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University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol
Thursday 12th and Friday 13th July 2007
> Click here to view the detailed programme overview (online)
> Click here to download the detailed programme overview (pdf)
Conference Programme - Abstracts
Panel 12: Alternative Film
Chair: Dr Kathrina Glitre
Unchained voices: strike films of Ogawa production and sound
Ayumi Hata, University of Ulster, Coleraine
voice / sound in cinema, japanese documentary film, japanese postwar history, modernism
This paper will examine how Japanese postwar independent filmmakers treated audio and visual elements for both the expression of their commitment to the contemporary upsurge of social movement and the stylistic exploration of a new verisimilitude, particularly focusing on ‘strike’ documentaries filmed by Ogawa Shinsuke and his comrades in the late 1960s. Their early films, from Sea of Youth (1966) to Winter in Sanrizuka (1970) were made before Ogawa Production started to constantly employ portable synchronizers such as Nagra or Éclair in their filmmaking, show a peculiar ensemble of close-up shots of strikers’ body parts – eyes, ears, hands and so forth -- with floating, asynchronous sounds of their voices. In fact, a series of unanchored speech claiming political justice sounds aerially light, set off by the tangible, solid textured but fragmented physical images. This contrast unintentionally reveals the fundamental incompetence of superficial ‘borrowed’ terminology of Marxism for the actual social revolution and, hence, evokes much interest in the ‘authentic’ tones of voice itself the individual strikers uttered in the film texts. Consequently, it led to Ogawa’s fetishistic pursuit of ‘true-to-life’ speech of his beloved villagers in Magino village films (1973-1986). Referring to other contemporary radical documentaries and socio-cultural context, we will reassess the historical contribution of Ogawa Production for their hidden attempt at ‘emancipating’ recorded voice or sound itself from the modernist
vision-centred hierarchy retained in the film world for ages.
"Will the real Black Panthers please stand up?" Representing the US Black Power movement in documentary film
Eamonn Kelly, University of the West of England, Bristol
documentary film theory, representation, black militancy
This paper will develop my current UWE based PhD research into documentary film representations of the Black Panther Party for Self Defence
(BPP). Using as a point of departure, Paula Rabinowitz’s work on documentary, They Must Be Represented, I will explore several short documentaries of the BPP made in 1968. I will argue that each film allows, in different ways, its makers to map onto its subjects their own specific ideas of what US black militancy represents at this specific moment. I want to explore further then, the form that this mapping takes, the stories being told and the reasons for their telling. I will argue further that each film maker has seized upon some of the conflicting political positions of the organisation at this time and worked, consciously or otherwise, to successfully convey these in their work.
I will concentrate on three films: Leonard Henny’s Black Power We’re Goin’ Survive America, Sally Pugh’s Huey, and Agnes Varda’s Les Panthers noir.
Guts and glory: The representation of the 'redneck' in contemporary horror cinema
Eimear Ballard, Warwick University
'redneck', horror cinema, road movie
The proposed paper draws on preliminary work from the author’s PhD which involves the analysis of representation of citizens from the American South, stereotyped in much recent American cinema as 'rednecks'.
Considering the widespread dismantlement of stereotypy in the preceding decades (in attempts to redress the images of minority groups), and particularly of that stereotypy propagated by cinema, it seems astonishing that the virulent negativity of ‘redneck’ imagery goes unquestioned. This imagery is encapsulated by a spate of stylistically and thematically similar films includes ‘Wrong Turn’, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘House of 1,000 Corpses’ (all 2003), ‘2001 Maniacs’ and ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ (both 2005), and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (2006). Each of these films repeats the same pseudo-folkloric storyline: a group of (‘Yankee’) teenagers, lost in the wilderness, encounters a (‘redneck’) monster. I aim to examine and discuss the motivations behind the creation of this new filmic subgenre, and the reasons why its popularity has been sustained in recent years.
I posit that these films betray a deep-rooted insecurity in the collective American psyche, a fear of internal rupture and of the resurgence of an internal ‘other’ lusting for revenge. The paper calls to attention the stereotype of the ‘redneck’, to question its existence and its tenacity as a modern revelation of an age-old terror of the wretched, the disenfranchised, and the vengeful.
An amicable controversy': the NAACP and Hollywood in the 1940s
Jenny Woodley, University of Nottingham
african americans, film, 1940s, civil rights
When Gone With The Wind was released in December 1939 to popular and critical acclaim there were those in the African American community who objected to the film’s glorification of slavery and the antebellum South. Amongst those voices of protest was Walter White’s, the charismatic executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Since the release of The Birth of a Nation in 1915 the civil rights organisation had been concerned about the power of film to influence racial perceptions and damage race relations. At the beginning of the 1940s, with war waging in Europe and debates about race intensifying in America, White picked up the NAACP’s campaign and took it straight to the heart of the industry: Hollywood. He attempted, through wining and dining, persuasion and pressure, to remove the worst racist stereotypes from American films.
This paper examines Walter White’s trips to Hollywood, his attempts to influence the industry, and the reaction he received, not only from the executives and producers, but also from the black actors themselves. White’s “amicable controversy” with Hollywood was significant because it illustrates the growing frustration with the black images which appeared on the screen, the place of African Americans in the film industry, and the increasing coalition between culture and civil rights.
Panel 1: Imperialism and Globalisation
Panel 2: Online Citizens and Democracy
Panel 3: Television Audiences
Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1
Panel 5: Reporting the Conflict
Panel 6: Journalism and Social Responsibility
Panel 7: Sexual Representations in Cinema
Panel 8: Popular Culture
Panel 9: Still Image
Panel 10: Branding, Advertising and Corporate Cultures
Panel 11: Film and Theatre
Panel 12: Alternative Film
Panel 13: Feminism, Gender and Identity
Panel 14: Fan Culture and Online Audiences
Panel 15: Public Service Broadcasting and Radio
Panel 16: Design for Screen
Panel 17: Uses of Music and Sound in Film
Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2
Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest
Note: Please be aware that the programme might be subject to changes. Please refer back to this page for a final programme overview nearer the conference. The final programme will also be communicated to delegates via email.
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