[Discussion] CFP: Reconciliation and Unification: Cinematic Reponses to E.U. Expansion (8/15/05; SCMS, 2/2/06-2/5/06)

[gpultar@cstgroup.org]

From: Zoran Samardzija <zoransamardzija@sbcglobal.net>

Society For Cinema and Media Studies
Vancouver
March 2-5, 2006

Reconciliation and Unification: Cinematic Reponses to E.U. Expansion

This panel seeks to explore how various European films and filmmakers from
Western and East-Central Europe as well as the Balkan states are responding to
the expansion of the E.U. and, more broadly, European history following the
collapse of communism. This panel asks: Is there a totalizing or even coherent
image of Europe that emerges from such films? Does this cinema imply that a
unified Europe fully reconciled with the turmoil of 20th century history is even
possible? Moreover, how do we understand such films in light of the fact that
one of the reasons cited for the Dutch and French rejection of the E.U.
constitution is resistance to further European expansion, in particular the
entry of Turkey into Europe?

Presenters may focus on, for example, how specific cinemas from Western Europe
have represented the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, the collapse of borders
between countries, and migration into the West from the former fringes of Europe
and even the Middle East. They might also explore these questions as they are
imagined in individual films, such as Fatith Akin's In July (2000) and Head-On
(2004), Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique (2004) or Michael Haneke's Code Unknown
(2000) and The Time of The Wolf (2003). Conversely, presenters may ask how
national cinemas from East-Central Europe and the Balkans have understood the
transition from communism to capitalism and the multiple processes related to
integration into the West, issues that are explored for instance by Emir
Kusturica in his epic film Underground (1995) and in Bela Tarr's Satantango
(1994).

Please e-mail 200-300 word proposals and a brief bio by August 15, 2005 to:

Zoran Samardzija
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
zs2@uwm.edu




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