This workshop of the annual conference of the French Society of Anglophone Studies aims to tackle the topic of emancipation in audiovisual productions of the English-speaking world. Emancipation, as a film subject, refers to narratives of liberation or liberating struggles against forms of oppression, beginning with historical films that depict the liberation of a people or identity group(s). In the U.S. context, this ranges from films about the American Revolution to films and series on the abolition of slavery (Twelve Years a Slave, Steve McQueen, 2013; Emancipation, Antoine Fuqua, 2022; The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins, 2021) or the fight for civil rights and on the Civil Rights Movement (Selma, Ava DuVernay, 2014; Rustin, George C. Wolfe, 2023). These recent productions often metafictionally break away from canonical historical narratives, shifting the focus from a singular heroic figure to a collective voice, to collective voices, even within a movement.

In the British context, this includes films addressing the Celtic nations’ struggles for independence (The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Ken Loach, 2006; Outlaw King, David MacKenzie, 2018), as well as class struggle narratives portraying the working class’s resistance to aristocratic or bourgeois oppression as a form of emancipation (Peterloo, Mike Leigh, 2018). One might also consider films on the independence of former British colonies, be they directed by British filmmakers (Gandhi, Richard Attenborough, 1982) or by filmmakers from the Commonwealth (The Nightingale, Jennifer Kent, 2018).

Emancipation as a theme is not limited to historical films. It extends to other genres, such as war films portraying American or British interventionism as emancipatory (liberating oppressed peoples, resisting authoritarianism), or revisionist films in which the West is cast as the oppressor (Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean, 1962; Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola, 1979). Political emancipation of minority groups also plays a central role in genre films and series, especially science fiction (Star Wars, George Lucas, 1977; Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore, 2004–2010). Emancipation may also take on a formal dimension, as in films using minority languages (The Feast, Lee Haven Jones, 2021) or music (Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989) as acts of resistance or activism.

Films and series are used as tools for emancipation, either through activist or educational cinema, or through formal and discursive struggles (Documentary Film Movement). Beyond genres and styles, and beyond the way audiovisual forms become vectors for national or nationalist discourses, this workshop will also examine how identity groups have seized audiovisual media to explore the emancipation of women, sexual minorities (LGBTQ+ cinema), or youth, as in the case of teen pics and coming-of-age films. In the latter (If...., Lindsay Anderson, 1968; Dead Poets Society, Peter Weir, 1989; Thirteen, Catherine Hardwicke, 2003 ; A Way of Life, Amma Asante,2004), does education emancipate, or must one break free from an oppressive educational system?

Sexual emancipation, too, has marked the political history of audiovisual media, from the 1930s (Baby Face, Alfred E. Green, 1933) to the present day (Sex Education, Laurie Nunn, 2019–2023), through the 1960s (The Graduate, Mike Nichols, 1967), shaping the fight for more equal, inclusive, and uncensored media production.

Because emancipation is often seen as a liberating process for minorities and oppressed groups, it is frequently associated with "progressive" or "liberal" discourses. However, emancipatory narratives can also be found in productions aligned with "conservative," "right-wing," or even dominant-group ideologies. One may think, for example, of how U.S. conservative movements have adopted emancipatory rhetoric to promote ideals of individual freedom (Second Amendment rights, anti-communism), anti-statism, or libertarianism — values that have long shaped American film and television (The Fountainhead, King Vidor, 1949; The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer, 1962).

Form cannot be separated from content; thus, we are as interested in the industrial and theoretical considerations behind the camera as we are in the formal and creative strategies used to “represent” emancipation. Contributions may explore various contexts of creation and distribution as spaces of emancipation from commercial pressures and aesthetic norms tied to mainstream production and distribution systems: festivals (Sundance, Newfest), alternative circuits (cult cinema, midnight movies), cable networks (HBO, Adult Swim), or online platforms. One might also reflect on the aesthetic and theoretical debates of the early 20th century aimed at freeing cinema from its subordination to other arts—debates exemplified within the Anglo-American world by the concept of "pure cinema," of which Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most famous proponents.

Please send your proposals (around 300 words) and a short bio-bibliography to atelier.sercia.saes@gmail.com byDecember 1, 2025.

Best regards,

Hélène Charlery and Vincent Jaunas