SCREENING CENSORSHIP CONFERENCE
Call for Papers

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CFP Conference
Screening Censorship: New Histories, Perspectives, and Theories on Film and Screen Censorship
Ghent, Belgium
Oct 16-17, 2020

ACADEMIC KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Professor Richard Maltby
(Flinders University, Australia)
Professor Linda Williams
(University of California, Berkeley, USA)


PROFESSIONAL KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Manuel Mozos
(filmmaker, Portugal)
Rachel Talalay
(film director/producer, US/Canada)

Throughout the history of film and cinema, censorship has existed everywhere–in all kinds of shapes, colors, and dimensions. The act of restricting the free production, circulation, screening and consumption of movies was never unique to authoritarian regimes. Age restrictions, film cuttings, bans, industry discouragements, and other types of censorial interventions also occurred in countries where media freedom and the freedom of speech were and are highly regarded principles. Censorship has had far-reaching implications on filmmakers, distributors, exhibitors, and audiences across generations, and across genres.

Hard, strict institutional censorship often came alongside implied or ‘suggested’ forms of soft censorship, including, importantly, the self-censorship or audiences disciplined into particular viewership positions.

Today, soft and hard censorship co-exist in even more fluid forms. The acts of banning, regulating, trimming, and tailoring films for ‘harmless’ consumption, by bureaucracies, pressure groups and activists, are frequently embedded within wider debates about media use. But film nonetheless remains a ‘banner issue’, a point of reference for what constitutes screen censorship.

From the long tradition of investigating film censorship onwards, this conference aims at reflecting upon recent changes in policies, strategies and practices of film censorship, both in the past and in today’s media landscape. Amongst the many questions, this conference asks:

Screening Censorship Conference also invites reflections on the changing research environment:

Screening Censorship Conference aims to showcase academic and industry voices on the issue of the shifting practices of censoring films on the different screens. The four keynote addresses confirmed for the symposium reflect that goal. The conference is organized in tandem with the 47th International Film Fest Ghent (FIAPF accredited, Variety’s top-50 must-attend), and aims to examine how film and cinema censorship, as a concept and as a practice (ad hoc and post hoc), functions 20 years into the 21st Century.

Screening Censorship Conference welcomes contributions for 20-minute presentations from scholars, artists and practitioners whose work pertains to topics and themes of film and screen censorship. We are seeking abstracts for individual papers and panels of three or four contributors on topics including, but not limited to:

 


 


Ghent University
Film Fest Gent

University of British Columbia