The aim of this conference is to shift the focus of the study of cinema, which is largely centred on Western Europe and the United States. It will bring to a close the 'Faire communauté(s) face à l'écran' research project (Université Paris Lumières, École universitaire de recherche ArTeC), which for three years has been examining the identities of cinema audiences and intermediaries involved in the exploitation and distribution of cinematographic entertainment in the twentieth century from a transnational and comparative perspective.

Presentation

This international conference will be held in-person at the Quai Branly museum, Paris. Access to the cinema theatre is through the museum's main entrance, then follow signs for "salle de cinéma" to the lower floor (no admission ticket needed).

The conference will be followed through the weekend by a series of film screenings (free admission). The programme is available here.

Register for the conference at: fairecommunaute@eur-artec.fr

Programme

Mardi 28 novembre 2023

9h30-9h45. Welcoming words

9h45-10h15. Introduction

• Morgan Corriou (Paris 8 University Vincennes - Saint-Denis), Caroline Damiens (Paris Nanterre University), Mélisande Leventopoulos (Paris 8 University Vincennes - Saint-Denis)

10h15-11h15. A sensory history of cinemagoing

Chair : Lotte Hoek (University of Edinburgh)

• Diana Anselmo (California State University) : "Négative Spaces: Bad Feelings in Silent Film Réception"
• Kristina Tanis (HSE University) : "Spending Free Time in Postwar Moscow: Patterns and Time Scales of Film Exhibition (1946-1955)"

11h15-11h30. Break

11h30-13h. Edges of empire

Chair : Aydin Çam (Çukurova University)

• Noora Kallioniemi, Aymeric Pantet, Hannu Salmi, Kimmo Laine, Tommi Rompotti (Turku University) : "Film Screenings in a Border Town, 1939-1944: The case of Vyborg"
• Lina Kaminskaite-Jancoriene (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre) : "The Beginning of Early Cinema in Lithuania from Socio-Technical and Post-Colonial Perspectives"
• Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou (Indiana University Bloomington) : "Going to the Movies in Italian Colonial Dodecanese"

13h-14H30. Lunch

14H30-16H. Migrations, minorities and diasporas

Chair : Jean-Marc Leveratto (University of Lorraine)

• Ayçe Toy Par (Galatasaray University) : "The Cinematic Practices of the Greek Diaspora ofImbros After 1974"
• Nataliya Puchenkina (Université of Lorraine) : "Conservatism and Nostalgia: Studying the Émigré Practices of Cinema-Going through Russian-Language Periodicals in Interwar France"
• Valerio Coladonato (Sapienza University of Rome) : "Decentering the Exhibition of Italian Auteur Cinéma in France: Sources, Intermediaries and Immigrant Audiences"

16h-16h15. Break

16h15-16h45. Film screening "Profession Kinomekhanik [Projectionist]: Cinefication and Traveling Cinéma in the Soviet Union", présenté par Thomas Lahusen (Toronto University)

16H45-18H15. Audiences under surveillance ( bilingual session : English and French )

Chair : Claire Dutriaux (Sorbonne University)

• Irina Tcherneva (CNRS) : "Soviet Cinéma and its Audiences: Identifying Spectatorship and Shaping Preferences (1950-1970)"
• Fernanda Pinto de Almeida (University of Western Cape) : "A Calculated Pleasure: South African Cinéma Ordinances and the Ordering of Film Viewership, 1917-1927"
• Odile Goerg (Paris Cité University/CESSMA), Gabrielle Chomentowski (CNRS), Céline Pauthier (Nantes University) : "Voir un film sous Sékou Touré (Guinée, 1958-1984). Entre public contraint et marge de manoeuvre"

Mercredi 29 novembre 

9h30-11h. Mapping, remapping and decentring

Chair : Ôzge Ôzyilmaz (chercheuse indépendante)

