- When:
- Saturday, April 5, 2003, 9:00am - 10:00pm
- Description:
- With Keynote Speaker Ben Singer (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and graduate students from University of Chicago, York University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lakehead University, UCLA, and Concordia University. Much scholarship over the past two decades has looked at the early years of cinema, focusing roughly on the period between 1895-1908. The concept of the "cinema of attractions" has been articulated, challenged, and developed, and there have been ongoing investigations into early narrative forms and genres, the composition of audiences in the nickelodeons, and so on. However, the period immediately following-the cinema of the 1910s-has not yet received similar sustained attention. This one-day conference has been organized to contribute towards our knowledge of this period, drawing together current research being done at the graduate student level. Conference Schedule: 9:30-10:45: Film, Science, and Technology: * Oliver Gaycken (University of Chicago): "'Perpetual Transformation and a Disconcerting Ubiquity': The Serial Film's Vernacular Scientific Aesthetic"; * Louis Pelletier (Concordia University): "'A Joyful Combination': The Talking Machine Industry Reacts to the Advent of Moving Pictures"; *Charles Tepperman (University of Chicago): "Gauging the Transition: Pathe's 28mm Format and the Non-Theatrical Film." 11:00-12:15: Stylistic Transformations: * Vincent Bohlinger (University of Wisconsin): "Characterizing Russian Symbolist Film: A Case Study of Evgenii Bauer's Daydreams (1915)" * James Cantarella (University of Chicago): "Transition to What? German Multi-Reel Films of the Teens" * Alyson Hrynyk (University of Chicago): "Kuleshov and Classicism: Engineer Prait's Project and the Russian Reception of American Cinema" 1:30-3:00: Reception and Production: * Michel Beaulieu (Lakehead University): "Chicago: Canadian Filmic Muse?" * Paul Moore (York University): "Film-going as Part of Toronto's Home Front War Effort, 1914-1918" * Rebecca Swender (University of Wisconsin): "Daring Maids vs. Working Elephants: The Effects of Censorship on Story in the Nickelodeon Era" * Billy Budd Vermillion (University of Wisconsin): "From Posters to the Post: Early Cinema Advertising, 1909-1915" 3:15-4:30: Character and Performance: * Arno Bosse (University of Chicago): "Figurative Gestures: Histrionic Metaphors in Emerich's Die Schoene" * Maria San Filippo (UCLA): "The Girl Who Never Grew Up: Mary Pickford's Frustrated Femininity" * Katherine Spring (University of Wisconsin): "A Fool's Revenge: Operatic Adaptations and the One-Reel Cinema" 4:45-6:00: The keynote speaker, Ben Singer (University of Wisconsin-Madison), will be presenting, "Variety Programs, Feature Films, and the Crisis of the Late Nickelodeon." 8:00-10:00: Screening with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin: An Aeroplane Disaster Near Paris: May 21, 1911 (Gaumont) 3m Suspense (??? & Lois Weber, 1913) 10m Shipping Live Fish in Sealed Bottles (Edison, 1917) 3.5m The Woman in Grey, episodes 9 & 10 (Serico, 1919) c. 20m When the Clouds Roll By (Victor Fleming, 1919) 67m, starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
- Co-sponsored by the Adelyn Russell Bogert Fund of the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Committee on Cinema and Media Studies, and the Mass Culture Workshop.