Film Studies at UBC
News & Events
The UBC Film Studies Program would like to post any news, projects or events that our Faculty and Staff, our current Students and our Alumni are involved in.
To submit your upcoming event or announcement to this online listing, please click here.
UBC Department of Theatre & Film congratulates Ernest Mathijs on promotion to Full Professor
Professor Mathijs' research interests include the reception of alternative, cult and digital cinema, and of film and stage performance. He is the editor or co-editor of 10 books, author of a few dozen journal articles and book chapters, co-author of Cult Cinema and 100 Cult Films, and the author of The Cinema of David Cronenberg: from Baron of Blood to Cultural Hero.
Mathijs heads the Department's Centre for Cinema Studies and is the series editor of "Contemporary Cinema" and "Cultographies." (www.cultographies.com) He is currently engaged in a large number of projects, including the reception of The Hobbit trilogy, a history of New Line Cinema, an analysis of actress Delphine Seyrig's films, and an Insight Development SSHRC grant entitled Digital Cinema in Transition (digitalcinema.ca).
His next book, on the Canadian horror gem Ginger Snaps will appear this coming September, from University of Toronto Press: utppublishing.com/John-Fawcett-s-Ginger-Snaps.html
Few studies of Canadian cinema to date have engaged deeply with genre cinema and its connection to Canadian culture. Ernest Mathijs does just that in this volume entitled John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, which traces the inception, production, and reception of Canada’s internationally renowned horror film,Ginger Snaps (2000). This tongue-in-cheek Gothic film, which centres on two death-obsessed teenage sisters, draws a provocative connection between werewolf monstrosity and female adolescence and boasts a dedicated world-wide fan base.
The first book-length study of this popular film, John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps is based on the author’s privileged access to most of its cast and crew and to its enthusiasts around the world. Examining themes of genre, feminism, identity, and adolescent belonging, Mathijs concludes that Ginger Snapsdeserves to be recognized as part of the Canadian canon, and that it is a model example of the kind of crossover cult film that remains unjustly undervalued by film scholars.
Full bio for Ernest Mathijs at faculty_staff.shtml
Media Contact: Deb Pickman 604.319.7656 | deb.pickman@ubc.ca
Mark Harris, dedicated UBC Theatre & Film faculty member, dies at 62.
The Department of Theatre and Film is deeply saddened by the passing of Dr.
Mark Harris, a UBC alumnus, long-time faculty member, and wonderful
colleague.
View Memoriam details and eulogies
Associate Professor Ernest Mathijs Weighs in on Game of Thrones
ArtsWIRE spoke with UBC Film Studies' Associate Professor Ernest Mathijs about the reasons behind the popularity of the TV series Game of Thrones and whether it can continue its momentum. The show is the most expensive, most elaborate and most pirated TV show of all time, and it recently returned for a third season to HBO. Along with television's biggest cast, an assortment of dragons, dire wolves, shadowcats and krakens should make season three of Game of Thrones one of its most popular yet.
Read more at: http://wire.arts.ubc.ca
UBC students Seth Soulstein, Theatre MA and Peter Lester, Film Studies postdoc are published in the new SCOPE issue. SCOPE is an online journal of film and television studies that is edited by staff and students in the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK.
It's Not the Size (of the Screen) that Matters: IMAX, LIEMAX and the "Meaning" of a Brand, by Peter Lester
And
Concrete Irrationality: Surrealist Spectators and the Cult of Harry Langdon, By Seth Soulstein
Both can be read online at scope.nottingham.ac.uk
Cinephile's latest issue 8.2 Contemporary Extremism now available!
Cinephile, UBC's very own graduate-run film studies journal, has just published its latest issue, Vol. 8.2, on the topic of Contemporary Extremism. Featuring original articles by Tanya Horeck and Tina Kendall (The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe), Tim Palmer (Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema), and Dave Alexander (Editor-in-Chief of Rue Morgue Magazine), the issue seeks to expand the discourse around extremist cinema beyond its traditionally European borders. You can pick it up in Vancouver at Brigid's Books, Mayfair News, Pulp Fiction Books,Tanglewood Books, UBC Bookstore, and Zulu Records. If you prefer to have the issue delivered directly to your door, subscribe to the journal and receive the most recent issue and three forthcoming issues, plus a complimentary back issue of your choice, for $30 CDN. To subscribe please click here, or download the subscription form and send it in!
To view past issues, which cover a variety of topics, please visit Cinephile.ca.
Any questions can be directed to editor@cinephile.ca.
Digitalcinema.ca Audience Study
The Centre for Cinema Studies (CCS) at the University of British Columbia will launch an international audience survey on digital cinema in January 2013. The survey is addressed to audiences and interactive media users of digital films like Cosmopolis, The Hobbit, and American Mary.
