Research symposium: Poetics and
Politics of Documentary Film - Building Bridges between the Theory and Practice
of Documentary Film
April 22 - 24, 2013 Aalto
University, ARTS, ELO Helsinki Film School, Finland
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Aalto University ELO Helsinki
Film School (Department of Film, Television and Scenography, School of Arts,
Design and Architecture) will host a symposium on the relationship between
theory and practice in documentary film. The objective of the symposium is to
build bridges between the practice and theory of documentary film.
The symposium seeks to find ways
to “theorize within” film instead of “theorizing about” it. Theory can be
understood as an active tool in catalyzing the new politics and poetics in the
practice of documentary filmmaking.
AIMS
The main objective of the
symposium is to further promote dialogue between the new and emerging field of
practice-based research and the traditional academic film studies on
documentary film. The symposium will provide a forum for discussions on the
possibilities and approaches related to practice-based research and the
theorizing that stems from artistic work. The symposium will create important
opportunities for networking for all interested in conceptual approaches in
documentary film, whether practice or theory based.
The international keynote speakers
are leading scholars in the area of documentary film theory. The
Vietnamese-American filmmaker and theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha and the British
film scholar and filmmaker Brian Winston will both reflect on questions of the
synergies and connections between theory and practice.
CALL FOR PAPERS AND
PRESENTATIONS
We are pleased to announce a call
for papers and presentations. We are open both for research and scholarly
papers but also presentations of art projects accompanied by a paper describing
a research element connected to the art project. The call is aimed especially
at researchers working on art-based research projects but we are also open for
papers from the wider range of film studies on documentary film. The time
allotted for scholarly papers is 20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion.
Presentations including presentations of art projects (or part of them) can be
45 minutes + 15 minutes discussion.
Possible topics for papers and
practice-based research presentations include, but are not limited to, the
following categories:
1. The New
Theory of Documentary Film: Theorizing within
- Papers or presentations
related to the dilemmas, methods and possibilities of practice-based research.
How can art projects be expressions of theory or part of the process of
researching film? Does practice based theory and research need new strategies
and styles of writing theory?
2. The New Poetics of Documentary
Film
- Papers or presentations on
questions related to stylistic, aesthetic or formalistic questions in
documentary film. This forum provides an arena for discussions on a variety of
topics on the poetic in relation to the myriad subgenres, strategies and modes
of tradition of documentary film or new strategies of expression in
contemporary documentary film.
3. The New Practices of
Documentary Film
- Papers or
presentations on the questions of new and emerging areas and practices in the
field of documentary film production, technology, distribution or other areas
of film production as well as on new ways of understanding the role of
documentary film practice and the use of it in wider contexts, including the
political, social or other arenas.
4. The New Politics of Documentary
Film
-
Papers or presentations dealing with the rhetoric of the new
political documentary film, the new ways of understanding the political in
documentary film, and the different implications of the political in relation
to the social, ethnic, gender or other questions.
Please send your proposals (1 page
synopsis, max. 400 words, and short bio) to kirsi.rinne@aalto.fi by January 31, 2013. You will be contacted by the conference
organizers by February 28, 2013.
The conference fee is 85 euros
including lunches, coffees and one reception. The conference website will be
available at the end of January 2013 with an updated program and information on
registration, travelling and accommodation.
Conference committee: Professor
Susanna Helke (Aalto ARTS), researcher Ilona Hongisto (Univ. of Turku),
researcher Jouko Aaltonen (Aalto ARTS), coordinator Kirsi Rinne (Aalto ARTS).
For further inquiries, please
contact
Susanna Helke, professor of
documentary film, susanna.helke@aalto.fi
Kirsi Rinne, coordinator, kirsi.rinne@aalto.fi
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