Film & Philosophy: How Films Think
Film & Philosophy: How Films Think Website
Keynote speakers: Mary Ann Doane and D.N. Rodowick
Special Session with William Rothman
Just added: A lecture by Andrew Bujalski and a screening of his 2009 film Beeswax
Organized by the Graduate Film Studies Group. Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Yavitz Fund. Co-sponsored by the Digital Assembly
University of Florida
November 5-7, 2010
Deadline for submissions: October 1, 2010
A title card in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1966 film Masculin-Féminin quotes Maurice Merleau-Ponty, stating, “le philosophe et le cinéaste ont en commun une certaine manière d’être, une certaine vue du monde qui est celle d’une generation”—“the philosopher and the director have in common a certain way of being, a certain view of the world, which is that of a generation.” This quote raises several questions: What is the place of philosophy vis-à-vis film? Does the filmmaker dictate the philosophy of a film? To what extent is philosophy made manifest in film? Does film exceed philosophy in expressing or exploring metaphysics, epistemology, and other human concerns? These have been key questions in the study of the moving image throughout the discipline’s history. In The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film (1971), Stanley Cavell would propose a philosophy of film as a moving image of skepticism by reworking Cartesian methodological doubt. Recently, scholars have moved from the classical question “What is cinema,” posed by Bazin and Cavell, to new questions: What was cinema and how will the medium shift in the new digital landscape? How will these digital images engage in and with philosophy? Perhaps the moving image is philosophy, regardless of apparatus specificity or authorial intent.
(How) Does film think?
We invite proposals for 15-20 minute presentations that contribute to the growing conversation concerning film’s relationship to philosophy. Broad theoretical papers and papers on specific films or filmmakers are welcome. In addition to the questions raised above, possible topics include but are not limited to:
How might we conceive of the filmmaker as philosopher?
How does collaboration impact notions of philosophy (in film and digital media)?
How do changes to the apparatus affect film philosophy?
What is the philosophy of the moving image in the age of digital media?
Please send 250-500 word abstracts and all other inquiries to film.ufl@gmail.com by October 1, 2010. Please include a brief biography or CV with your abstract.
The Sorry and The Pity
Roundtable Discussion: Marcel Ophuls’ The Sorrow and the Pity
Monday, November 23, 4-6 pm
A roundtable discussion and clip projections of the film which has been recognized as one of the best documentaries ever made. The film documents the French collaboration, anti-Semitism, but also French resistance, during the WWII.
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies
Roundtable Participants: Professors Sylvie Blum, Eric Kligerman, Maureen Turim and Brigitte Weltman-Aron.
Refreshments will be served.
The screening of the entire film will be scheduled in the Center for Jewish Studies in the week preceding the event.
2009 FLEXfestFLEXfest 2010
Sunday, February 21-Tuesday, February 23
Details coming soon.
More Information
www.flexfest.org
(352) 271-4265 or
rogerbb@ufl.edu