The survey will allow the research team at CCS to evaluate the perceptions, engagement and interactions of audiences with regards to digital films, their formats, mobile content and accessibility. The information gathered will enable us to provide feedback to media scholars and professionals on the inherent opportunities and challenges of digital media and Canada’s film industry in transition.
Your participation in this anonymous survey is important to the Centre for Cinema Studies. You can access the surveys at digitalcinema.ca. It will take you about 10 minutes to complete one of the questionnaires.
We thank you in advance for taking the time to participate in this important audience study.
November 28, 2012
Love or Desire in Shakespeare?
The title of this talk addresses the tendency from Plato onward to reduce love to the conceptual features of desire. Love conceived as necessarily of something that is lacked becomes a relationship without reciprocity. In Lacan's terms, it runs along an endless metonymic chain in which the fulfillment of its essential lack is impossible. Schalkwyk argues that while some of Shakespeare's work endorses this definition of love, Shakespeare also moves beyond the diabolical logic of love as desire. Using Stanley Cavell's notion of "passionate utterance", Schalkwyk demonstrates a Shakespearean concept of love that is both dialogical and inconceivable in purely emotional terms. In this view love is not an emotion but rather a set of dispositions and actions negotiated through performative speech acts.
David Schalkwyk is Director of Research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC and editor of the Shakespeare Quarterly. He also holds a Professorship in English at the University of Cape Town. He is the author of Speech and Performance in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Plays (Cambridge, 2002), Literature and the Touch of the Real (Delaware, 2004), andShakespeare, Love and Service (Cambridge, 2008). His latest book, Hamlet's Dreams: The Robben Island Shakespeare is in press with Arden as part of the Shakespeare Now! series. He is currently working on a monograph on love in Shakespeare.
Also scheduled to speak at this talk is Film Studies Sessional Instructor Christine Evans.
November 2-4, 2012
Time to get your GRIND on, Vancouver!
Vancouver’s Rio Theatre is thrilled to announce the first installment of their new genre film festival, The Rio Grind, taking place November 2-4, 2012.
Theatre owner and operator Corinne Lea, herself a “huge fan” of genre films, has made a point of regularly programming obscure and cult features into the theatre’s schedule for years (Friday’s late-night movies are one of the city’s most popular regular events), in addition to hosting local competitive film festivals like the Dead On Film Zombie Short Film Competition.
Following the ongoing success of the Rio’s Horror Nights film series, hosted monthly by identical twin directors Jen and Sylvia Soska of Dead Hooker in a Trunk and the upcoming American Mary fame, a festival celebrating the best of genre seemed like a no-brainer.
“We always have such amazing, enthusiastic response from our audiences with everything from Dead on Film and Horror Nights that we knew it was time to bring them something bigger. This festival is going to be all about the fans. This is our chance for us to bring them the best of the best from around the world,” says Lea.
Vancouver’s own Soska sisters will be on hand as consultants and judges for The Rio Grind. “Vancouver has long been a town that focused on the different, from acclaimed television series like The X-Files to our diverse multicultural and multi-subculture mix of population, we have an identity that suits and thrives in our often grey and rainy city scape,” explains Sylvia.
“A town that lives and breathes genre so wholly has been only missing one thing - a film festival that celebrates this romance with the unusual and unique. I am thrilled that a theatre that so embraces the soul of the community, the Rio Theatre, will be the ones ushering in this new and needed festival that counter balances the mainstream and puts the focus on the independent artists.”
Lea agrees. “Dark, edgy films are often excluded from mainstream film festivals and genre filmmakers need an outlet to get their films out to fans like ours, who are hungry for it. The Rio Theatre wants to bring these fans and film makers together. We want to give them the best of the best indie films we can find, and we’re going to do that with The Rio Grind Film Festival.”
Prizes (TBD) will be awarded by both a judging panel and the festival’s audience in several categories. In addition to current and emerging talent, there are plans to screen classic retrospective titles rarely seen in the big screen, opportunities for director and talent appearances as well as Q&A sessions.
For additional information on how to submit your production for consideration into The Rio Grind Film Festival, stay up to date by visiting our Facebook Page and riotheatre.ca.
Important Dates: Submission Cut-off Date: October 15 (12:00 am PST) Festival Date: November 2-4
September 24, October 24, November 28, January 28, February 27, and March 27
Love: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics and Emotion of Love, hosted by Green College at UBC Vancouver.
This lecture series will interrogate the discourses, emotions and ethics of love. Embracing the ambiguity of love as a conceptual springboard for discussion and debate, this series addresses a topic that is ever-present in the public consciousness. In order to facilitate this dynamic understanding of love and its vicissitudes, an interdisciplinary array of speakers who have all written extensively on love in various scholarly and popular contexts have been brought together.
Talks will take place on September 24, October 24, November 28, January 28, February 27, and March 27.
