End/Future of Cinema Studies One-Day Conference

The First Annual Dick Wolf Penn Cinema Studies Conference:

The End of Cinema and the Future of Cinema Studies

Friday, April 12, 2013 -

9:30am - 5:30pm

Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Free admission

In a day long conference on the future of cinema studies, Penn Cinema Studies Program will bring together scholars, film critics, and film industry practitioners who have stood at the cutting edge of the critical and scholarly debates about the technological and institutional transformations in film and media. On the one hand, the disappearance of the celluloid, the redefinition of the image by the digital technology, and the transformation of theatrical viewing onto heterogeneous spaces and devices has put at stake the very existence of the field’s object of study, and has resulted in a kind of cultural pessimism and an obsessive discourse on the mortality of cinema. On the other hand, these developments were accompanied by a renewed and unprecedented vitality and vigor in cinema, the cinema’s widening sphere of influence, and the rebirth of cinephilia. The disciplinary shifts brought a new understanding of the nature of the moving image, its relationship with the real, as well as a new understanding of the history of the medium. Through a dialogue between acclaimed film scholars, critics, and practitioners, we want to think about the significance of film and media studies today and address the ways in which the convergence that defines the landscape of film and media also coincides with a convergence that is institutional and disciplinary.

Speakers to include keynote Francesco Casetti, Dudley Andrew, John Belton, Mark Betz, Francesca Coppa, Geoff Gilmore, Barbara Klinger, Lev Manovich, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Lynn Spigel. The full schedule available at Penn Cinema Studies' website.