David Laderman
"Arresting Mobility: Crossing Borders and Going Nowhere in the Films of the Dardenne Brothers"
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
5:30pm
401 Fisher-Bennett Hall
University of Pennsylvania
This talk will explore some of the distinctive road movie elements found in selected films by the Dardenne brothers. Beginning with their breakout film of 1996, La Promesse, we will situate their work in the broader context of contemporary European road movie trends. We will consider how and why urban mobility becomes a pressing motif throughout much of their oeuvre, where bodies forced into frenetic motion become circumscribed by various socio-economic conditions. Usually revealed through a fragile yet insistent mobile camera, the desperate instincts driving many Dardenne characters articulate the moral quagmires around human trafficking. Their tightly focused documentary style captures the fits and starts of the Belgian underclass, which in turn speaks to and for some of the darker features of transnational, neo-liberal Europe.
David Laderman is a Professor of Film Studies at the College of San Mateo. He also teaches for the Film and Media Studies program at Stanford University. He is the author of Driving Visions: Exploring the Road Movie (University of Texas Press) and Punk Slash! Musicals: Tracking Slip-Sync on Film (University of Texas Press).
This program is made possible thanks to the support of University of Pennsylvania's Cinema Studies Program and Department of French Studies, and Temple University's Department of Film and Media Arts.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Friday (3/16): Patrick Keating on Film Noir Lighting
This Friday is the next talk in the PCMS series:
Patrick Keating (Trinity University)
“Illuminated Space: Electricity, Modernity, and Film Noir”
March 16, 2012
5:00 PM
Temple University Center City (TUCC), 1515 Market Street
Room 420
Although film noir is famous for its shadows, the style offers a remarkably wide range of lighting effects. In some noirs, the flatly lit office building is just as important as the dimly lit alley, and the warm glow of the living room can be just as fateful as the darkened hallway. This talk reconsiders noir lighting in films such as Call Northside 777, The Asphalt Jungle, and The Sweet Smell of Success. In particular, Keating proposes that an important context for noir lighting is the increasing industrialization of electric light during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Just as the electricity industry was developing a narrative of progress to both explain and promote the expansion of light over these years, the film noir was using a combination of lights and shadows to describe and criticize that expansion.
Patrick Keating is an assistant professor of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, where he teaches courses in film studies and video production. He is the author of Hollywood Lighting From the Silent Era to Film Noir, published by Columbia University Press, which was selected by the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) as the Best First Book in 2011. Recently, he was awarded an Academy Film Scholars grant to support his research on the relationship between camera movement and the representation of modern spaces in Hollywood cinema.
Patrick Keating (Trinity University)
“Illuminated Space: Electricity, Modernity, and Film Noir”
March 16, 2012
5:00 PM
Temple University Center City (TUCC), 1515 Market Street
Room 420
Although film noir is famous for its shadows, the style offers a remarkably wide range of lighting effects. In some noirs, the flatly lit office building is just as important as the dimly lit alley, and the warm glow of the living room can be just as fateful as the darkened hallway. This talk reconsiders noir lighting in films such as Call Northside 777, The Asphalt Jungle, and The Sweet Smell of Success. In particular, Keating proposes that an important context for noir lighting is the increasing industrialization of electric light during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Just as the electricity industry was developing a narrative of progress to both explain and promote the expansion of light over these years, the film noir was using a combination of lights and shadows to describe and criticize that expansion.
Patrick Keating is an assistant professor of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, where he teaches courses in film studies and video production. He is the author of Hollywood Lighting From the Silent Era to Film Noir, published by Columbia University Press, which was selected by the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) as the Best First Book in 2011. Recently, he was awarded an Academy Film Scholars grant to support his research on the relationship between camera movement and the representation of modern spaces in Hollywood cinema.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Syrian Film Screenings
Cross-posted with Philadelphia Repertory Film Blog
In collaboration with the DOX BOX Documentary Film Festival in Syria,
the Temple Middle East North Africa Group
presents
2 Evenings of Syrian Cinema
Wednesday, March 15
A Flood in Baath County,
Omar Amiralay, Syria/France 2003
Silence
Rami Farah, Syria, 2006
Thursday, March 15
Six Ordinary Stories,
Meyar Al Roumi, France/Syria 2007
Before Vanishing,
Joude Gorani, France/Syria 2005
+ a special, surprise film about current events
All screenings run from 5:30-7:30 in Tuttleman 101 on Temple University's main campus and are free and open to the public.
the Temple Middle East North Africa Group
presents
2 Evenings of Syrian Cinema
Wednesday, March 15
A Flood in Baath County,
Omar Amiralay, Syria/France 2003
Silence
Rami Farah, Syria, 2006
Thursday, March 15
Six Ordinary Stories,
Meyar Al Roumi, France/Syria 2007
Before Vanishing,
Joude Gorani, France/Syria 2005
+ a special, surprise film about current events
All screenings run from 5:30-7:30 in Tuttleman 101 on Temple University's main campus and are free and open to the public.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Lisa Gitelman (2/24)
Lisa Gitelman (New York University)
"Network Returns"
Network Returns is a preliminary work-in-progress aimed at network archeologies. It offers two different episodes in the history of self-addressing.