The second scheduled speaker is Christine Evans, who will be speaking on Wednesday October 24 at 5:00 PM in the Green College Coach House. Her paper is entitled, "Love is Colder Than Death: The Work of Love & Meaning."
Participants are invited to a complimentary coffee and tea service in the Green College piano lounge before the talk begins at 5:00 PM in the Green College Coach House.
The talk is free and no registration is required, and everyone is welcome to attend. A map showing the location of Green College is here: http://goo.gl/maps/OwPZp
Our November 28 speaker will be Prof. David Schalkwyk, author of Shakespeare, Love and Service (Cambridge UP, 2008). More information on past, present, and future talks will be made available on our Tumblr, http://love-thematicseries.tumblr.com
Congratulations to Jessica Hughes, who has been accepted to the PhD program at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Jessica is a graduate of the MA in Film Studies program at UBC. Her master's thesis was entitled, "The Good, the Bad, the Thirsty: De-Mystification in the Postmodern Vampire Film." Congrats Jessica!
UBC Film Studies Professor Ernest Mathijs Awarded 63K SSHRC Insight Development Grant for "Digital Cinema in Transition."
Vancouver B.C., Canada/July 10, 2012: Digital Cinema in Transition is the latest project undertaken by UBC Film Studies Professor Ernest Mathijs, through which he aims to map the value chain of film production and reception in Canada's digital economy. The project will identify how Canadian film producers apply digital media in their creation of cultural works for theatrical and on-line distribution. It will seek to define how Canadian audiences engage with digital media texts, especially through interacting with other viewers in on-line environments.
Digital Cinema in Transition will also assess audience responses to cultural works in digital domains, from on-line and mobile communication forums to amateur production, in order to ascertain how current policies impact on popular engagement with digital content. One of the desired outcomes of this work, is to provide the basis for a larger, multi-year research project that includes a comprehensive study of emerging media ecologies and collaborations across industries between Canada and the rest of the world.
Canada's film and multimedia are facing change across the entire entertainment value chain. Under pressure of digital technologies that transform conditions of production and reception alike, Canadian producers increasingly create cultural works that transcend traditional forms of artistic expression.
They make feature films under difficult environmental conditions (e.g. the High Arctic) and circumvent traditional distribution channels by using the Internet as a platform. At the same time, Canadian audiences today engage actively with media through affiliations to cultural works via social media, or through productions of their own (e.g. fan fiction).
This rapid adoption of digital production tools and on-line communication begs for insight into how Canadian film producers can best take advantage of the opportunities digital media represent for creating cultural works. What is their relationship with audiences' interactions with media, and where do producers and consumers alike face their greatest challenges?
The case studies which Digital Cinema in Transition will assess include:
1) Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg 2012) - Cronenberg's newest, currently in theatres, with Robert Pattinson. This film is an example of contemporary art cinema in the digital era.
2) Riese (Kaleena Kiff, Ryan Copple, 2009) - A series, created by students and alumni of the UBC Film Production program, and shot in Vancouver. Riese is a web series, shot digitally and watched exclusively on the web.
3) The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (Zacharias Kunuk, 2006) - An indigenous film in which traditional storytelling was combined with digital production technology.
4) Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (Brett Sullivan 2004) and Ginger Snaps Back (Grant Harvey 2004): a sequel and a prequel to the cult hit Ginger Snaps. Both films never really made it into theatres but were hits on the digital circuit (DVD, internet, fan sites).
All these case studies are Canadian productions (or co-productions), which will provide a wealth of information on how Canadian filmmakers are seizing opportunities through the logistics, aesthetics, distribution, marketing, and viewership that the digital era offers.
The goal of Digital Cinema in Transition is to build a valuable knowledge base for future filmmakers, and viewers. The project has recently received the support of a 63K “Insight Development Grant” from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Collection Represents a Lifetime of Film Study:
The family of retired UBC professor Aristides Gazetas has kindly donated a collection of 56 film books to the UBC Department of Theatre and Film's film library in the Visual Resources Centre.
The books, both academic and general interest, embrace a wide range of film interests. From Hollywood history to the cubist avant-garde, from Andre Bazin to Cecille B. DeMille, the donation brings a lifetime of film study to our shelves.
In addition to the books, the Gazetas family has also given us 22 rare and valuable programs from the Vancouver Film Festival, ranging from 1988 to 2006 and representing years of film-going and appreciation with pages and films flagged and noted for attention.
Aristides taught both film studies and theatre design courses at UBC in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as creating and teaching a distance education course in film history in partnership with the Knowledge Network. He authored several books including "An Introduction to World Cinema" and "Imagining Selves."
Congratulations to Associate Professor Lisa Coulthard, who has been elected Chair of the Editorial Board and Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Film Studies.
