive - 01904 876550

Screen Archive South East

Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. Established in 1992 at the University of Brighton as the South East Film & Video Archive, the function of this regional screen archive is to locate, collect, preserve, provide access to and promote screen material related to the South East and of general relevance to screen history.

MLA
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council works with the nine regional agencies in the MLA Partnership to improve people’s lives by building knowledge, supporting learning, inspiring creativity and celebrating identity. The Partnership acts collectively for the benefit of the sector and the public, leading the transformation of museums, libraries and archives for the future. Visit: www.mla.gov.uk. Media Enquiries: Anne Marie Todaro, Media Relations Manager, MLA tel: 020 7273 1472. Urgent news media enquiries until 7pm: 07747 564 209.

The Big Lottery Fund
The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project. The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money. UK-wide, the Big Lottery Fund will distribute through its new programmes and allocations funding worth over £2.6bn between now and April 2009. Regularly updated information on the Big Lottery Fund's new programmes is available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/publications.htm

Veterans Reunited / Their Past Your Future
In January 2004 the Big Lottery fund launched its Veterans Reunited programme to provide funding to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the events leading up to the end of the Second World War. The programme comprised three different schemes: Heroes Return, Their Past Your Future, and Home Front Recall. Taken together, these three schemes helped ensure that all generations of UK residents commemorated the 60th anniversary together, both at home and abroad.

Their Past Your Future- £9.6 million was awarded to this UK-wide schools and education scheme to give young people the opportunity to learn first-hand from veterans about their experience of war. The Big Lottery Fund worked closely with the Imperial War Museum, the museums, libraries and archives sector UK-wide, and local education authorities to help young people learn about the personal experiences and roles played by forces personnel and civilians. See www.theirpast-yourfuture.org.uk for further information.

ENS Louis-Lumière - The National Film, Photography & Sound Engineering School
June 1st and 2nd, 2007 Paris International Seminar in partnership with FIAT, INA and FOCAL
Mastering the transition between Standard Definition and High Definition TV in AV production and post production
Call for submissions

HDTV is there. Technology is now available and cost effective. HD TV is a highly potential market for production and remastering. Digital High Definition will greatly influence the way TV programmes will be produced and diffused. This will lead to changes in the complete production and post-production film and video workflows.

Public and commercial broadcasters, national audiovisual archives and technical companies catering to the broadcasting industry, programme and footage producers are all directly concerned by this technological evolution.

In the current transitory period between two technologies, it is essential to fully understand the technical, artistic and economical challenges of the transition from Standard Definition to High Definition. The main changes in daily practice and in long term strategies need to be correctly evaluated, both for programmes production and post-production and for their preservation and storage.

The Louis-Lumière National Film, Photography & Sound Engineering School aims at standing at the forefront of professional concerns in an ever-changing technological environment. Three years ago, Louis-Lumière School started to get involved in High Definition and is now the first School for Cinema to have invested in a HD platform.

The Louis-Lumière National Film, Photography & Sound Engineering School, in partnership with FIAT, INA and FOCAL, organises a 2 days International Seminar June 1st and 2nd, 2007, to help all those concerned by the outstanding issues challenging broadcasters, programme producers, archivists and managers in this transition from SD to HD.

This Seminar intends to explore all these issues and perspectives. We expect contributions for the 4 sessions as set in our preliminary programme.

Preliminary programme :
June 1st, 2007 :
Morning : Basics of High Definition TV. This session will provide all necessary information on TV HD and will introduce the relation with Cinema (HD and 2K, 4K Cinema data). DRM. Carriers : HDCAM, SD, HD D5, HD XDCAM … LTO, SDLT, HDD, HD DVD ROM (essence and metadata). Ultra high definition (NHK).

