Kinojudaica

[Gabriella Safran]

Hi!  I was asked to forward this call for papers for a conference on Jews
and cinema in Russia and the Soviet Union.
take care,
Gabriella


KINOJUDAICA


>From February 27 to March 15, 2009, for the 5th edition of  "Zoom arrière",
the cinémathèque of Toulouse (France), together with Russia's Gosfilmofond,
will be hosting a wide-ranging retrospective of films on Jewish themes
(films whose subject matter, story, characters can be identified by the
target viewer as being Jewish) produced between the 1910s and the 1960s, in
the geographic area corresponding to the Russian, and later Soviet Empire
(not including Poland). A scientific colloquium will be organized in
conjunction with this event with a view to providing a historical
perspective on this production. The aim of the colloquium is to explore the
reasons for the recurrence of this theme, its political significance, and
establish links between different periods in the history of Jews in Russia
and the Soviet Union and their representations in film. The colloquium also
hopes to shed light on different perceptions of Jewish identity, and how
these are reflected in films depending on local context and film directors.

1917 marked a turning point for the perception of the "Jewish question" and
the definition of Jewishness in Russia. Before 1917, the Jews living in the
Russian Empire were discriminated against in many areas, but the fact that
they were able to preserve some autonomy, and that they were regrouped in
communities, promoted the development of Jewish culture, religion, thought,
and political activity. Thanks to the emancipation, Jews gained legal rights
and became normal citizens, but the Soviet authorities' policies concerning
the Jews were always double-edged: while they recognized the existence of
the Jewish people, they also planned their complete assimilation. Thus they
made it possible for Jews to occupy central positions in political life, but
they liquidated the Bundist, Zionist and Socialist-Zionist movements. They
encouraged the development of the Yiddish culture but organized the
destruction of Hebrew-language cultural life. While in the 1920s and 30s,
anti-Semitism was considered to be a scourge which had to be fought, it was
nevertheless reactivated in the 1940s and 50s.

Even though the public's familiarity with this theme is due mainly to a few
famous films such as Jewish Luck (Granovsky, 1925) or Seekers of Happiness
(Korsh-Sablin, 1936), one cannot overestimate its importance in Russian and
Soviet film production. More than one hundred long or short films directly
or indirectly addressing this subject were produced in Russia, Ukraine
(VUFKU) and Byelorussia (Belgoskino, whose headquarters before WWII were in
Leningrad). These films, both documentary and fiction, describe sometimes
lightly, more often with a great deal of ambivalence, the situation of Jews
in the USSR or abroad (in particular Hitler's Germany). The colloquium aims
to shed light on the various facets of this production, as well as its
distribution and reception. The subjects of interest include the creation of
the studios, their staff, the role of transfers linked to the importation of
foreign films and circulation of persons, the composition of the public, the
extent to which the films reached beyond their target audience and the
regions of production.

The organizers will give preference to proposals addressing transversal
issues providing a general perspective on these films, their subjects and
the esthetic choices of the authors, their institutional framework, the
control over this production, and its audience.
The questions listed in this call for proposals are only possible
suggestions for papers which can be illustrated by relevant case analyses.

Pre-1917 production: one of the ambitions of this colloquium is to study the
artisan production of Jewish editors who were active in the early 1910s in
the "Pale of Settlement", and its ties with traveling theater troupes, their
repertoire and audience. A little-known aspect is the audience of this
production (local and imported) and its reception both by the Jewish and
non-Jewish public. From 1913 on, the studios of capital cities began to
introduce Jewish characters (Son'ka Zolotaja Ruchka, 1914, Leon Drej, 1915):
how were these characters introduced, based on what models, what was their
function? How were these interpretations of Jewish characters received?
The abolition of the Pale in February 1917  had an immediate impact on film
production, both thanks to the emergence of new subjects (Delo Bejlisa) and
to the arrival of new Jewish personnel in city studios. These questions
still need further study based on in-depth documentary research.

