SWTXPCA 2013-CFP ParaCinema/Transgressive Film-Cinema Beyond the Mainstream Blockbuster

From: Weiner, Rob <[email protected]>

Call for Papers Para-Cinema Beyond the Mainstream-Beyond the
 Blockbuster-Transgressive/Silent/Trash/Exploitation/Art Cinema
Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations
http://www.swtxpca.org<http://www.swtxpca.org/>

Please make plans to attend our 34th Annual Conference
February 13-16, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center in

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

330 Tijeras NW

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102

Tel: +1 505 842 1234<tel:%2B1%20505%20842%201234> or
888-421-1442<tel:888-421-1442>



Proposal submission deadline: November 16, 2012

 The area chairs are pleased to be seeking submissions for paper
presentations on "Transgressive Cinema" for our seventh year at the SW/TX
PCA/ACA conference.  We encourage submissions on any aspect of
"para-cinema," a term attributed to film scholar Jeffery Sconce about films
beyond the mainstream.

"Transgressive" film can be in the realm of horror films, experimental/art
cinema, or classic and contemporary exploitation movies, among others.  The
limits of what can and cannot be said, done, or shown in a society are
prone to change. Consequently, the risqué nickelodeon films of the early
20th century seem quaint, with their images of bare female legs long having
lost the ability to induce gasping titillation.  Nonetheless, taboos
regarding violence, sexuality, race, and political beliefs (among others)
persist even in this age of post-everything.  We are looking for papers
that examine films from the past and the present, from "stag movies" shown
at American Legion "smokers" in the '50s to today's multiplex down the
street. And we're looking for papers that take up the question of how such
filmmaking helped redefine societal limits, for better or worse.  The list
of films that could fall under this category is very large, from the mass
of low-budget horror films to rare experimental shorts.  We also encourage
submissions that come from a wide variety of disciplinary and
methodological backgrounds, from classical Freudianism to Critical Race
Theory. We especially encourage papers that engage with the theoretical
concept of "transgression" in their presentations.  This area at PCA/ACA
has expanded a great deal since our first panel six years ago, and we hope
to continue to use this conference as a forum for scholarly discussion of
this often-neglected area of film studies.

In addition, this year we will also be continuing our well-received pairing
of a film screening followed by a roundtable discussion panel. Last year we
looked at Jean Cocteau's Blood of a Poet/Le sang d'un poète (1930) paired
with Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou (1929).  We had one
of the most well attended and liveliest discussions in the history of the
area. This year we will be looking at Georges Franju's 1960 classic Eyes
without a Face (Les yeux sans visage), a film steeped in controversy at the
time of its release.  If you are interested in being a part of this
roundtable, please contact us.

Other possible topics include:

*Any film that goes beyond the traditional notion of the mainstream

*Mondo films, especially ones that "exploit" a culture for the sake of
spectacle (we might even think of Flaherty's Nanook of the North in this
regard)

 *Pornography, including anything that crosses racial or class boundaries
(the persistent popularity of, say, Lexington Steele in this "post-racial"
era, for instance)

 *Films that fall to the extreme political right or left wing, including
films whose message has been assimilated into today's political mainstream
(anti-Communist propaganda, "hygiene" films depicting homosexuality,
sympathetic portrayals of minorities, etc.)

 *Extreme violence in cinema (documentary footage of death, controversial
scenes of sexual violence on film, the "realism" of blood and gore on
screen, etc.)

 *Can a blockbuster film be considered para-cinema?

*Silent cinema, or in a more contemporary setting The Artist as a
"mainstream critical" example of para-cinema.

These are just some general ideas; we eagerly anticipate discovering what
you have to say about this surprisingly broad and complicated set of topics.

Panels/presentations on filmmakers/directors are also welcome (e.g., Terry
Gilliam, David Lynch, Kenneth Anger, D.W. Griffith, Umberto Lenzi, Dario
Argento, Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke, Julian Temple, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred
Vogel, Jay Rosenblatt, Craig Baldwin, Lizzy Borden, Jean Genet, Monika
Treut, Richard Oswald, Samuel Fuller, etc.).

Panels/presentations on certain films are welcome (e.g., Day of Wrath,
Corridor of Mirrors, Driller Killer, Serbian Film, Different from the
Others, Guinea Pig, Irreversible, Blood of the Beasts, Cannibal Holocaust,
Boy with the Green Hair, The Woman on Pier 13, etc.).

Panels on certain actors/actresses would be welcome (e.g., Annie Sprinkle,
Vincent Cassel, Arch Hall Jr., Lon Chaney, Cash Flagg, Boris Karloff,
Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Harvey Keitel, etc.).



Please submit your title and 100- to 250-word abstract by November 16,
2012, through our website database, which can be accessed at:



http://conference2013.swtxpca.org



34th Annual Conference Southwest/Texas Popular/American Culture Association

Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center in Albuquerque,

New Mexico.

February 13-16, 2013

Submission Deadline: 11/16/12
Priority Registration Deadline 12/31/13
Conference Hotel:
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
330 Tijeras NW,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102
Tel: +1 505 842 1234<tel:%2B1%20505%20842%201234> or
888-421-1442<tel:888-421-1442>

http://www.swtxpca.org

 Co-chairs:

John Cline, University of Texas

Rob Weiner, Humanities Librarian, Texas Tech University Library

[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>



http://www.swtxpca.org<http://www.swtxpca.org/>