Afternoon : From SD to HD. This session will explore the video and audio technical and artistic issues of the transition from SD to HD, both in production and in post production. Aspect ratio (from 4 :3 to 16 :9), equipments, compression (MPEG4, MJPEG 2000), audio remastering. Tools : scalers, up converters, aspect ratio converters. Current SD-HD conversions solutions, their limits, pros and cons. Cathode-ray and flat screens. Storage : a matter of size ? Economics of SD to HD conversion. Economics of HD compared to that of SD : up and downs, where HD is more affordable …

June 2nd, 2007 :
Morning : SD and HD : happy to live together ? Broadcasters, footage and programme producers, and archivists will have to face the many issues of combining and mixing archive SD material with new HD material. Issues such as : - up conversions tools and solutions, workflows, quality to cost ratio, pros and cons, strategies, - options for 4 :3 conversion to 16 :9, aspect ratio converters. 4 :3 to 16 :9 … the side pillars of wisdom ? - impacts of up conversion.
- what level of quality can be expected in audio remastering into 5.1 ? - can we draw some best practices? - who is going to pay for it ?
- footage producers' points of view. - relation between HD and hybrid production and post-production workflows and standards of diffusion (compression). - digital SD intermediate
- HD as an alternative to 16mm film preservation ? Blowing up 16mm into 35mm via HD 2K scan.

Afternoon : case studies on SD use in HD production and post production. The goal of this session is to bring together content producers, caretakers and archivists, managers, service providers and vendors to give concrete examples of different approaches (in-house and outsourced solutions). All topics of sessions 2 and 3 may also be reviewed through case studies in this last session.

Presentations and Q&A will be translated from French to English and from English to French.

Call for submissions : An important goal of this Seminar is to present a balanced programme of theory and practice. The programme is intended to address topics of concern to diverse perspectives and constituencies and to archivists at all levels of experience. We invite the submission of high quality papers that present the state of the art, report original research or critically discuss underlying methodological issues associated with the main themes of the Seminar.

Submissions are expected for :
- topics presentations of a maximum 40 minutes (35' for presentation and 5' for Q&A) - case studies: maximum 30 minutes (25' for presentation and 5' for Q&A). There should be case studies where a solution has been created in-house, and case studies where a solution (or a part of a solution) involved outsourcing to a service provider or a vendor. Case studies should show projects that are active, or were recently completed. Presenters of topics presentations and case studies should submit an extended abstract of 1000 words. Speakers who are accepted to give topics presentations are also requested to submit a full paper (no PowerPoint Slides) for publication of the Seminar Proceedings.

Proposals are due 1st week of march 2007. Notification of acceptance will be emailed to authors. Final copy of full papers for publication of the Proceedings should be received by May 24, 2007.

Important reminder : Speakers will be granted free registration. All other expenses (travel and accommodation, etc) must be secured by institutional or personal funding. The Editorial Board's task is to ensure a balanced and professional programme that will meet the expectations of the participants.

Registration : Registration will be opened on March 12, 2007. Registration fees :
- 250 € for early bird registration received before April 20, 2007 - 300€ for registration received after April 20. Registration will cover : access to the conference room (2 days), translations, coffee breaks and lunches, access to exhibitors' stands, and proceedings. Hotel reservations will be handed over to an organisation that will offer a wide range of hotel categories and rates in Paris centre.

Seminar Venue : The Louis-Lumière National Film, Photography & Sound Engineering School is located East of Paris, a 25 min ride on RER from Paris centre.

Information and contacts : Information regarding the final programme, registration and accommodation will be posted on our website (www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr and FIAT and FOCAL will release this information. Any request should be addressed by mail :
r.billeaud@ens-louis-lumiere.fr by phone : +33 1 48 15 40 27 or fax : +33 1 48 15 40 12

Call for Papers - African Films and Criticism
Editions L'Harmattan, collection Images plurielles, 2007

When approaching African films, can one produce anything other than a critical work, that is assess the reception and the experience viewers have of those films? That is the case with any film, but it seems that this issue remains more complex with African films, mainly because they refer to other cultures for which our critical a priori may be transformed into ethnocentric prejudices. At the same time, films, including those from Africa, are part of a world system in which they meet audiences of all cultures and nationalities. Beyond the often reported problem of African productions targeting mainly Western spectators, the issue of the criticism remains when one is interested in the aesthetics of African cinemas or audio-visual media, a question which can not be dodged in the name only of a difference of these films and cinematic or audio-visual practices or because of the difficulty to get deeply implanted into the African milieus.

However, what one notes is a certain shortage of criticism, whether considered as a result of the specific state of African cinema or audio-visual media, their integration within the socio-cultural environment or these double relationships to cinema (or audio-visual media) and to culture. At the same time, some critical discourse has appeared and has accompanied the development of cinemas and audio-visual media in Africa, often from a point of view matching the political awakening, which has brought about the vocation of a number of African directors. From these first critical attempts, a necessity for criticism seems to exist beyond the difficulties and the stakes bound to the modernity of the critical activity. However, this necessity should be clarified and analyzed in detail, on the one hand with regards to the situation of African cinema or audio-visual media, and on the other hand with regards to the conceptual development of which the very question of criticism has been the object, a development that is impossible to ignore. The point is that in spite of the near inexistence of criticism and the emergence of its necessity, a contestation of criticism has occurred. The difficulty here is on the one hand that this contestation could be based on the idea that existing critical work would not fulfil its purpose (of understanding, judgement, mediation, etc.), but would merely be itself a media accompaniment of a production largely dependent on institutional support throughout the world, and on the other hand, a contestation of criticism has also appeared through various essentialists conceptions developing a very specious idea according to which this very issue of criticism would not have to be asked when dealing with African cinema or audio-visual media.

In the face of this contestation, critics should undertake with a certain urgency, a reflexive and analytical work on African film and criticism, notably by evaluating conditions for possibilities rather than a framework which would be predetermined in theory and would allow to definition of the relationships between the films (or cinematic and audio-visual practices) and criticism. One of the first conditions for criticism to become possible is the existence of an open society with democratic practices of discussion and confrontation from different points of view. This does not mean that a democratic context would be the condition for the existence or the development of criticism - a number of films and cinematic or audio-visual practices in Africa would just have to surrender then - but that criticism, maybe like the practice of some African directors, contributes or takes part in the emergence of such a context where an opening exists from exchange to disagreement and allows a better expression of ideas.

The objective of this publication is not to account for the various discourses that have been elaborated concerning African cinema or audio-visual media, but to concentrate on the role of criticism in relation to films and to the cinematic or audio-visual practices in Africa - necessarily favouring the point of view of the recipient. In this perspective, the role of criticism can neither be considered independently of African film and cinematic or audio-visual practices nor be anchored within an ideological framework in which it would only play a secondary role; it remains bound to a cognitive relationship with African film. Contributions could be formed along to the following four frameworks: from an 'empirical' point of view, it would be a question of describing a critical activity specialized in African film; from a 'historical' point of view, it would also be a question of reconsidering more completed attempts of critical discourse, which have followed the development of African cinema or audio-visual media; from a 'sociological' or 'anthropological' perspective, it would be a question of specifying the relationships between critical discourse and socio-cultural practices as one speaks about African film and cinematic or audio-visual practices; finally, on a 'theoretical' level, it would be a question of setting up a thought simultaneously holding into account the situation of the African cinema or audio-visual media and the analysis of the question of the critique as worked out by the aesthetics or the philosophy of art. In another aspect, while speaking about the "African cinema or audio-visual media", one should also include those from North Africa.

This project would like to consider any proposals, and not only those from experts of the African cinema or audio-visual media. The main criteria of selection and evaluation will be related to the rigor of the analysis and its originality with regards to the subject matter such as stated here. The abstracts for proposal of approximately 250 words should be sent in French (or English) before March 31, 2007 directly to the e-mail address of the editor listed below. The authors whose proposals have been accepted will be contacted; a deadline for the reception of articles will be provided at that time. The texts themselves will have to be written in French (or English). The possibility of a bilingual publication - in French and English - is being discussed; but this possibility will only be determined during the process of publication itself. Texts should not exceed 50 000 characters (footnotes included). The submissions must be original articles not yet published, to be carefully evaluated before being accepted. The work will be published in 2007 by the Editions L'Harmattan.

