This interdisciplinary conference will examine cinematic and televisual cultural productions that fall under a broad "French-language" umbrella in order to map out significant trends as well as new directions in the study of global French-language cinema and television and its points of contact with other languages and industries. It also aims to explore the opportunities and limitations of adopting labels such as cinéma-monde, transnational, Francophone, and World Cinema, as critical frameworks.

Argument

This interdisciplinary conference will examine cinematic and televisual cultural productions that fall under a broad ‘French-language’ umbrella in order to map out significant trends as well as new directions in the study of global French-language cinema and television and its points of contact with other languages and industries. It also aims to explore the opportunities and limitations of adopting labels such as cinéma-monde, transnational, Francophone, and World Cinema, as critical frameworks.

The conference will conclude with a roundtable that will bring together ideas raised during the conference.

Main topics

We invite proposals in French or English for single papers and panels. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• New Francophone spaces in world cinema and television
• Transnational television and cinema in French (or partly in French)
• Screen media and/or digital media in the French-speaking world
• The notion of cinéma-monde or cinéma(s)-monde(s)
• Parameters, boundaries, and definitions of French-language and/or French cinema
• “Hubs” and emerging or overlooked  sites of French-language cinema (Montreal, Belgium, Chad)
• Film and television industries (production and/or reception of French-language cinema and television, funding sources, industry practices, etc.)
• Circuits and institutions of marketing and dissemination of French-language cinema (international and regional film festivals, cinema houses, etc.)
• International auteurs working in Paris or international auteurs not based in Paris but making films in French/in France (Aki Kaurismäki, Ursula Meier, Merzak Allouache, Amos Gitai, etc.)
• Directors whose work has intersected various Francophone spaces
• Linguistic issues and parameters of “French-language cinema”, non-French productions containing French dialogue, French productions with little or no French in them, multilingual cinema
• Interaction with and competition from English and points of contact with other languages in the Middle East, Africa, the Maghreb, and elsewhere
• Antecedents to contemporary World cinema in French
• Teaching French-language cinema to students who do not speak French

Submission guidelines

Conference participants will be invited to submit their papers for a special issue on the conference theme that will be published in Contemporary French Civilization.

The deadline for abstracts (300 words) is

March 1, 2016.

Please send abstracts and a short bio as a single attachment to WorldCinemaConference@gmail.com

Please contact Michael Gott (michael.gott@uc.edu) or Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp (lkealhofer@uri.edu) with any questions. 

The conference will be held on September 9-10, 2016 at the University of Cincinnati

Confirmed Keynote Speaker

• Bill Marshall (University of Stirling)

Confirmed Filmmaker

• Eva Pervolovici (Marussia, 2013, France/Russia)

Confirmed Roundtable Participants

•  Joseph Mai (Clemson University),
• Mireille Rosello (University of Amsterdam),
• Sylvie Durmelat (Georgetown University),
• Thibaut Schilt (College of the Holy Cross)

Scientific Committee

• Sylvie Durmelat (Georgetown University)
• Michael Gott (University of Cincinnati)
• Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp (University of Rhode Island)
• Joseph Mai (Clemson University)
• Thérèse Migraine-George (University of Cincinnati)
• Mireille Rosello (University of Amsterdam)
• Thibaut Schilt (College of the Holy Cross)

Sponsored by The University of Cincinnati Center for Film and Media Studies and Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, The University of Rhode Island, and Contemporary French Civilization