The Canadian Journal of Film Studies/Revue Canadienne d'etudes cinematographiques is Canada's leading academic peer-reviewed film journal and it has been published in both English and French bi-annually since launching in 1990. The CJFS/RCEC covers innovated research on film, television, and other moving image media studies as well as book reviews and review-essays.
In 2011 the journal celebrated 20 years of publishing with the release of its complete archive online. The Canadian Journal of Film Studies archive includes work by over 250 authors, 200 academic peer-reviewed articles on film and media studies, 130 scholarly book reviews, and almost two dozen rare and previously unpublished historical documents, including writings by Roland Barthes, John Grierson, André Bazin, and Arthur Lipsett.
All of these documents are available for download and accessible to full-text search. Despite the move online, the journal is not abandoning traditional printed publication. It has instituted a two-year lag between paper publication and online publication.
CJFS/RCEC is funded by the Film Studies Association of Canada/Association canadienne des études cinématographiques, SSHRC/CRSH, and Concordia University. Complete guidelines for contributors can be found in each issue of the journal, as well as on their website at http://www.filmstudies.ca.
Cinephile Vol. 8 No. 1, “The Voice Over” hits the stands!
CINEPHILE Vol. 8 No. 1,
THE VOICE OVER
Editor: Babak Tabarraee, Artwork: Soroosh Roohbakhsh
Cinephile Vol. 8 No. 1, "The Voice Over" studies the various potentials of the voice-over in global cinema and features original articles by Sarah Kozloff, Stephen Teo, Laura Beadling, Alexander Fisher, and Carl Laamanen.
During the past three decades, studying the voice has intrigued many film theorists and thinkers. Arguing that the cinematic image is an audiovisual space largely structured according to human body and voice, some scholars (Mary Ann Doane, Sarah Kozloff, and Michel Chion, among others) have been drawn to the various manifestations and mysterious connotations of the non-visualized voice.
If off-screen voices foster a need to categorize and perhaps control their elusive nature, then the voice-over raises some challenging questions about its uncanny attributes and powers. Defined by a paradoxical present-absence, the voice-over adds layers to the narrative discourse of film that require further and closer analyses.
Cinephile is a peer-reviewed journal edited by graduate students in the Film Studies program at the University of British Columbia, Canada and is supported by the Centre for Cinema Studies. The journal aims to provide a forum to discuss aspects of film theory, history, and criticism, and is intended to provide a platform to share research papers, book reviews, and reports that engage with debates appropriate to film, media, and cultural studies.
The UBC Film Studies program is committed to the academic investigation of critical theory in visual culture, and aims to place its student body and faculty at the forefront of advancing cinema and visual studies as a rigorous academic discipline — particularly as an interdisciplinary phenomenon, which explores cinema from varied perspectives.
What's Next? We’ve posted a call for papers to be considered for inclusion in Cinephile 8.2, which focuses on " Contemporary Extremism."
Cinephile is published biannually and is available in Vancouver at Pulp Fiction Books, Zulu Records, Mayfair News, and the UBC Bookstore at a cost of $10 per issue. Subscribe to the journal and receive the most recent issue and three forthcoming issues, plus a complimentary back issue of your choice, for $30 CDN. For more information, and all the latest updates, please visit our website at www.cinephile.ca.
PROFESSOR MARK HARRIS HOSTS THE BARD ON SCREEN SERIES AT VANCITY THEATRE FOR THE SHOWING OF THRONE OF BLOOD, DIRECTED BY AKIRA KUROSAWA, WHICH IS HAILED AS "THE MOST BRILLIANT AND ORIGINAL ATTEMPT EVER MADE TO PUT SHAKESPEARE IN PICTURES." TIME MAGAZINE.
Students only $9! Regular admission $11
Kurosawa's transposition of Shakespeare's Macbeth is set in the Edo era, with Toshiro Mifune as a samurai usurper coming to a grisly fate in Cobweb Castle. Freed from the constraints of verse, Kurosawa makes the play his own, creating a rich, dense and compelling work that is at once familiar and strange. The stylized, expressionist mise-en-scene is influenced by Noh theatre, though the film also makes brilliant use of the natural world: the rain and perpetual mist that fogs the slopes of Mount Fuji. Or course the poetry is all in the picture-making but that didn't stop TS Eliot from proclaiming this is favourite film.
Event Details: http://www.viff.org/theatre
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REALITY
AND REELITY? (or, the Different Systems that Apply to the World
Outside the Cinema and the World Inside.)
A talk with Dr. Mark Harris.
Thursday, May 10 2012
6pm—8pm
Royal Bank Room
733 Beatty Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 2M4
Tix: $5 at www.acornseries.net
The UBC Film Studies program is proud to announce the release of Cinephile 7.2, "Contemporary Realism."
Launched in conjunction with the Film Studies Association of Canada's 2012 Graduate Colloquium, this issue resituates the notion of filmic realism for a post-film era, and was helmed by M.A. candidate Shaun Inouye and an editorial team comprised of graduate students, post doctorates, and faculty
from the Film Studies department.
Cinephile continues its pursuit toward fresh perspectives and “cutting edge” innovations in film studies research and scholarship. By devoting this entire issue to Contemporary Realism, Cinephile once again hopes to present new debates, developments, and interpretations regarding contemporary visual culture.
What's Next? We’ve posted a call for papers to be considered for inclusion in Cinephile 8.1 which focuses on “The Voice-Over”, Editor Babak Tabarraee.
For more information and all the latest updates, please visit our website at http://www.cinephile.ca.
March 5, 6, 7, & 8, 2012
THE UBC DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND FILM AND THE ROGERS MULTICULTURAL FILM PRODUCTION PROJECT ADVISORY COMMITTEE ARE PLEASED TO INVITE YOU TO A WELCOME RECEPTION AND A SERIES OF FREE PUBLIC EVENTS FOR THE PHIL LIND MULTICULTURAL ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, ALANIS OBOMSAWIN.
MARCH 5-9.
Alanis Obomsawin is a member of the Abenaki Nation, She began her career as a singer, writer and storyteller, but dove into filmmaking in 1967 with Christmas at Moose Factory. Her early films include Incident at Restigouche (1984), a powerful depiction of the Quebec police raid of a Micmac reserve; Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child (1986), the disturbing examination of an adolescent suicide; and No Address (1988), a look at Montreal’s homeless.
Ms. Obomsawin is best known for her feature-length film on the 1990 Mohawk uprising in Kanehsatake and Oka: Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993), which won 18 international awards.
Most recently, Ms. Obomsawin directed the 2007 National Film Board of Canada documentary Gene Boy Came Home, about Vietnam War veteran Eugene "Gene Boy" Benedict, from her home community of Odanak.
“Alanis Obomsawin is the first lady of First Nations film,” - The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
WELCOME RECEPTION
We hope you will be able to join us on MONDAY, MARCH 5, from 5-7 pm
First Nations House of Learning, UBC.
MASTER CLASS IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING:
TUESDAY MARCH 6, 2012 / 7 - 9pm
Emily Carr University, Aboriginal Gathering Place, 1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island
This master class led by Alanis Obomsawin is open to the public.
Hosted by Emily Carr University and the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC. Admission FREE!
FIRESIDE CHAT:
WEDNESDAY MARCH 7, 2012 / 7:30 - 9pm
St. John’s College, UBC, 2111 Lower Mall Map: http://bit.ly/wT1LYt
Engage in a casual conversation with award winning filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin.
Hosted by St. John’s College and the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC. Admission FREE!
IN CONVERSATION: International Women’s Day
THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2012 / 12 noon - 1pm
Dorothy Somerset Studio Theatre, UBC, 6361 University Boulevard Map: http://bit.ly/czsV7h
Celebrate International Women’s Day with Alanis Obomsawin as she discusses her life-long career as a filmmaker, artist and activist. Hosted by UBC Department of Theatre and Film Admission. FREE!
~ Bring your lunch!
DISCUSSION & FILM: Educational Possibilities of Film
FRIDAY MARCH 9, 2012 / 2 pm – 3 pm
Neville Scarfe Building Room 310, UBC Map: http://bit.ly/9dCVlE
Discuss the educational possibilities of film with one of our country’s foremost filmmakers Alanis Obomsawin and see her short documentary When All the Leaves Are Gone (2010). This film is a deeply moving story about the power of dreams for the only First Nations student in an all-white 1940s school, as she deals with Canadian history education, bullies, and the contrast between her school and the loving reserve environment. With Dr. Jo-ann Archibald, and Elder Mary Charles. Light snack & refreshments provided. Event is free of charge, but please RSVP: CCFI Graduate Program Assistant ccfi.educ@ubc.ca
Hosted by UBC Centre for Cross Faculty Inquiry in Education
Ms. Obomsawin is engaging in these lectures and appearances in her role as the UBC Film Production Program’s Phil Lind Multicultural Artist in Residence, part of the UBC Rogers Multicultural Film Production Project. For more information see www.film.ubc.ca.
Media Contact: Deb Pickman 604.319.7656 publicity.theatre@ubc.ca
February 8, 2012
UBC FILM STUDIES presents a talk
by Dr Jenna Ng, University of Cambridge, UK
Machinima and the Transcending of Mortality, or, Machinima and the
Cinema-World of Latent Realities
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 | 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
Frederic Wood Theatre, Room 112
6354 Crescent Rd., UBC – Free Admission
Abstract for the talk: It is common to find fantasy worlds shown in films - Pandora, Narnia, the wizarding world, Middle-earth, and Toontown are a few of the more prominent examples. It is perhaps less common to find films shown in fantasy worlds, yet, as I will argue, machinima achieves precisely that.
