November 7-9, 2019

Birmingham City University (and related screening venues)

Deadline: September 6, 2019

Confirmed Guests of Honour:

• Jen and Sylvia Soska (Rabid [2019], American Mary)
• Norman J. Warren (Terror, Inseminoid)

Keynote Speakers:

• Dr Stacey Abbott, Roehampton University
• Professor Ernest Mathijs, University of British Columbia

Previous guests of honour attending Cine-Excess have included Victoria Price (Author of Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography), Pete Walker (Director of Frightmare and House of the Long Shadows), Catherine Breillat (Romance, Sex is Comedy), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers), Roger Corman (The Masque of the Red Death, The Wild Angels), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, King of the Ants), Brian Yuzna (Society, The Dentist), Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria), Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), Franco Nero (Django, Keoma, Die Hard II), Vanessa Redgrave (Blow Up, The Devils), Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, House on the Edge of the Park), Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bast***s), Sergio Martino (Torso, All the Colours of the Dark), Jeff Lieberman (Squirm, Blue Sunshine) and Pat Mills (Action Magazine, 2000 AD).

Cine-Excess XIII is hosted by Birmingham City University and will feature a three-day academic conference alongside film industry panels and a season of related UK premieres and retrospectives taking place at screening venues across the region.

For its 13th annual edition, Cine Excess focuses on independent visions of excess and the contribution of independent filmmakers working outside of the mainstream to an understanding of cinema, culture and identities. These range from classic cult auteurs, such as Ed Wood, to contemporary movie makers who retain a fiercely unorthodox world-view whilst moving from the margins to the mainstream (such as Kathryn Bigelow). Cine Excess Xlll further considers how indie directors negotiate and respond to their own cinema cultures and wider global trends, including those iconic British filmmakers who bring elements of subversion to national cinema traditions, such as guest of honour, Norman J. Warren. With the emergence of the women in horror filmmaker movement (as embodied by guests of honour, the Soska Sisters), a particular focus is the work of female and minority directors operating in the independent sphere. We are also interested in cult creators that explore bizarre characterisation and unorthodox approaches to narrative, or adopt extreme aesthetics associated with the post-9/11 milieu. Further topics might examine gender- and genre-crossing, settings/landscapes of excess, and obscene images of nationhood, as well as how contemporary issues, such as those pertaining to mental health, are framed through cinemas of transgression. Proposals are now invited for papers that assess the importance of independent visions of excess within these differing contexts. However, we would particularly welcome contributions focusing on the following areas:

• Twisted Twins and Tortured Characters: The Cinema of the Soska Sisters
• My Private Hell: The Cinema of Norman J. Warren
• Trumped: Political Discourse in the Dissenting Image
• Monsters Made Me Too: Women Doing Horror
• Classic and Contemporary Case-Studies of Indie Cult Cinema
• Cult Voices in the Age of Remakes
• Histories of Violence: Actuality Framed Through Excess
• New Canadian Visions of Excess
• Perversities and Peculiarities of Excess: The Aesthetics of the Marginal
• The Industry of Excess: Business Perspectives on Cult Film Creation
• Indie Inside: Rebellious Voices Subverting the Mainstream
• Excessiveness in the Lynchian Universe
• Landscapes of Transgression: Space, Place and the Creative Mindset
• European Visions of Transgression
• Post-Millennial Aesthetics of Horror
• UK Indie Auteurs
• Supernatural Phenomena through the Indie Mindset
• Diverse Voices, Global Indie Visions
• Split: Framing Mental Health in Exploitation Cinema
• Near Dark: The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow
• Queer Renditions of Excess
• Experimental and Extreme: Visions of the Avant-Garde

Please send a 300-word abstract and a short (one page) C.V. by Friday 6th September 2019 to:

Professor Xavier Mendik (Birmingham City University): xavier.mendik@bcu.ac.uk

Dr Fran Pheasant-Kelly (University of Wolverhampton): F.E.Pheasant-kelly@wlv.ac.uk

A final listing of accepted presentations will be released on Monday 16th September 2019.

Delegate fees for Cine-Excess XIII are £100/£60 (concessions). This includes entrance to the conference, related Cine-Excess screenings and industry panels. A selection of conference papers from the event are scheduled to be published in the Cine-Excess Journal. For further information and regular updates on the event (including information on guests, keynotes and screenings) please visit www.cine-excess.co.uk