Editor: Samuel Lelievre.
E-mail: samuel.lelievre@film-art-culture.org ou samlelievre@free.fr

Appel à contribution - Les films d'Afrique et la critique
Editions L'Harmattan, collection Images plurielles, 2007
Peut-on faire autre chose, à l'occasion d'une première approche des films africains, qu'un travail critique, c'est-à-dire de porter un jugement en relation avec la réception et l'expérience que l'on peut faire de ces films ? C'est le cas concernant tous films mais il semblerait que la question soit plus complexe concernant ceux d'Afrique, principalement en raison du fait qu'ils se rapporteraient à des cultures différentes vis-à-vis desquels nos a priori critiques pourraient se transformer en préjugés ethnocentriques. Dans le même temps, les films, y compris ceux d'Afrique, sont partie prenante d'un système mondial au sein duquel ils peuvent rencontrer des spectateurs de toutes cultures et nationalités. Indépendamment du problème souvent rapporté d'une production africaine qui aurait le spectateur occidental comme horizon d'attente, la question de la critique demeure quand on s'intéresse à l'esthétique des cinémas ou audiovisuels d'Afrique, une question qui ne saurait être évacuée au seul nom d'une différence de ces films et pratiques cinématographiques ou audiovisuelles ou en raison de la difficulté à s'ancrer véritablement dans les milieux africains.

Ce qu'on constate, pourtant, c'est une certaine inexistence de la critique, que l'on attribue ce problème à la situation spécifique des cinémas ou audiovisuels africains, aux conditions de leur intégration dans les milieux socioculturels ou à ce double rapport aux cinémas (ou audiovisuels) et aux cultures. Dans le même temps, des discours critiques sont apparus et ont accompagné le développement du cinéma et de l'audiovisuel en Afrique, souvent dans une perspective similaire à la prise de conscience politique qui a pu être à l'origine de la vocation d'un certain nombre de réalisateurs africains. A partir de ces premières tentatives, une nécessité de la critique semble exister, au-delà des difficultés et des enjeux attachés à la modernité de l'activité critique.

Cette nécessité demanderait néanmoins à être clarifiée et analysée en détail, d'une part par rapport à la situation des cinémas ou audiovisuels africains, d'autre part par rapport à l'élaboration conceptuelle dont la question même de la critique a été l'objet, une élaboration qu'il est impossible d'ignorer. C'est que, malgré l'inexistence de la critique et l'émergence de sa nécessité, on a assisté, par ailleurs, à une forme de contestation de la critique. La difficulté réside dans le fait que cette contestation, d'une part, a pu s'appuyer sur l'idée selon laquelle la critique existante ne ferait pas véritablement son travail (de discernement, de jugement, de médiation etc.) au profit d'un simple accompagnement médiatique d'une production largement dépendante de soutiens institutionnels à l'échelle internationale et, d'autre part, a pu surtout transparaître à travers divers conceptions essentialistes développant l'idée très spécieuse selon laquelle la question de la critique ne se poserait pas au sujet des cinémas ou audiovisuels africains.

Face à cette dernière contestation, un travail réflexif et analytique sur les films d'Afrique et la critique semble urgent à conduire, en précisant qu'il s'agirait de s'interroger sur ses conditions de possibilités et non sur un hypothétique cadre théorique qui permettrait à tout coup de déterminer le lien entre des films (ou des pratiques cinématographiques et audiovisuelles) et la critique. Et une des premières conditions pour qu'une critique soit possible, c'est l'existence d'une société ouverte, c'est-à-dire de pratiques démocratiques de la discussion et de la confrontation de points de vue différents. Ce qui ne signifie pas qu'un environnement démocratique conditionnerait l'existence ou le développement de la critique - la plupart des films et pratiques cinématographiques ou audiovisuelles d'Afrique n'auraient alors plus qu'à rendre les armes - mais que la critique, de la même façon que la pratique des réalisateurs africains, contribuent ou participent à l'émergence même d'un tel environnement où, de l'échange à la dispute, une ouverture existe et permet une meilleure respiration des idées.

