“The Documentary Tradition”

Dallas 8-12 November, 2006
www.filmandhistory.org

AREA: Cold War Documentary

From the onset of the Cold War, filmmakers from both sides of this momentous conflict used film to analyze, persuade, and propagate. “Documentary” films were thus an important aspect of the cultural battle for hearts and minds that was played out in cinemas, and particularly on television screens, for four decades from the 1940s. Of course, not all documentary films devoted to the Cold War have been propaganda: indeed, a large body of work, produced during and since the Cold War, has focused on specific aspects of the conflict from a range of perspectives. Significant, too, are documentaries devoted to specific flashpoints of the era, when the label “Cold War” seemed a misnomer.

Submissions on all aspects of Cold War documentary film are welcome.

Possible themes include:

• Causes of the Cold War
• The Korean War
• McCarthyism and the Red Scare
• Cold War Leaders and Leadership
• The Cold War and Decolonization
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Atomic testing
• The Vietnam War
• Détente
• Cold War culture
• The end of the Cold War

Deadline for submissions is July 25, 2006.

Please direct all enquiries and abstracts (250 words, accompanied by a one-page CV) to:

Dr. Chris Dixon, University of Newcastle (Australia) Chris.Dixon@newcastle.edu.au