FilmAsia 2015 - The Asian Conference on Film and Documentary

FilmAsia 2015 - The Asian Conference on Film and Documentary Thu, November 12 - Sun, November 15 2015 Kobe, Japan IAFOR invites you to join us in the vibrant city of Kobe, Japan, from November 12-15, for the Asian Conference on Film and Documentary 2015. Explore the conference theme of "Power" in an international, intercultural and interdisciplinary setting. Submit an abstract: http://iafor.org/cfp Enquiries: filmasia@iafor.org Web address: http://iafor.org/iafor/conferences/filmasia2015/ FilmAsia2015 Conference Theme: "Power" Power remains one of the most contested, debated, omnipresent yet ungraspable of concepts. While the fact of power remains constant, changes in political, social, economic and cultural conditions require us as scholars to periodically take stock of, analyze, and trace the workings and origins of power. And while it has long been accepted that literature and literary activity have never been immune to the functions and effects of power, new alignments in public and private spheres require us to interrogate how film, production, reception and study construct and resist power. The power of film to inspire, coerce, or lead astray is subject to constant discussion within and outside the academy. Issues of censorship, responsibility, ownership and control are evergreens and cause conflicts from the individual level within families, to major diplomatic spats between country leaders, such as over the recent US film, "The Interview". While producing a film is an act of power, so is watching, as interpretation is an act of power over the film, while theories of interpretation hold power over the intellect and imagination of the viewer. Those who teach, research and curate films also exercise power, though how this power is wielded is colored by perceptions of those within and outside academia. For students, the film studies teacher is a figure of power who gets to select what, as well as how, it is viewed and studied. Power can also seem too large and unwieldy a concept to gain any purchase on, thus any analysis of power can create a sense of powerlessness, not to mention dissatisfaction at the necessarily arbitrary nature of academic analyses. But choosing which aspect of power to analyze is an act of power in itself, one that invites further interrogations of the moral and ethical dimensions of power. We expect this open and enduring theme to excite a number of stimulating research paths, and look forward to their outcomes. We look forward to seeing you at FilmAsia 2015! FilmAsia2015 Conference Chairs Professor Gary Swanson FilmAsia2015 Conference Co-Chair and Featured Speaker Mildred S. Hansen Endowed Chair in Journalism The University of Northern Colorado, USA Gary E. Swanson is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed photojournalist, documentary and news producer, director, editor, educator, speaker and consultant. He has also been an educator for 22 years. Prior to his work in academe, Swanson compiled a distinguished professional broadcast career spanning 13 years at NBC News - producing award-winning documentaries, prime-time news magazine stories, and covering "breaking news" in 26 states and Canada for the network - including trips and campaigns of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Swanson has earned more than 80 awards for broadcast excellence and photojournalism including three national Emmys. Dr. James Rowlins FilmAsia2015 Conference Co-Chair Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore James Rowlins left his native England for Paris, France, where he studied for a BA (Hons) and MA specializing in French cinema. His passion for visual culture subsequently took him to Los Angeles, where he earned a doctorate at the University of Southern California, USA. In addition to exploring literature and film through a theoretical lens, as well as dabbling in filmmaking, his dissertation focused on the crossover between post-war American film noir and the French New Wave, arguing that the subversive manipulation of the Hollywood genre formula by the auteurs constitutes a political aesthetic. He has published articles on contemporary French fiction, film and existentialism, cinematic phenomenology and new perspectives on the New Wave. He has held teaching positions in Europe, America and Japan, and is currently a Lecturer in the Humanities and the Arts Department at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Conference Theme: "Power" The conference theme for FilmAsia2015 is "Power", and the organizers encourage submissions that approach this theme from a variety of perspectives. However, the submission of other topics for consideration is welcome and we also encourage sessions within and across a variety of interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives. Submissions are organized into the following thematic streams: -Film Direction and Production -Film Criticism and Theory -Film and Literature: Artistic Correspondence -Biography -Film History -Documentary History -Archive-Based Studies -Films and Digital Distribution (Use of the Internet and video sharing) -Anime and Digital Film Production -Films, Festivals, and Fans (Audience/Fan responses to film)

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