Cinema and the Crossing of Frontiers

16th International Sercia Conference
To be held at the University of Bath, UK
Thursday 8 September – Saturday 10 September 2011

Visiting Speakers to include Ken Loach

From the first, Cinema was motivated by a sense of adventure, a desire to create and explore new territories and technologies in its quest for modernity. Cinema has continued, ever since, to question, provoke, and shock; to push back existing limits and to cross perceived frontiers. The Bath conference will both celebrate and embrace the adventurous spirit of the medium, and will encourage creative and innovative contributions that make the most of the freedom to explore the open-ended theme of Cinema and the Crossing of Frontiers.

For that reason, we have no prescribed categories, but potential areas for debate might include the following:

Crossing cultural and/or geographical and spatial frontiers: issues of identity, migration, journey
Crossing generic frontiers: ways in which films exploit and subvert traditional genres
Crossing technological frontiers, past innovations and  the new technologies
Crossing artistic frontiers between film and art, film and photography, film and literature, film and music, or the self-referential frontiers between one film and another
Crossing frontiers between documentary and fiction; reality and fantasy
Crossing psychological frontiers: dream, imagination, madness and desire
Crossing temporal frontiers: memory, history, sci-fi, time travel
Crossing traditional frontiers of production, finance, exhibition
Crossing the frontiers between screen and spectator: new concepts of reception and identification

Proposals for papers (200-250 words), which may be in English or French, should be sent as an attachment in Word or Rich Text Format no later than
Friday 18 March 2011 to all of the following:

Wendy Everett: w.everett.eurofilm@gmail.com; Nina Parish: np222@bath.ac.uk; Peter Wagstaff: mlspjw@bath.ac.uk; Melvyn Stokes:melvynstokes@hotmail.com

Please provide full name, email and postal address, and affiliation.