CFP: Documentary

Velvet Light Trap
Issue #60 Documentary Now

CFP: Documentaries have undergone significant stylistic, aesthetic,
and representational shifts from early ethnographic films and the
Griersonian tradition to contemporary work by filmmakers as varied as
Trinh T. Minh-ha and Michael Moore. Debates regarding the role of the
documentarian, ethics of production, editing, indexicality, claims to
"truth" and reality, and representations of
race/ethnicity/gender/sexuality/class have altered how audiences and
scholars consider documentaries. Issue 60 of the Velvet Light Trap
continues these dialogues by seeking essays for a special issue on
contemporary documentary. Essays examining debates in documentary
theory and criticism in light of contemporary contexts,
stylistic/textual strategies, changing patterns of distribution and
exhibition, and industrial analyses are particularly encouraged. The
editorial board is especially interested in changes in documentary
theory, practice and criticism from the 1980s-present.


Possible topics for this issue inclubut are not limited to:

reality television
"reality" and hyperreality
sound style
music
documentary and transnational trade/global flows
social movements and filmmaking
production models
audiences and reading formations
distribution and technology
indexicality
technology and/or distribution
documentary theory
contemporary politics and documentary
filmmakers/movements and production philosophy
editing, style, and aesthetics
sexual/gender/racial representations
PBS/BBC/public service documentary style
News documentary
Documentaries and education
Documentaries and film festival circuits
Distribution
Cable TV and documentary texts
Case studies of particular filmmakers (e.g., Wiseman, Morris)
avant garde/experimental documentary
animation, internet, and/or new media in documentary texts
short form documentary
budgeting and financing
community organizing around the documentary

To be considered for publication, papers should be between 4,500 and
7,500 words, double-spaced, in MLA style, with the author's name and
contact information included only on the cover page. Queries regarding
potential submissions also are welcome. Authors are responsible for
acquiring related visual images and the associated copyrights. For
more information or to submit a query, please contact Kyle Conway
(krconway@wisc.edu), David Resha (djresha@wisc.edu), Charlie Michael
(camichael@wisc.edu), or Ben Aslinger (bsaslinger@gmail.com). All
submissions are due September 15, 2006.

The Velvet Light Trap is an academic, refereed journal of film and
television studies published semi-annually by University of Texas
Press. Issues are coordinated alternately by graduate students at the
University of Texas-Austin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After a prescreening, articles are anonymously refereed by specialist
readers of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board, which includes such
notable scholars as Charles Acland, David William Foster, Sean
Griffin, Bambi Haggins, Heather Hendershot, Charlie Keil, Michele
Malach, Dan Marcus, Nina Martin, Tara McPherson, Walter Metz, Jason
Mittell, James Morrison, Steve Neale, Karla Oeler, Lisa Parks, and
Malcolm Turvey.

Please address submissions to:
Velvet Light Trap
6th Floor, Vilas Communication Hall
821 University Avenue
UW-Madison
Madison, WI 53706

Billy Vermillion

Sound As A Media Friendly Weapon:

The Graduate Group in Cultural Studies invites you to join us at colloquium on Thursday, 20 April 2006, 4:00-6:00PM in 1130 Hart Hall. Sound As A Media Friendly Weapon: The S.P.I.R.A.W.L Project (Sound Proofed Institute for Acoustic Weapons Logistics) will be presented by KIT Collaboration, Battery Operated, and C0C0S0L1DC1. Please see below for more information. We hope to see you there!

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sound As A Media Friendly Weapon: The S.P.I.R.A.W.L Project
(Sound Proofed Institute for Acoustic Weapons Logistics)


A presentation by members of KIT Collaboration, Battery Operated, and C0C0S0L1DC1


With archival footage and contemporary interviews, S.P.I.R.A.W.L.: Sound as a Media Friendly Weapon charts the camouflaged growth of sound weapons, tracking their development under the benign rubric of “non-lethal” weapons programs, since the Second World War. The filmmakers trace the success these weapons have in field ops, look at how and where these weapons have been commercialized, and at what state agencies are introducing them for civilian control. They ask how democratic nations are able to develop and introduce these weapons without regard to international law, public policy or arms control. Calls for human rights directed policies have so far fallen on deaf ears. S.P.I.R.A.W.L. speaks out against the silent spread of sonic weaponry and locates the resonant frequency of democracy.


Thursday, 20 April 2006
4:00-6:00pm, 1130 Hart Hall


KIT is a collaboration of artists, architects, programmers and writers. Working together since 1995, they have produced interactive robotic, sound, video and photographic installations, projects for architectural competitions and curated touring exhibitions. KIT projects have been realized in galleries, museums, festivals and off-site spaces across Europe, North America and Asia.

C0C0S0L1DC1 is a sound, video and Internet commissioning label. They invite artists from all of these mediums to collaborate on projects together as well as to produce their own works for release on CD/DVD and through the web.


Co-sponsored by Technocultural Studies, Film Studies, and Science and Technology Studies

PARIS IS BURNING (AGAIN)

PARIS IS BURNING (AGAIN)

PARIS IS BURNING (AGAIN)
The Museum of the African Diaspora will present the first program in the MoAD Arts and Lecture Series, Paris Is Burning (Again), a critical day-long symposium focusing on the black Francophone world and celebrating the 100th anniversary ofthe birth of Leopold Sedar Senghor, poet, first Senegalese president and founder ofthe cultural/artistic movement, Negritude.

Confirmed Participants
Simon Njami, co-founder and editorof Revue Noire and curator of the upcoming 'Bamako 2007: AfricanPhotography Encounters', a biennial photographic exhibition of African photographers, is the keynote speaker. Emmanuel Dongala, author of fournovels including 'Little Boys Come From the Stars' and the recent, 'Johnny Mad-Dog' and Tyler Stovall (UC Berkeley), Janet G. Vaillant (Harvard), Trica D. Keaton (Indiana U.), Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyl
(Stanford). Louis Chude-Sokei (UC Santa Cruz) is moderator for the Symposium.

Location: Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission Street (at Third) San Francisco, California 94105
Date: Thursday, April 13, 2005
Time: 10:00-4:00 Symposium
4:30-5:30 Self-guided MoAD Tour
5:30-8:30 Reception and Book signing

Reception catered by Marco Senghor, nephew of the late President Senghor and
owner of Bissap Baobab in San Francisco.
$ 25.00 General admission
$ 20.00 Students with current ID
$ 20.00 Seniors

Ticket price includes a Continental breakfast, lunch and reception. For
further information call 415 358-7215 or purchase tickets online
www.moadsf.org .

Paris Is Burning (Again) is co-sponsored by Alliance Francaise and is made
possible through a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.