CFP: Alternative Images: Documentary as Counter-Culture (November 2007)

[Jessie Labov <jlabov@stanford.edu>]

Call for Papers and Participants

OSA Archivum in collaboration with OSI-HESP Regional Seminar for
Excellence in Teaching "Alternative Culture Beyond Borders: Past and
Present of the Arts and Media in the Context of Globalization"
announces call for papers for the workshop "Alternative Images:
Documentary as Counter-Culture" to be held 8-9 November 2007 at OSA
Archivum (Arany Janos 32, Budapest, Hungary).


Workshop description

On-going technological developments, crowned by the digital revolution,
have been continuously transforming the making of documentary films.
Lighter, cheaper, and easier to handle equipment has gradually made
filmmaking accessible to broader and broader circles interested in the
creation of moving images. Aimed at catching life "as it is,"
documentary filmmaking has been continuously paralleled and
supplemented by the desire to go beyond the representational surface,
to change the world, to uncover deeper structures with the help of
montage or added commentary. From the emergence of documentary cinema,
artistic groups and individuals have challenged dominant ways of seeing
-- from the avant-garde movements of the 1920s (with such figures as
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Walter Ruttmann, Alberto Cavalcanti, and Dziga
Vertov), the political counter-culture cinema of the 1950-60s (which
includes such figures as Chris Marker, Stan Brakhage, Alexander Kluge)
and amateur filmmakers whose works preserved alternative layers of
culture. Working in conditions of state control over filmmaking,
directors in Eastern Europe and today in other parts of the world
learned not only to portray the realities of the contemporary regimes,
but simultaneously subverted them (as was done by those working at the
BBS studio in Hungary in the 1960-80s, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Soviet
Union, and today in Iran and China, for example).

Workshop participants will concentrate on the complex relationship of
the "official" and "unofficial" in documentary filmmaking, both in
terms of artistic alternatives to commercial production and as
politically subversive narrative. They will also discuss alternatives
to established national cinematographies and international distribution
channels, as well as consider the extensive history of "alternative
documentaries" from the 1920s through to the present. The workshop will
also explore new trends in documentary filmmaking and the
transformations caused by the emergence of new visual media. It will
further include exploration of the interaction of documentary with
other media, photography, radio, and performing arts. Participants are
invited to present case-studies and contribute to discussions on both
the contemporary media of the global era as well as on
"counter-culture" documentaries throughout the 20th century, when
visual imagery subverted and challenged mainstream narratives. The
growing use of documentary cinema in teaching opens up additional
topics for discussion. The workshop will address alternative
representational strategies, the construction of the authenticity
effect, the (de)construction of ideological narratives, and modalities
of appropriating and subverting mainstream cultural references.

Organizers: Oksana Sarkisova; Olga Zaslavskaya

The workshop is open to film and media scholars, historians,
sociologists, anthropologists, practicing filmmakers, and anyone
interested in the development of contemporary media and alternative
culture. Please submit your presentation abstract (500-1,000 words) and
CV to workshop2007 at alternativeculture.org

Deadline for submission: 30 September 2007

------ 
Jessie Labov
Humanities Fellows Program
Department of Comparative Literature
Building 260, Pigott Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2031
T: 650-723-0605
F: 650-725-4090
jlabov at stanford.edu

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