Events

Cinematic Diasporas: New Media Cultures and Experiences

8th Annual CMS Graduate Student Conference

When:
April 13, 2012 - April 14, 2012, Daily, 5:00pm - 10:00pm
Description:

Can various new media experiences and cultures be understood as diasporas of cinema? The Department of Cinema and Media Studies’ 8th Annual Graduate Student Conference considers how forms of cinema disperse and transform as they intermingle with new media technologies and new cultures. The conference will include a keynote address by University of California professor Anna Everett and two film screenings: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright, 2010, 112 min, 35mm), and the Chicago premiere of An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Terence Nance, 2012, 94 min, DVD).

By approaching new media from a diasporic framework, we will explore two fundamental components of cinema’s shift in the new media environment: its increasing hybridity and the lack of clear boundaries separating cinema from other kinds of media; and the increasing number of national cinematic forms and the attendant lack of clarity surrounding the definition of cinema language and culture. View complete conference schedule and details here. Or download the Conference Schedule pdf (link above).

Anna Everett will deliver the keynote address, "'If you can type, you can make movies': Ontologies of Cinematic Diasporas." Professor of Film, Television and New Media Studies and former Chair of the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Everett’s work spans a wide array of topics including film and television history and theory, digital media technologies, critical cinematic reception in the black press, reality television, and race and video gaming. Her writings include New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality (with John T. Caldwell), AfroGEEKS: Beyond the Digital Divide (with Amber T. Wallace) and The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Afrocentricity and the Digital Public Sphere. Her most recent book, Digital Diaspora: A Race for Cyberspace, won the 2009 American Library Association’s Choice Award for outstanding academic book.

The conference will include two screenings:

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty - Chicago premiere, Friday, April 13, 7pm
Avant-garde storytelling in the key of noir, this Sundance 2012 favorite blends animation, live action, and narration to tell the tale of Terence falling in love with Namik. (Terence Nance, 2011, DVD, 95min)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Saturday, April 14, 6:30pm
Game on! Saturated in pop culture, video gaming and comic strip thrills, Scott Pilgrim is an eyeball surf across various mediums and styles that swipe across the screen like iPhone windows. (Edgar Wright, 2010, 35mm, 113 min)

Co-sponsored by The Franke Institute for the Humanities, The Department of Cinema and Media Studies, The Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and The Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture.