Seminars

Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation

  • Founded
    1974
  • Seminar Number
    539

This seminar is devoted to exploring interdisciplinary influences in the ever-changing, ever-expanding field of cinema and media studies. Internationally acclaimed scholars—from the New York metropolitan area and well beyond—have presented their works in progress, sharing their innovative and often groundbreaking insights, and often receiving valuable input from seminar members. These presentations have led to numerous pioneering publications, as well as further presentations at international conferences. As a center for ongoing face-to-face and hybrid scholarly exchanges in the field, the seminar enjoys an international reputation among film and media scholars.

Co-Chairs
Professor Cynthia Lucia
cindylucia@aol.com

Professor William Luhr
luhrwg@aol.com

Rapporteur
Soumya Vats
sv2633@columbia.edu

All seminars will continue to meet virtually through Fall 2021. Meeting links provided upon RSVP. Meeting dates and times are subject to change.

Meeting Schedule

09/23/2021 Online Meeting
7:00 PM
The Apocalypse Documentary: The Future is Already Here
Alisa Lebow, University of Sussex (England, UK)
Abstract

Abstract

Focusing on a few prime examples, this talk introduces the concept of the ‘apocalypse documentary,’ an admittedly minor but potent strain of the advocacy oriented environmental documentary. An apocalypse documentary is premised upon the demise of the human race, if not all life on earth, and operates simultaneously in the present and future tense, inherently positing that the catastrophic future imagined already inheres in the present. Films discussed will include Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog,1992), Homo Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2016), and Into Eternity: A Film for the Future (Michael Madsen, 2010).


Respondent: Topiary Landberg, University of California, Santa Cruz



10/14/2021 Online Meeting
7:00 PM
When Hollywood Came to Greece, 1957-1967
Yannis Tzioumakis, University of Liverpool (England, UK)
Abstract

Abstract

In 1957, Hollywood made its first “runaway” film production in Greece, Boy on A Dolphin. The film made extensive use of locations that highlighted the country’s ancient past, including the Parthenon, which appeared for the first time in a Hollywood production. It also paved the way for other such films, most famously Zorba the Greek, also a 20th Century Fox production. While since the 1940s the major Hollywood studios had been producing routinely a large number of their films outside the US in search of appealing stories, exotic locations, cheap labour, foreign government subsidies, opportunities for collaboration and several other elements that would enhance their films’ commercial potential, they nonetheless did not come to Greece until the late 1950s. This talk examines the phenomenon of runaway production in Greece in the decade from 1957 to 1967 and, in part, draws upon Professor Tzioumakis's forthcoming book When Hollywood Came to Greece, 1957-1967.


Respondent: Tino Balio, University of Wisconsin-Madison



11/04/2021 Online Meeting
7:00 PM

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12/02/2021 Online Meeting
7:00 PM

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01/27/2022 Location TBD
7:00 PM

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02/10/2022 Location TBD
7:00 PM

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03/10/2022 Location TBD
7:00 PM

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04/21/2022 Location TBD
7:00 PM

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