L'objectif de cette publication n'est pas de rendre compte des différents discours qui ont pu être élaborés concernant les cinémas ou audiovisuels africains mais de se concentrer sur la question de la critique en relation avec les films et des pratiques cinématographiques ou audiovisuelles africaines - privilégiant nécessairement le point de vue de la réception. Dans cette perspective, la question de la critique ne peut ni être considérée indépendamment des films et des pratiques cinématographiques ou audiovisuelles africaines ni être située dans un cadre idéologique au sein duquel elle n'aurait plus qu'un rôle secondaire à jouer ; elle demeure inséparable d'un rapport cognitif aux films d'Afrique. Les contributions pourront notamment se déterminer par rapport aux quatre champs suivants : d'un point de vue qu'on pourrait qualifier d'« empirique », il s'agirait de décrire de manière concrète une activité critique spécialisée dans les films africains ; dans une perspective qu'on pourrait qualifier d'« historique », il s'agirait aussi de revenir sur les tentatives plus achevées de discours critiques qui ont pu accompagner les cinémas ou audiovisuels africains dans leur évolution ; dans un cadre qu'on pourrait qualifier de « sociologique » ou d'« anthropologique », il s'agirait de préciser les relations entre discours critique et pratique socioculturelle quand on parle des films et des pratiques cinématographiques ou audiovisuelles africaines ; finalement, sur un plan qu'on pourrait qualifier de « théorétique », il s'agirait de mettre en place une réflexion tenant compte à la fois de la situation des cinémas ou audiovisuels africains et de l'analyse de la question de la critique telle qu'élaborée par l'esthétique ou la philosophie de l'art. Par ailleurs, on doit préciser qu'à travers l'expression de « cinémas ou audiovisuels africains », ceux d'Afrique du Nord sont pris en considération.

Ce projet souhaite accueillir les propositions n'émanant pas nécessairement de spécialistes des cinémas ou audiovisuels africains. Les principaux critères de sélection et d'appréciation sont relatifs à la rigueur de l'analyse et à son originalité par rapport au descriptif énoncé ici. Les propositions d'articles devront parvenir sous la forme d'un résumé en français (ou en anglais) d'environ 250 mots adressé pour le 31 mars 2007 directement à l'adresse électronique du responsable de la publication. Les auteurs dont la proposition aura été retenue seront contactés ; un deadline sera transmis à cette occasion. Les textes eux-mêmes devront être rédigés en Français (ou en Anglais). La possibilité d'une publication bilingue - en Français et en Anglais - est à l'étude ; mais cette possibilité ne pourra être confirmée qu'au cours du processus de publication lui-même. Dans tous les cas, la longueur des textes ne devra pas excéder 50 000 signes (notes comprises). Les textes, articles originaux non encore publiés, seront soumis à une évaluation avant d'être acceptés. L'ouvrage sera publié courant 2007 aux éditions L'Harmattan.
Editeur : Samuel Lelievre.

E-mail : samuel.lelievre@film-art-culture.org ou samlelievre@free.fr

The Past in the Present- History as Practice in Art, Design and Architecture
An International Interdisciplinary Conference Glasgow, 27th-29th October 2007
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART - DEPT. OF HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES - CFP

* What is the role of historical research and critical reflection in art, design and architectural practice?
* How is historical research and critical reflection in art, design and architecture informed by debates around leisure and commodification, pleasure and sensation, technology and mobility?
* How is historical research in art, design and architecture manifest in independent practice, study beyond the academy, cultural criticism and journalism?

This three-day conference aims to bring together a broad range of participants, including scholars, artists, designers, architects, museologists, curators, archivists and collectors, to debate the ways in which styles and genres from the past, both visual and written, have been reinvigorated in the present for celebratory, nostalgic, or critical ends.

The organisers welcome speakers from any discipline, including (but not limited to): art, design and architecture theory, history and practice; media and cultural studies; sociology; history; gender/queer studies; Asian and African-Caribbean studies; film studies; philosophy; new media and information studies. The conference will be structured using the following strands, with a special invitation for papers on the key themes indicated below:

Leisure and Pleasure:
* Nostalgic spaces of entertainment
* Retro-design and leisure
* ŒHeritage1 environments and tourism

Technology and Culture:
* New histories of art, design and architectural technology
* ŒDead1 media and obsolete technologies
* Re-visioning technology1s history

Historical and Critical Writing:
* Relationships to history in critical writing practice in art, design and architecture
* The uses and abuse of theory
* Redefining the critical canon

Proposals are invited for 20-minute presentations. Panel proposals of up to three speakers are also welcomed. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, to The Past in the Present, Department of Historical and Critical Studies, Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 6RQ. Abstracts may also be sent by email to pastinthepresent@gsa.ac.uk.

Deadline for abstracts: Tuesday 1st May 2007

An international conference hosted by the Department of Film Studies, Southampton University, and supported by the AHRC. September 14 - 16 2007
Keynote Speakers: Pam Cook, Sarah Street, Robert Tombs and Ginette Vincendeau.

Despite the cl