Call for papers

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Aimed at academics, policymakers and media industry professionals, the 2017 conference will revolve around the phenomenon of glocal cinemas, understood as those cinemas conceived locally and in the local language, but aimed at a global audience.

In the last decades, film theory has embraced concepts such as “globalisation”, “transnational”, “post-national”, “diasporic” and “trans-regional”, and the long-established focus on North American and European cinemas has given way to analyses of lesser-known practices or creative expressions. Two forces operate today in the shifting landscape of world cinemas: globalisation and a reaction to this globalisation via the local and the ethnic. Communities that seek to tell stories from their cultural point of view and in their own language face extraordinary challenges in a market still dominated by Hollywood and other major industries. The organizers of this conference believe that it is through glocal cinemas that the world’s cultural and linguistic diversity can be affirmed, celebrated and/or critically examined.

We invite papers and panels on, but not limited to, the following topics:

Theorizing glocal cinemas:

  • From local to global.
  • Small cinemas and new directions in film studies.
  • Transnational and diasporic cinemas.

Glocal cinemas and the film industry:

  • Reaching audiences.
  • Funding and distribution challenges.
  • The role of public policies.
  • The importance of film festivals for glocal cinemas
  • The impact of new technologies
  • Production, distribution and exhibition alternatives for small cinemas

Linguistic diversity:

  • Linguistic accessibility for glocal cinemas
  • Multilingual films

Representation of diversity in glocal cinema:

  • Ethnic minorities
  • Gender representation
  • Sexual orientation
  • Age, class and disability

The other small cinemas

  • Experimental cinemas
  • Invisible cinemas