ECREA Film Studies section conference

June 2-3, 2022

Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline: March 11, 2022

Keynote Speakers: Erica Carter &Alexandra D’Onofrio

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has, among many other things, drastically changed global human mobility, migration remains a key phenomenon for the understanding of contemporary society. Sounds and moving images of migrants fill the small and large screens around us, with an urgency that has evident political, economic and social implications. The phenomenon of migration is also, of course, historical, which makes the archive an important actor in the current relationship between migration and cinema.

How can we make sense of the footage currently shot and screened, preserved and archived, lost and found, of past and current migration, and what consequences does this have for the understanding of film and moving image archives in the twenty-first century?

This conference brings together scholars and film practitioners working at the intersections between film, migration and the archive, to ask what can be learnt from the opening of private, regional, or national public archives, and from the creation of new image databases on migration, as well as the mobility of moving images themselves. The conference will include a visit to the film archive of Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema.

Discussion topics include, but are not limited to:

• Case studies of film archives or collections related to migration
• The role of the archive as history depository, tool or writing device, in relation to the topic of migration
• Newly created archives and the connection between migration and the digital humanities
• Ethical concerns about the use of migrant images in found footage films
• Methodological questions about the structuring of archives integrating films about human mobility, including matters of cataloguing, digitization and access
• Screening practices of archival films about migration
• New visual representations of migration, including self-representation
• Emerging migrant filmmakers, producers and storytellers
• Participatory cinema and migration

Please submit an abstract (max 300 words) along with key references, institutional affiliation and a short bio (max 150 words); or a panel proposal, including a panel presentation (max 300 words) along with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 individual abstracts.

Submission deadline: 11 March 2022

Proposal acceptance notification: 8 April 2022

Please send your abstract/panel proposals to the conference email address: filmstudiesecrea@gmail.com

ECREA membership is not required to participate in the conference. The conference fee will not exceed 50 EUR and will include coffee breaks, lunches, receptions and the visit to the Cinemateca Portuguesa archive.

Conference organisation

The conference takes place in Lisbon and is hosted by the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon. The conference is organised by the ECREA Film Studies Section in co-operation with ICS-ULisboa, the Research Project “Cartografías del Cine de Movilidad en el Hispánico Atlántico” (CSO2017-85290-P) at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the University of Antwerp.

Conference organisers: Mariana Liz (University of Lisbon), Miguel Fernández Labayen (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Gertjan Willems (University of Antwerp/Ghent University) and Pedro Figueiredo Neto (University of Lisbon).