Call for Papers for the Conference
Russian Cinema since 1991, disruption and perpetuation of heritage
that will take place on December 10-12, 2014
At the Ecole nationale supérieure Louis Lumière, Saint-Denis
Organized by the Laboratory ESTCA (Université Paris 8), l’Ecole nationale supérieure Louis Lumière, l’IRCAV (Université Paris 3), l’Université d’Aberyswyth.
The project is supported by Labex Arts H2H.
The profound aesthetical, economic and political changes that occurred in the Soviet cinema at the moment of the Perestroika have been studied by many researchers in Russia as well as in France and Anglophone countries mostly in the years that followed this social-economic and political upheaval There also existed studies concentrated on the process of deconstruction of the Soviet cinema in the years preceding the Perestroika, whether it concerned the system of production and censure or interactions between the film-makers and the system.
Russian post-Soviet cinema have been already existing for 20 years and presents an object of research that can bring about a new approach and yield more profound and specific results than before, and helps to outline the enlarged directions of the future research.
The conference is preceded by two events opening preliminary reflections on the subject: a workshop of May 5 in the National Institue of History of Art of distributors and academics concerning the distribution of the Russian films in France and a round table of producers and film-directors during th Week of the Russian Cinema in Paris on November 15 in the theater L’Arlequin. The Week will be an occasion for the French public to see more recent films that rarely cross the boarders and to meet their makers.
The goal of the present conference is to bring together researchers around the principal issues in the studies of the contemporary Russian cinema and to make an assessment in terms of disruption and perpetuation of heritage.
At the conference we would like to embrace all the aspects of the phenomenon, economical and historical as well as aesthetical ones.
Papers might deal with the following domains:
1.Film production and its structures, with a focus on the following subjects: economical contingencies that change radically after the collapse of the USSR and their influence on the film production and script-writing and aesthetical approach; the place of a producer and relations with TV; his new role in the ever-changing economy undergoing frequent reforms; issues and stakes of co-production; expansion of regional production and the emergency of new active studios in the provinces (Novosibirsk, Yakutia, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Khanti-Mansiisk); the place of old studios (Mosfilm, Lenfilm). Another point of interest is the relationship with the Soyuz Kinematografistov (Union of Cinematographers) and Kinosoyuz.
2. Exploitation and distribution of films in the situation of enlarged circulation in a new global context: a new system of film distribution and the relations with cinema managers; the issues of privatization; the exploitation of the contemporary Russian cinema on the territory of Russia after the arrival of multiscreen cinemas; the role of art-house films, the status of movie theaters yesterday and today, cartography of movie theaters, the DVD market and the role of the Internet.
3. Technological innovations: The technological disruption of the last 20 years and how this redefined the relationships between the artists and the State, the role ofdigital technologies.
4. The trajectories of film-makers who began filming in the Soviet period and had to readjust to the new context in terms of politics, production and distribution.
5. Criticism of the contemporary Russian cinema: perpetuation of the Soviet-period tradition and re-invention in the critical appreciation of films.
6. Position of the cinema in the global context: the role of festivals, accessibility of theRussian films and their circulation in a more globalized universe.
7. Film aesthetic: aesthetic aspects of art-house, commercial and genre cinema.
Invited speaker : Lubov Arkus.
The deadline for paper proposals is August 31, 2014, to be sent to:colloque.cine.russe.1991@gmail.com