Using the rendering game engines in video games or social virtual worlds, machinima presents recorded images of objects made within the 3D graphical environments of those media, effectively creating machinima as what I will call a cinema of latent realities -- media in a world generated in the physics, ontology and existence of virtual game world realities, not quite taking place in either the physical world (as in live action) or computer-generated imagery (as in animation), not quite in presence or absence, but, instead, suspended in not-quite-formed realities between game, image, avatar and our selves.
In this latency, how then may we locate machinima between animation, digital imagery and film cinema, and how does that challenge our definitions of cinema and object? What are the implications for our understanding of media and representation as machinima elides between different realities and ontological hybridities? Does this create new ways of seeing (images) and being (in our physical and virtual realities)?
As I consider these questions in the talk, I also want to think about this: what happens if we can cut through the binaries - here/there; actual/speculative; dying/being; is/is not? What if this - *wave hands* - is neither (and yet both) is nor (and) isn't?
Biography: Jenna Ng holds a PhD in Film Studies from University College London (UCL) and is currently a Newton Trust/Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge, where she is writing up a book project on presence and embodiment in digital media. She is currently editing a collection of essays on machinima, titled Understanding Machinima: essays on filmmaking in virtual worlds (Continuum Press, 2012).
Media Contact: Deb Pickman deb.pickman@ubc.ca 604.319.7656
January, 2012
Professor Ernest Mathijs publishes 100 CULT FILMS
Congratulations to UBC Theatre and Film Prof. Ernest Mathijs on the launch of his controversial new book "100 Cult Films".
Some films should never have been made. They are too unsettling, too dangerous, too challenging, too outrageous and even too badly made to be let loose on unsuspecting audiences.
Yet these films, from the shocking Cannibal Holocaust to the apocalyptic Donnie Darko, from the destructive Tetsuo to the awfully bad The Room, from the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap to the campy Showgirls, from the asylum of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari to The Circus of Freaks, from the gangs of The Warriors to the gangsters of In Bruges and from the flamboyant Rocky Horror Picture Show to the ultimate cool of The Big Lebowski, have all garnered passionate fan followings.
Cult cinema has made tragic misfits, monsters and cyborgs, such as Edward Scissorhands or Blade Runner's replicants, heroes of our times. 100 Cult Films explains why these figures continue to inspire fans around the globe. Cult film experts Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik round up the most cultish of giallo, blaxploitation, anime, sexploitation, zombie, vampire and werewolf films, exploring both the cults that live hidden inside the underground (Nekromantik, Café Flesh) and the cult side of the mainstream (Dirty Dancing, The Lord of the Rings, and even The Sound of Music).
100 Cult Films is a true trip around the world, providing a lively and illuminating guide to films from more than a dozen countries, across nine decades, representing a wide range of genres and key cult directors such as David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch.
Drawing on exclusive interviews with some of the world's most iconic cult creators and performers, including Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Alex Cox, Ruggero Deodato, Jesús Franco, Lloyd Kaufman, Harry Kümel, H. G. Lewis, Christina Lindberg, Takashi Miike, Franco Nero, George A. Romero and Brian Yuzna, and featuring a foreword by cult director Joe Dante, 100 Cult Films is your ultimate ticket to the midnight movie show. 100 Cult Films is published by the British Film Institute in their ‘Screen Guides series’ and distributed in North America by Palgrave Macmillan. Palgrave Macmillan is a global cross market publisher of trade non-fiction and scholarly titles.
Mathijs, who is our professor of Theatre & Film Studies here in UBC's Department of Theater and Film, is the principal investigator in the SSHRC funded survey project “Cult Movie Research”. It proposes to find out how films get to be called ‘cult’. This project is part of a series of efforts to chart cult film, fandom, and their impacts on and importance for the outlook and status of popular culture today. Find out more about Mathijs’ research and participate in the surveys at the links below and hear him interviewed with co-authorXavier Mendik on National Public Radio here: http://www.npr.org
November, 2011
CONGRATULATIONS TO FILM STUDIES PROFESSOR DR. BRIAN MCILROY, HONOURED AS A 2011 KILLAM MENTOR AT THE FALL CONGREGATION
During the November graduation ceremonies Dr. Adlai Fisher, Sauder School of Business, will receive the 2011 mid-career award while the 2011 senior award is given jointly to Dr. Michael Fryzuk, Department of Chemistry and Dr. Brian McIlroy of the Department of Film and Theatre. These three outstanding graduate student mentors receive their awards along with the reading of a citation regarding their many contributions to the university and the lives of graduate students.