• Terezia Porubcanska (Masaryk University), Philippe Meers (Université of Antwerp), Daniël Biltereyst (Ghent University), John Sedgwick (Oxford Brookes University) :"Methodological Issues of Comparing Local Film Popularity Across the Iron Curtain: A Case Study of Ghent and Brno in 1951 -1953"
• Rachel Moseley-Wood (University of the West Indies), Rae-Ann Smith (University of the West Indies) : "Mapping Caribbean Cinéma: A Digital Humanities Project"
• Lies Van de Vijver (LUCA School of Arts), Daniela Treveri Gennari (Oxford Brookes University), Pierluigi Ercole (De Montfort University) : "How Minor Are the Minor Cinemas? Methodological Challenges on the 'Decentred' Venues Across 1950s Europe"

11h-11h15. Break

11h15-12h45. Roundtable:confronting new cinema history to extra-western spaces

Aydin Çam (Çukurova University), Ifdal Elsaket (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo), Maria Luna-Rassa (Pompeu-Fabra University)

Chair : Jean-Marc Leveratto (University of Lorraine)

13h-14h30. Lunch

14h30-16h. Rural spaces

Chair : Benoît Turquety (Paris 8 University Vincennes - Saint-Denis)

• Ian Goode (University of Glasgow) : "Towards a Non-Metropolitan Modernity: Geography and the Uses of the Sub-Standard Gauge"
• Lotte Hoek (University of Edinburgh) : "Amphibian Cinema for a Deltaic Audience"
• Ifdal Elsaket (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo) : "Rural Cinema Exhibition Practices and Audiences in Egypt"

16h-16h30. Film screening "Itinerant Exhibitors' Local Films in Mid-20th Century Rural France", presented by Caroline Damiens (Paris Nanterre University)

16h30-16h45. Break

16h45-18h15. Film agents

Chair : Anne Kerlan (CNRS)

• Yanping Guo (South China Normal University) : '"Making Peasants Understand Film': Projectionist's Oral Performance in Early Film Propaganda of Maoist China"
• Ôzge Ôzyilmaz (Independant scholar) : "Making of Interactive Readers and Imaginary Orient Star Selma: Cinéma Magazines in the 1930s in Turkey as an Intermediary Agents"
• Laurence Prempain (Independant scholar) : "From the Margins to the Peripheries: the Rôle and Place of the Roma in the Diffusion of Cinema in France (First 20th Century)"

Jeudi 30 novembre 2023

10h-11h. Questioning the national and state levels

Chair : Marie Pruvost-Delaspre (Paris 8 University Vincennes - Saint-Denis)

• Nadi Tofighian (Linnaeus University) : '"The Only Cinematograph Having People You Can Understand': The Many Faces of Early Cinéma in the Philippines"
• Nezih Erdogan (istinye University) : "Watching European Films, Dealing with National Sentiments: Cinema-Going in the Province After the Turkish Independence War"

11h-11h15. Break

11h15-12h45. Roundtable : theorising cinema history from alternative geographical viewpoints

• Kaveh Askari (Michigan State University), Laura Isabel Serna (University of Southern California), Judith Thissen (Utrecht University)

Chair : Teresa Castro (Sorbonne Nouvelle University)

13h-14h30. Lunch

14h30-15h. Film screening : "Researching, Watching, Programming: Collectively Bringing Communities to the Screen", présenté par Claire Allouche (Paris 8 University Vincennes - Saint-Denis) et Anaïs Farine (Sorbonne Nouvelle University / Saint Joseph University of Beyrouth)

15h-16h30. Transnational issues and multipolarity

Chair : Anaïs Farine ( Sorbonne Nouvelle University / Saint joseph University of Beyrouth)

• Pelle Valentin Olsen (University of Oslo) : "Agents of Copyright, Censorship, and Circulation on the Tigris: A Transnational History Cinema in Twentieth Century Iraq"
• Julie K. Allen ( Brigham Young University) : "Cinematic Transnationalism in Rural Australia: The Case of Broken Hill, NSW"
• Giovanni Vimercati (University de Californie) : "Being Modem in Beirut Cinemas: The Centrality of a Peripheral Market"

16h30-16h45. Closing remarks

16h45-17h. Break

17h30-18h30. Film screening Cien ninos esperando un tren (Ignacio Agüero, 1988, Chili, 56 mn), with English subtitles Presented by Claire Allouche ( Paris 8 University Vincennes - Saint-Denis)