Soviet Production of the 1920s and 30s
Esthetic aspects: given the large number of adaptations as compared to
original subjects, their literary and theatrical sources must be studied.
The links between film and Jewish theaters (beginning with GOSSET, the State
Jewish Theater) raise the question of independence vs. dependence in
directing and acting.

Institutional aspects: can we identify which films were commissioned by
authorities and if so, how these commissions were organized? Which
authorities commissioned, how did they formulate their request and integrate
it in the "thematic plan", choose the studio and the director? The VUFKU
played a crucial role in this production. Why so? Was it due to the presence
of Jewish personnel, or to a specific attribution?

A particular aspect of this production are the documentary and ethnographic
films of the 1920s and 30s, the film-production activity of the OZET, of
non-Soviet organizations and philanthropic societies active in the Soviet
Union until the end of the 1930s (Joint, ORT, etc.). A comparative study of
the image of Jews in these films and other works of fiction created at that
time would be interesting.

Distribution of this production in the Soviet Union: how many copies were
circulating and what was the geographical scope of the distribution of these
films? How did the distribution change depending on political line? What
role did these films play in the educational campaigns and political
training? What linguistic strategy was used for their distribution in
Yiddish-speaking areas?
Can we study the reception of this production through a study of the media
(general and specialized press) in various languages: Yiddish, Russian,
Ukrainian?

Part of our programme is devoted to the Soviet perspective on anti-Semitism
in Germany beginning with Hitler's rise to power. The organizers expect
contributions shedding light on how this theme emerged, its sources, the
involvement of antifascist German film-makers and actors who sought refuge
in the Soviet Union, how this production was distributed and later withdrawn
from theatres after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and later still how they
reentered the market just before the Soviet Union entered the war.

During World War II, the anti-Semitic nature of Hitler's regime was largely
ignored by the authorities, at least in what was publicly announced to the
population. However, filming the concrete reality of what had happened
turned out to be necessary, in order to provide evidence for future
reparation claims. Proposals concerning filmed testimonies of the Holocaust
on occupied territories, as well as the newsreels showing the opening of the
camps (Maïdanek, Auschwitz), and on how these images were made and used, are
welcome.
In parallel, in 1942 an anti-Semitic campaign was launched in the Soviet
cultural spheres which particularly affected the world of film. This
campaign rapidly ended. However, research has yielded contradictory accounts
of the conditions under which this campaign was launched and terminated, as
well as its real impact. We welcome studies on this subject based on
in-depth archive research.

After the war:
During the postwar years, other than a few exceptions (Nepokorennye, Mark
Donskoï, 1945), it became increasingly difficult to address these topics.
The anti-Semitic campaign (called "anti-cosmopolitan") of 1948-49 strongly
affected the filmmaking sphere, from studios to journals and publishing
houses, and including the VGIK. Accessible documentation should encourage
researchers to devote more study to this campaign, its ambiguous aspects as
well as the involvement of the Film Committee.

The last part of the colloquium will be devoted to film production after the
death of Stalin. The organizers expect contributions devoted both to fiction
films narrating past events (The Commissar, Askoldov, 1969) and  propaganda
documentaries devoted to Israel or to the hunt for perpetrators of
anti-Semitic crimes on the territories occupied during the war.

The proposals must be in Russian, French or English (1-2 pages, with a short
CV and list of recent publications and/or linked to the theme of the
colloquium) and sent to the following address before October 15, 2008:
kinojudaica at gmail.com.
The contributions will be selected after October 30, 2008.
Scientific committee: Natacha Laurent (Cinémathèque de Toulouse), Valérie
Pozner (Arias, CNRS), Oleg Budnitski (The International Center for Russian
and East European Jewish Studies, Moscow).
A few grants are available to researchers who need financial support to
participate in the colloquium. Please specify in your letter whether you
will be requesting financial aid.



-- 
Gabriella Safran
Associate Professor
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

tel. 650-723-4414
fax 650-725-0011
gsafran at stanford.edu

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