October 24-27, 2011
INVITATION TO OPEN UBC EVENTS - October 24 - 27, 2011. The full program is listed at: http://scholcomm.ubc.ca/openubc
UBC is once again participating in the International Open Access Week event, where the research and academic community worldwide come together to share and learn about open access and other connected global open scholarship initiatives locally and worldwide. UBC’s own event – Open UBC – showcases four days of topical forums, lectures and workshops about open scholarship by invited Guest Lecturers and UBC’s own community of faculty, students & staff.
Highlights include:
- Opening Up Education – Creative Alternatives to Access Copyright – keynote - Paul Stacey, Director, Communications, Stakeholder & Academic Relations at BCcampus
- A Course on Reproducible Research in Computational and Data Science: What should it be? Dr. Ian Mitchell & Dr. Dhavide Arulia
- Transitioning a journal to an open access business model: a Canadian perspective - Lesley Andres, Professor, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia and Editor of Canadian Journal of Higher Education
- Open Access – What problems are we trying to fix? – keynote from - Dr. David Rosenthal, Chief Scientist, LOCKSS
- OpenMedia and its Push for Internet Openness – What Canadian Citizens Should Know. – keynote - Reilly Yeo, Managing Director, OpenMedia.ca
- Publishers from Public Library of Science & Springer Publishing will talk about their Open Access Business models –
- Opening Up Worldwide Access to key BC Historical Documents: Chinese Canadian Stories, BC Historical Newspapers and more
- UBC Faculty will share and exchange their innovative approaches to the dissemination of their research in a showcase and exchange of ideas event. – Dr. Anne-Marie Nicols, Dr. Paul Evans, Dr. Rosie Redfield, Dr. Erin Michalak, Dr. Harry Brumer, Dr. Wyeth W. Wasserman and Dimas Yusuf
All of these events are FREE and open to the public, students, faculty, staff and schools. No registration necessary.
Location: All events in Lillooet (301) Room in the Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC Vancouver Campus unless indicated otherwise.
All of these events are FREE and open to the public, students, faculty, staff and schools. For more information about the event contact: ubc-oaweek@interchange.ubc.ca
Film Studies prof Ernest Mathijs interviewed on Zombie love!
Zombie love a no-brainer
Move over, vampires Zombies are everywhere and rising in popularity Soon to be king of the undead
Sparkly vampires are all the rage right now, but zombies are stumbling their way toward knocking their fellow legions of the undead from their pedestal.
From the zombie walks being held in cities across the world to the television shows, video games and numerous books hitting the stores, people’s fascination with zombies is spreading like a plague.
“Zombies have the upper hand,” says University of B.C. film studies professor Ernest Mathijs, whose specialities include horror and fantasy film.
“Zombies are a kind of ingredient you can add to any cultural product and make it look slightly different,” he said. “It will turn it into a funny parody of contemporary cultures, and somehow that appeals to cultures across the globe.” More: http://www.metronews.ca/winnipeg/scene/article/994105--zombie-love-a-no-brainer
Film Studies Professor Brian McIlroy has recently received one of the new SSHRC Insight Development Grants for a project entitled “Screens in Vancouver: Cinemagoing and the City in 1914.”
“The research, “says McIlroy, “is an intense follow-up to modest endeavours supported by a 2009 Faculty of Arts AURA Grant and a 2010 Hampton Grant. The discipline of film studies has many strands, and one of these is the effort to understand the social and economic reality of film viewing practices. I’ve chosen 1914 as a case study as it is a moment of plenitude (some forty venues in the city exhibited films at this time) before a recession took hold and the huge demographic and economic impact of the First World War. I hope this microhistory will add to our knowledge about the social and cultural development of Vancouver. In 1914, the city had a population of around 120,000 people, with a large seasonal influx from the logging, fishing and mining industries. Issues of race, class, gender and social status are reflected and mediated by cinemagoing practices. To some extent, to understand the way cinema was experienced is to understand the social life of the city.”
“Film viewing is too often assumed to be a universal, passive activity, but this is not borne out by similar microhistories of other cities in the world. It will be interesting to see, as the research unfolds, how unique the Vancouver experience actually was compared to Eastern Canada and the United States.”
The research grant will allow a number of film studies graduate and postdoctoral students to be hired, providing training and experience as they further their careers.
Professor Ernest Mathijs publishes new Cult Cinema primer
Congratulations to UBC Theatre and Film Prof. Ernest Mathijs on the launch of his new book "Cult Cinema"
"Cult Cinema: an Introduction" presents the first in-depth academic examination of all aspects of the field of cult cinema, including audiences, genres, and theoretical perspectives.It represents the first exhaustive introduction to cult cinema and a scholarly treatment of a hotly contested topic at the center of current academic debate. This important new work covers audience reactions, aesthetics, genres, theories of cult cinema, as well as historical insights into the topic
From the back cover: “At once subversive, strange, and wondrous, the world of cult cinema is a wildly popular culture that blurs genres, crosses boundaries, and defies easy categorization. So what exactly do we mean, then, by the term "cult cinema"? Cult Cinema presents the first in-depth academic examination of all aspects of the field of cult cinema, including its primary audiences, myriad genres, and the theoretical perspectives that inform a film's "cult" status. Cult Cinema addresses the well-known aspects of cult cinema -- midnight movies, exploitation films, fans of various cult sub-genres, issues of censorship, cult-film festivals, and fanzines – but it also unravels many of cult cinema's deeper mysteries, tackling such issues as representations of gender, transgression, subcultures, religious cultism, music, and meta-cults (cult movies about cult movies).
