BLACK FILM BRITISH CINEMA

CONFERENCE 2017

​

The Politics of Race in Contemporary Film and Digital Practice

 

18-19 May 2017, Goldsmiths, University of London

Institute of Contemporary Arts

 

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Professor Sarita Malik, Brunel University

Dr Kara Keeling, University of Southern California

June Givanni, Pan African Cinema Archives

Chi Onwurah MP​ 

Matimba Kabalika British Film Institute

 

Additional speakers will be announced as they are confirmed.

 

THEMES

Whether we consider the rise of the concept of diversity, the on-screen representation of identities, the off-screen workforce, the production trends of film institutions, new forms of independent production opened up by new media, or film education and talent development, questions of race and ethnicity remain central to contemporary British film.

 

This conference will mark nearly 30 years since the original Black Film, British Cinema conference at the ICA and its subsequent publication, which has been a huge influence on scholars exploring race, culture and the politics of representation. Some of its core thinking by Kobena Mercer, Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and others remains an excellent point to consider what has, and has not, become of Black and Asian film and TV production in the UK.

 

The aim of this two-day conference is to consider the politics of race in contemporary British cinema and visual practice and reflect on almost 30 years of black film production vis-a-vis the institutional, technological, textual, cultural and political shifts that have occurred during this period.  We invite scholars, early career researchers, postgraduate students and practitioners working at the intersection of film, TV, Moving Image, Media and Communication studies, Sociology, Politics and Cultural Studies. We would encourage contributors to reflect on themes, challenges and questions central to race and British film in terms of governance, production, representation, exhibition and spectatorship. These include (but are not limited to):

 

·       The politics of representation in contemporary film and digital practice

·       Diversity and film policy

·       The representation/politics of race in new digital platforms

·       Understandings of ‘Black film’ in the context of recent social, political and cultural change

·       The politics of gender and sexuality and intersectional approaches to Black and Asian film and visual practice

·       The political economy of ‘Black film’

·       The cultural, geographical and political contexts of Black and Asian film production

·       Participatory film cultures and movements

·       Methodologies for understanding contemporary film, representation and access 

·       Film in postcolonial and race critical theory

·       The relevance and cohesiveness of ‘Black’ as an ethnic category in film production, policy and criticism

·       New Ethnicities, the Black intelligentsia and film and TV production

·       The emergence of new sub genres (i.e Urban Film)

·       Higher Education, film studies and race, and approaches to Black film pedagogy

·       Race and diaspora in international cinema

·       Representation, identity and the ideology of race and ethnicity

Abstract Deadlines and Submission Process:

 

3rd February 2017. Deadline for paper submission. Please send proposals for 15 minute papers to https://goo.gl/forms/OKbsHOpw9qCgKaXh2

These should include the following: title and name, institutional affiliation and address, and email address, together with a paper title and abstract of not more than 300 words.

 

27th February 2017 Paper proposers notified of decision by conference committee. Conference registration opens.

Thursday 18th May 2017. Conference starts in London.

 

Conference Organisers: Dr Clive James Nwonka (University of Greenwich), Dr Anamik Saha (Goldsmiths, University of London)

 

Further enquiries please contact:

Dr Clive James Nwonka

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