Call for Papers for the 12th International Conference and Festival on Global Cult Film Traditions

Birmingham City University Presents:
Cine Excess XII: I Know What You Starred in Last Summer: Global Perspectives on Cult Performance
8th-10th November 2018
Birmingham City University (and related screening venues)

Confirmed Guests of Honour:
Victoria Price (Author of Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography)
-Victoria Price will be receiving a posthumous Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her late father on the 50th anniversary of Witchfinder General

Pete Walker (Director of Frightmare and House of the Long Shadows)
-Pete Walker will be receiving a Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the development of British cult cinema traditions
Over the last 12 years, the Cine-Excess International Film Conference and Festival has brought together leading scholars with global cult filmmakers and industry figures for an annual event that combines a themed academic conference with director interviews and UK theatrical premieres of upcoming film releases.

Previous guests of honour attending Cine-Excess have included Catherine Breillat (Romance, Sex is Comedy), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers), Roger Corman (The Masque of the Red Death, The Wild Angels), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, King of the Ants), Brian Yuzna (Society, The Dentist), Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria) Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), Franco Nero (Django, Keoma, Die Hard II), Vanessa Redgrave (Blow Up, The Devils), Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, House on the Edge of the Park) Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bast***s), Sergio Martino (Torso, All the Colours of the Dark), Jeff Lieberman (Squirm, Blue Sunshine) and Pat Mills (Action Magazine, 2000 AD).

Cine-Excess XII is hosted by Birmingham City University and will feature a three day academic conference alongside visiting international filmmakers and a season of related UK premieres and retrospectives taking place at screening venues across the region.

For its 12th annual edition, Cine Excess focuses on global traditions of cult performance, as exercised through a wide range of international case-studies and methodological approaches. By exploring established and new approaches to cult film performativity, the conference will consider how renditions of bodily display are mediated through a wide range of film genres. These examinations will include how Hong Kong martial arts formats become embodied through the performances of their male and female stars, as well as contemplating how iconic enactments, such as that of Boris Karloff in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) have reverberated intertextually since their inception. In addition to exploring the importance of gendered performance in the production and reception of disreputable film genres, other areas of conference analysis will consider how cult performers such as Gary Oldman nuance their roles through looks, expressions and gestures, or how performing cult bodies are rendered compelling in the way that they disappear, only to return endlessly (such as Michael Myers’ vanishing at the end of Halloween).

The conference will also take account of the importance of collaboration between cult directors and iconic stars, dissecting the off-kilter performances, deviant personalities and anomalous bodies found in the works of directors that range from David Lynch to Lars von Trier. In addition, Cine-Excess XII will also seek to analyse the status and reception of cult stars across differing global territories, as well as assessing how stardom can either be dismantled or confirmed through B-movie participation. Also central to certain forms of cult appeal, and compounding physical presence, is the performer’s voice, extending from the lyrical mellifluous tones of Morgan Freeman to the disquieting, sinister and uniquely compelling voice of Vincent Price. In this vein, we are pleased to welcome author Victoria Price, who will be accepting a posthumous Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement in recognition of her late father’s career, and to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his influential performance in the 1968 classic Witchfinder General. Also appearing as a guest with Victoria Price will be the legendary British horror director Pete Walker, who not only directed Vincent Price in the 1983 film House of the Long Shadows, but was also responsible for a range of prominent and controversial British shockers that included The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), Frightmare (1974) and House of Whipcord (1974).

In order to explore the central conference themes further, Cine-Excess XII will examine the importance of cult performativity across a wide range of genres, formats, national traditions and modes of critical interpretation. Proposals are now invited for papers that assess the centrality of the cult performer within these differing contexts.  However, we would particularly welcome contributions focusing on the following areas:

•         Theatres of Blood: Vincent Price In and Out of Cult

•         The Flesh and Blood Show: Perverse Performances in the Films of Pete Walker

•         Folk Females: Gendered Performances of Witchcraft and the Supernatural

•         1968 and the Cult Image: Cinematic Performances in an Age of Revolution

•         Screen Queens: Classic and Contemporary Cult Female Icons

•         Witchfinder General at 50: Bleak Images of Vincent Price’s Star Persona

•         Actor, Auteur, Icon: Cult Stars as Directors

•         Cult Pairings: Filmmaker and Star Collaborations at Cinema’s Margins

•         Divas and Dark Avengers: Critical Reinterpretations of Eurotrash Performers

•         Queer Scenes: LGBT Interpretations of Celebrated Performers

•         The Men and Women From Hong Kong: Asian Action Stars in Social Context

•         Lost and Found Fan Objects:  New Audience Studies Perspectives on Global Cult Icons

•         Creativity Masked: Cult Performance Behind Make-Up

•         On the B List: Mainstream Stars Reborn Through Bad Movie Appearances

•         Bigger Than Bond: Cult Renditions of the Superspy

•         Weird World Icons: The Transnational Appeal of Global Cult Performers

•         Immortal Icons: Ageing Performers, Dead Stars and their Enduring Cult Appeal

•         Big in Japan: Cult Performers Incorporated into Other National Traditions

•         Small Segment Scares: New Perspectives on the Portmanteau Performance

•         Cult Stardom Perspectives: New Methodological Approaches to Cult Film Symbols

•         Illicit Stars: Historical and Contemporary Erotic Film Icons Reappraised

•         Trashing the Screen Test: Cult Performativity within the Vendetta Film Cycle


Please send a 300-word abstract and a short (one page) C.V. by Friday 7th September 2018 to:

Dr Fran Pheasant-Kelly	
University of Wolverhampton
[log in to unmask]

Professor Xavier Mendik                                                                    
Birmingham City University             
[log in to unmask]                                                                

A final listing of accepted presentations will be released on Monday 17th September 2018.

Delegate fees for Cine-Excess XII are £100/£60 (concessions). This includes entrance to the conference, related Cine-Excess screenings and industry panels.  A selection of conference papers from the event are scheduled to be published in the Cine-Excess e-Journal.  For further information and regular updates on the event (including information on guests, keynotes and screenings) please visit: www.cine-excess.co.uk 

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