Topics are presented in sections that are organized thematically around issues relating to reception, aesthetics, and theories. Among the films discussed are such cult classics as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Donnie Darko, Blade Runner, Plan 9 From Outer Space, El Topo, Eraserhead, Freaks, Casablanca, Suspiria, The Room, and many others. For cinephiles and scholars alike, Cult Cinema is the ticket to the most complete source of information about a fascinating phenomenon in the history of film.”
About the Authors
Ernest Mathijs is Associate Professor in Film Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His books include The Cult Film Reader (co-editor), three books on the reception of The Lord of the Rings, and The Cinema of David Cronenberg: From Baron of Blood to Cultural Hero.
Jamie Sexton is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies, Northumbria University, UK. He is the author of Alternative Film Culture in Inter-War Britain (2008), editor of Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual (2007), and co-editor (with Laura Mulvey) of Experimental British Television (2007).
More http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405173742,descCd-authorInfo.html
Dr. Mark Harris
“Maciste vs.
Alexandre Dumas Grand-père”
Thursday, February 3, 2011
12:00-1:00pm
Dorothy Somerset Studios,
6361 University Boulevard
Join Dr. Mark Harris as he shares insights from a book that he is currently co-writing with Guy Buchholzer on the under-appreciated modernism buried in the words of the man who created The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
Mark Harris has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and an M.A. in Film Studies from UBC, where he currently teaches. He is co-author of Wild at Heart: The Films of Nettie Wild and sole author of the prize-winning one-act play Endserious.
Although he has published approximately 4,000 articles, essays and reviews in more than 50 periodicals (including Wired, Film Comment and Canadian Literature), he is probably best known locally as a long-time film critic for The Georgia Straight.
At Vancouver’s film fest, everyone can get tickets
Marsha Lederman
Vancouver— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 24, 2010 2:08PM EDT
Exerpts from the Globe and Mail article:
“Vancouver has a film festival?”
This question in the run-up to film festival season came from a worldly recent transplant from Toronto.
Yes, Vancouver has a film festival. But despite its highly regarded programming and huge slate of films (about 375 this year), on the national scene it resides quietly in the shadows of the Toronto International Film Festival.
“It’s a big, buzzing marketplace,” says Ernest Mathijs, an associate professor of film studies at UBC. “It’s all about the circus of cinema… and the fact that it appears to be unmanageable I would say appears to be part of the excitement.”
....
“Toronto very early on embraced an identity as a public festival, but has increasingly gone behind a bit of a velvet rope,” says Diane Burgess, who teaches film studies at the University of British Columbia and wrote her dissertation in 2008 comparing the two festivals.
“TIFF is, like, fanatical. There are people who line up overnight for tickets,” adds Leah Mallen, an independent producer who has shown films at both TIFF and VIFF. “I was just there this past year and had a couple of friends with films and I couldn’t even go because they were sold out already. In Vancouver, there’s easier access.”
October 6, 2010
Film Symposium on Migration, Multiculturalism and Misunderstandings
>>Click here to view Symposium flyer (coming soon)
Join us for a screening and discussion of two controversial European films about the chances and challenges of demographic changes in society.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
2.00 till 5.30 pm in the Royal Bank Cinema at the Chan Centre, 6265 Crescent Road, UBC, Room 290.
FREE, but due to limited seating, please reserve a seat by calling 604.822.2697
More details: www.film.ubc.ca
Time Wasted
Ernest Mathijs
"If film cultism today is only what William Bainbridge and Rodney Stark would call an ‘audience cult’ or ‘client cult’, and what Janet Staiger calls ‘visible fandom’ , if cult cinema’s current impulse is disconnected from the history of cultism, why do cult receptions of television and cinema not lose all of their appeal as a factor of resistance against the mainstreaming of culture?"
>>Continue reading Professor Ernest Mathijs' newest essay on FlowTV
April 1, 2010
Dr. Mark Harris:
“The Dragon is the Blog”. A talk about the infamous ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ sequence from Apocalypse Now, cinematic ‘scene studies’, and the importance of print publication.
Thursday, April 1 - 12:00-1:00pm,
Dorothy Somerset Studios,
6361 University Boulevard.