Friday, February 24
4:00 p.m.
room 420, Temple University Center City (TUCC)
With the support of the Center for Humanities at Temple, the University of Pennsylvania Cinema Studies, and Bryn Mawr's Film Studies Program.
Lisa Gitelman is associate professor of English and of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. She works on media history and textual media. She is the author of Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture (MIT Press 2006) and Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era (Stanford University Press, 2000), as well as editor, with Geoffrey B. Pingree, of New Media 1740-1915 (MIT 2004). Current projects include a monograph, "Making Knowledge with Paper," and an edited collection,"'Raw Data' Is an Oxymoron." She holds a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University and is a former editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University.
"Network Returns"
Network Returns is a preliminary work-in-progress aimed at network archeologies. It offers two different episodes in the history of self-addressing.
Friday, February 24
4:00 p.m.
room 420, Temple University Center City (TUCC)
With the support of the Center for Humanities at Temple, the University of Pennsylvania Cinema Studies, and Bryn Mawr's Film Studies Program.
Lisa Gitelman is associate professor of English and of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. She works on media history and textual media. She is the author of Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture (MIT Press 2006) and Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era (Stanford University Press, 2000), as well as editor, with Geoffrey B. Pingree, of New Media 1740-1915 (MIT 2004). Current projects include a monograph, "Making Knowledge with Paper," and an edited collection,"'Raw Data' Is an Oxymoron." She holds a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University and is a former editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Rey Chow on Documentary Realism
Rey Chow will be a keynote speaker at this Friday's Graduate Humanities Forum at Penn. The entire forum is an interesting series of talks on adaptation. Rey Chow will be speaking on "Documentary Realism Between Cultures," addressing the effect of new media on global nonfiction forms. It begins at 5:00pm at the Harrison Auditorium at Penn Museum. The event is free and open to the public but requires advance registration.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Henry Jenkins at Swarthmore
Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Culture
A Public Lecture by Henry Jenkins
Swarthmore College
A Public Lecture by Henry Jenkins
Swarthmore College
Science Center 101
Thursday, February 9
at 7:00 PM
ABSTRACT: Of all of the changes in the new media environment over the past two decades, perhaps the biggest has been a shift in how media content circulates—away from top-down corporate controlled distribution and into a still emerging hybrid system where everyday people play an increasingly central role in how media spreads.
Cultural Studies has historically been centered on issues of production and reception and has had much less to say about circulation. What issues emerge when we put the process of grassroots (often unauthorized) circulation at the center of our focus? How does it change our accounts of the relationships between mass media and participatory culture? How might it shake up existing models of viral media and web 2.0?
This far-reaching talk, based on a forthcoming book authored with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, offers snapshots of a culture-in-process, a media ecology still taking shape, suggesting what it means not only for the futures of entertainment but also of civic life.
Cultural Studies has historically been centered on issues of production and reception and has had much less to say about circulation. What issues emerge when we put the process of grassroots (often unauthorized) circulation at the center of our focus? How does it change our accounts of the relationships between mass media and participatory culture? How might it shake up existing models of viral media and web 2.0?
This far-reaching talk, based on a forthcoming book authored with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, offers snapshots of a culture-in-process, a media ecology still taking shape, suggesting what it means not only for the futures of entertainment but also of civic life.
Henry Jenkins is Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He has written and edited more than a dozen books on media and popular culture, including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006). His other published works reflect the wide range of his research interests, touching on democracy and new media, the “wow factor” of popular culture, science-fiction fan communities, and the early history of film comedy.
As one of the first media scholars to chart the changing role of the audience in an environment of increasingly pervasive digital content, Jenkins has been at the forefront of understanding the effects of participatory media on society, politics, and culture. His research gives key insights to the success of social-networking websites, networked computer games, online fan communities, and other advocacy organizations, as well as emerging news media outlets.
As one of the first media scholars to chart the changing role of the audience in an environment of increasingly pervasive digital content, Jenkins has been at the forefront of understanding the effects of participatory media on society, politics, and culture. His research gives key insights to the success of social-networking websites, networked computer games, online fan communities, and other advocacy organizations, as well as emerging news media outlets.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Adaptation Roundtable at I-House
Penn Cinema Studies and the Penn Humanities Forum on Adaptations is presenting a forum tomorrow.
Pleasures and Pitfalls of Film Adaptation Forum
Wednesday, Feb 01
5:00 PM
The Ibrahim Theater at the International House
5:00 PM
The Ibrahim Theater at the International House
The history of cinema is one of adaptations from other media. Great adaptations are often more innovative and enduring than their sources. Indeed, they compel us to rethink the whole relationship between originals and copies, sources and targets. Distinguished faculty from Penn and NYU discuss some of their favorite film adaptations, including those featured in the Adaptations Film Series. With Carolyn Abbate, Christopher H Browne Distinguished Professor of Music, Penn; Tim Corrigan, Professor of English and Cinema Studies, Penn; and Alex Galloway, Associate Professor of Culture and Communication, NYU.
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