International conference of the ECREA Film Studies Section. Fri 10th and Sat 11th Nov 2017 at UCC.

27 Oct 2017

Keynote Speakers: Professor Ewa Mazierska (University of Central Lancashire) and Professor Chris Wahl (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf) 

European cinema has evolved from a homogenous and selective object of study, mostly shaped by frameworks of national industry, identity and culture, to a much more diversified field, reflecting the shift to a post-colonial, post-communist, post-national, globalised Europe. In the context of an increasingly diverse but also split society, in which social polarisation is on the increase due to the crisis of the Eurozone and the decline of the welfare states, and in which populism and nationalisms are on the rise, resulting in the strengthening of the Fortress Europe project, this conference aims to turn the spotlight on the less-represented and less-audible voices in European cinema in all its forms: fiction, documentary, mainstream, art house, independent, exploitation, art film. With an inclusive focus encompassing issues of production, distribution and reception, of representation and of form, of dissent and of control, the conference hosts contributions that engage from a wide range of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches with the politics of difference and with the representation and/or expression of alternative viewpoints in European films / in films made in Europe.