USC Cinema - Programs » Critical Studies » ZdC Student Group

Deaths of Cinema

March 23 & 24, 2007

The 1st Annual Critical Studies Graduate Student Conference

Organized by ZdC, the Critical Studies graduate student organization, in association with the School of Cinematic Arts.

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Description

Organized under the theme “Deaths of Cinema,” this conference aims to address contemporary concerns in the arts and humanities with changing technologies, production and exhibition practices, and academic research methods associated with cinema and other moving image media. The expansion of digital technology in the cinematic arts has led recent commentators to proclaim the “death” of cinema. Similarly, the academic study of cinema has been challenged in recent years by the growth of interdisciplinary fields and methodologies associated with Cultural Studies, Media Studies, and Visual Studies. We believe that these are important developments for students of Critical Studies and related academic disciplines such as History, Art History, English, Comparative Literature and American Studies, as well as for practitioners of the cinematic arts. Our conference will emphasize the historical and contextual aspects of changes in cinema, while also encouraging participants to think theoretically about the consequences of those changes.

Conference Schedule

Friday

Screening and discussion
Janie Geiser
Director, Loyd Costen Center for Puppetry & the Arts, CalArts
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Lucas 108

Screening list:
    IMMER ZU (1997, 8'30")
    LOST MOTION (1999, 11')
    ULTIMA THULE (2002, 10'16")
    TERRACE 49 (2004, 5'37")
    THE FOURTH WATCH (2000, 11')
    MAGNETIC SLEEP (Episode #1) (2006, 7')

Saturday

Breakfast
9:15 – 10:00am
Bogardus Courtyard

Smashing the Object: Theorizing and Materializing the End
10:00 – 11:30am

Erika Balsom (Brown University)
    "From Bad Object to Lost Object: the desires of film theory"
James Leo Cahill (USC)
    "And Afterwards? Martin Arnold's Phantom Cinema"
Luis Recoder (independent filmmaker)
    "The Death of Structural Film"
Respondent: Professor David James

Rejuvenating the Spectator: Shifts in Viewing Practices
11:45am – 1:15pm

Emily Conlon (USC)
    "Film in the Age of Digital Duplicity: Why the War Against Movie
    Piracy is More than Just a Financial Fight"
Murray Leeder (Carleton University)
    "Skeletons of Early Cinema: William Castle and 'Gimmickry' in
    1950's Hollywood"
Thomas Stubblefield (UC Irvine)
    "Disassembling the Cinema: The Poster, the Film and In-Between"
Respondent: Professor Aniko Imre

Lunch
1:30 – 2:30pm
Bogardus Courtyard

Memorializing Death in Digital and Public Performances
2:45 – 4:15pm

Laurel Westrup (UCLA)
    "Media Martyrs? Rock 'n' Roll, Film and the Political
    Economy of Death"
Aimée Mitchell (York University)
    "Public Spaces and Augmented Trauma: Jay David Bolter's
    Oakland Cemetery Project"
Amelia Guimarin (UC Irvine)
    "MyDeathSpace and Cinema: Reconfiguring Life
    Through Memorials"
Respondent: Professor Anne Friedberg

Keynote address
"Viva Cinema! Or How Cinema Changes Incessantly In Order to Remain the Same"
Hamid Naficy
John Evans Professor of Communication
Department of Radio/Television/Film, Northwestern University
4:30 – 6:00pm

Closing reception
6:00 – 8:00pm
Bogardus Courtyard

All events in Leavey Library Auditorium unless otherwise noted.

Email questions and comments to usc.symposium@gmail.com.