cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association at San Francisco State University is proud to announce its 14th annual Fall Conference: “Cinema in Crisis."

Crisis: a vitally important or decisive stage in the progress of anything; a turning-point; also, a state of affairs in which a decisive change for better or worse is imminent; now applied esp. to times of difficulty, insecurity, and suspense in politics or commerce [OED Online].

We have continually reached this critical turning point, politically, economically and culturally in both public and private spheres. The aim of this conference is to explore the ways that Film acts as a guide and a mirror, leading us through these impasses and turning points of a world in crisis all while providing insightful reflections of these historical chronotopic landmark shifts. Moreover, we want to question as to what extent Cinema itself is in crisis with the progressive digitization of the medium and the consolidation of Internet as a distribution platform of the future.

We are therefore looking for papers that address the multiple relationships between Cinema and crisis, welcoming creative approaches across a wide range of academic fields of study.

Topics could include:
*Representation of Crisis
*Crisis of Narrative
*Ethics and Economy
*Crisis of Capitalism
*Digital Technology
*Industry Studies
*Philosophy of Crisis
*Gender Representations
*Race and Ethnicity Studies
*Cross Cultural Cinema
*Crises in Film History

CSGSA is now accepting proposals for papers from faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Papers on any related subject will be considered. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday, June 15, 2012 at 11:59 pm PDT.
Abstracts should be submitted to the CSGSA via email attachment(i.e. word doc) at CSGSA@mail.sfsu.edu; abstracts must include the following information:

author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords

This year's conference will feature guest curator Elliot Lavine.

Elliot Lavine is a film curator, maker and educator who has been working in the Bay Area film community since 1975. In December 2010 he received the Marlon Riggs Award from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his "revival of rare archival and independent titles, and role in the renewed popularity of film noir and pre-Production Code features." In addition to putting on his lauded festivals, including I WAKE UP DREAMING: B FILM NOIR, NOT NECESSARILY NOIR and HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE exclusively for the Roxie Theater where he began working in 1990, he has been teaching at Stanford's Continuing Studies Program since 2006. Lavine left the SFSU Cinema Department in 1982 having made BLIND ALLEY (1981) which was screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Elliot will be presenting a film at this year's CSGSA Conference, with an introduction on the crisis of conformity, one that threatens to homogenize the domestic film industry and displace cinema as the pre-eminent art form of our poplar culture. He will highlight the notion that film should reflect, first and foremost, the primacy of the visual.

The Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association (CSGSA) is comprised of graduate students in the Master of Arts program at the Cinema Department of San Francisco State University. The purpose of the CSGSA is to serve as a resource for aspiring film scholars and filmmakers. We aim to cultivate a supportive and stimulating environment for those who are interested in all aspects of cinema and its related fields. Above all, we are committed to the constructive exchange of ideas and information for we believe this to be a fundamental asset in pursuing both professional and creative goals.  Each year, the CSGSA coordinates an international graduate conference dealing with a different film topic. 

Past Keynotes have included Melinda Barlow, Caetlin Benson-Allott, Petra Kuppers and Rick Prelinger.