Dear all,
Thank you Felipe and JT - introductions from new members, very good idea. I think it’s time for the newly elected executive council to present itself, too, and tell a little bit about future plans.
As I mentioned in a short note after Sydney, we held an unofficial meeting during the last day of the conference in September. The posts were divided so that Kirsi Rinne (Aalto University, Finland) is chairperson, Kerstin Stutterheim (HFF, Germany) deputy chair person, Carmen Sofia Brenes (Universidad de los Andes, Chile) communications officer and Paul Wells (Loughborough University, UK) and Adam Ganz (Royal Holloway, London, UK) will share the tasks of treasurer and secretary. We wish to point out that the executive will work as a team and the posts are flexible rather than fixed.
At the moment we are drafting functions and writing an action plan. On the top of the upcoming tasks is to figure out how to further promote the development of our emerging field and support good projects. We are looking closely into different financial sources for networking activities and will hopefully start drafting applications. There are several other things on the agenda, more to follow.
We’ll continue with annual conferences and the locations for coming years have been lined up: 2013 in Wisconsin-Madison (hosted by JJ Murphy) and in 2014 at the Hochschule für film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf’ in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany (hosted by Kerstin Stutterheim). There has been talk about regional conferences, please share your thoughts on that.
Carmen Sofia Brenes as a communication officer will take the responsibility of the web site which hopefully opens soon. I’m sure all of you will contribute to the discussion section. This jicsmail list will still be running and is administrated by Ian W. Macdonald from Leeds.
Although SRN is now a formal organization we do hope to continue in an informal atmosphere. We would very much like to receive your contribution so please feel free to propose activities which should be accounted for.
For those of you who didn’t receive the electoral information (most of you did?) I’m briefly presenting myself. Carmen’s and Kerstin’s presentation are below, Paul and Adam will send theirs shortly. I’ve been working as a research coordinator at the Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Film, Television and Scenography (Helsinki Film School, for short) since 2002. For the past four years I’ve coordinated an Academy of Finland funded research project on screenwriting, Aristotle in Change. The project organized the second screenwriting research conference in Helsinki in 2009. Although I’m educated as a sociologist my work history includes film magazines, film festivals, film archive, ie. different positions in Finnish film culture (expect funding and production). I’ve participated in the meetings and conferences of the international association of film schools Cilect and its European counterpart Geect. At the moment I’m finalizing my PhD on experiences of artists undertaking doctoral degrees in Finnish art universities. I’ve also studied assessment and evaluation in art schools.
Carmen Sofia Brenes
I teach poetics and screenwriting at the School of Communications and in the Screenwriting Master Program (MGDA) at Universidad de los Andes, Chile. I have been visiting scholar at California State University, Fullerton.
My work is focused in the field of the rational fundaments of fiction. I understand cinema as a cultural institution and not only as entertainment. My investigation is specifically concentrated on screenwriting and story analysis, which I study under the light of Aristotle’s Poetics in dialog with contemporary authors: Paul Ricoeur, Juan José García-Noblejas, etc.
As a journalist, I am also interested in public communication. In this area, I see the professions of communication (journalism, screenwriting, PR, advertising) as practical activities (not strictly theoretical or purely technical), where professionals constantly take decisions about what to show, why and how. My view is that public communication is related to practical philosophy and therefore it has to do with politics, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics and poetics.
I have published three books on screenwriting -Tema e trama di un film. Leggere e scrivere una sceneggiatura per il cinema e la Tv, Franco Angeli, Milano 2001; ¿De qué tratan realmente las películas? Claves prácticas para analizar y escribir guiones de cine y televisión, Eiunsa, Madrid 2001; and Fundamentos del guión audiovisual (2 ed.), Eunsa, Pamplona 1992; and a monography on Frank Capra (Recepción poética del cine. Una aproximación al mundo de Frank Capra, Edusc, Roma 2008).
I have conducted several screenwriting and film reception workshops in Latin America, Italy, and Spain, and also work as consultant of screenwriting projects in Chile, Uruguay, Italy, Spain and Belgium.
Kerstin Stutterheim
I'm a dramaturg, researcher and Professor for dramaturgy and aesthetics in media, for fiction, series and non-fiction and supervisor for PhD-candidates at Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen ‘Konrad Wolf’ and other Universities. Since early 1990s author, editor, director and producer of documentary films. I’m also Member of German Film Academy and founder and first director (2008-2011) of the Institute of Art Research at HFF. I’ve published several essays on film history, film aesthetic and film language; editor of series on Dramaturgy and Aesthetics at Peter Lang Publishing and together with Hans Höger: design & politics. 2004; design & history, 2006;
books: Handbuch der Filmdramaturgie. Peter Lang Publishing, 2nd rev. edition, 3rd in print; Okkulte Weltvorstellungen in dokumentarischen Filmen des "Dritten Reichs", Weißensee Verlag 2000;
films: bauhaus - model & myth; flies & angels; myth, might and murderer; The Laundry; and more.
My fields of research are dramaturgy and narration, film language, aesthetic and media history. More at www.kerstinstutterheim.de; www.german-films.de.
Best regards,
Kirsi
Kirsi Rinne
coordinator (research and doctoral studies)
Aalto University
School of Art, Design and Architecture
Department of Film, Television and Scenography
+358 40 5929466
|