THE “REEL” MIDDLE AGES AND THE DOCUMENTARY TRADITION

To many, the Middle Ages often seems a very distant part of human history, but films and television programs set in what Kevin J. Harty has termed the “Reel” Middle Ages make this era come alive again for viewers. Medieval-themed film and television programming serves an especially important role in our contemporary world, as Martha W. Driver suggests: “in a culture that values the visual over the printed page, film keeps medieval history and heroes alive, topical, and under discussion, sometimes heated discussion,” and the medium of film has become one of the most important disseminators of information (right or wrong) about the medieval past. However, because film versions of the Middle Ages are both popular and prevalent (David John Williams goes as far to assert, “The cinematic Middle Ages represents the way many people really think of that part of their history”), educators are often at a disadvantage when they try to compete with or disabuse such representations of the medieval. In effort to highlight these qualities of medieval film, the MEDIEVAL FILMS AREA invites proposals for papers and sessions investigating the representation of any aspect of the Middle Ages in documentary film and educational television programming. Proposals for round tables on any of these themes are also welcome. (A working listing of programs and bibliography related to medieval film and the documentary tradition will be added to the Medieval Studies at the Movies website at , while Bert Olton’s The Arthurian Legends on Film and Television (McFarland, 2000) offers an overview of material devoted to the Arthurian tradition.)

Potential topics include:
• Children’s Educational Programming and the Middle Ages (e.g. Hysteria)
• David Macaulay and the Middle Ages (e.g. Castle, Cathedral)
• The Dracula Industry (Vlad Þepeº versus Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula)
• DVD Extras on Medieval Films (do they enrich or detract from our viewing?)
• Joseph Campbell and the Middle Ages (e.g. Transformations of Myth through Time)
• “Med-Evil and the Medieval” (how the presentation of the medieval in video games has affected the representation of the Middle Ages on film)
• Medieval Conspiracy Theories (e.g. the Da Vinci Code, fate of the Cathars, Hitler and the Grail/Spear of Destiny, the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar, Vikings in America and other pre-Columbian explorations of North America)
• Medieval Docudramas
• Medieval Film as Truth (e.g. King Arthur)
• Medieval Films as Propaganda (e.g. A Canterbury Tale)
• “Medieval Marvels” (filmic presentations of medieval technological achievements)
• Medieval Mockumentaries (e.g. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Newscasts from the Past)
• Medieval Monsters (e.g. dragons, giants)
• Medieval Mysteries (e.g. fate of the Cathars, the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar, the Shroud of Turin, the Vinland Map)
• Medieval “Reality” Television (e.g. Warrior Challenge)
• Medieval-Themed Material produced by Films for the Humanities and Sciences
• Medieval-Themed Programming on the A&E Networks (A&E/The History Channel/The Biography Channel)
• Medieval-Themed Programming on the BBC
• Medieval-Themed Programming on the Discovery Channel Networks (The Discovery Channel/The Learning Channel/The Travel Channel)
• Medieval-Themed Programming on The National Geographic Channel
• Medieval-Themed Programming on Public Television
• Non-Fiction Medieval Films (e.g. The Anchoress, The Sorceress)
• Producing a Medieval Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
• “Promoting Medieval Films” (cable documentaries and medieval feature films, like A Knight’s Tale, King Arthur, and Kingdom of Heaven)
• The Pseudo-Medieval and the Documentary Tradition (e.g. Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.)
• Re-Writing the Middle Ages in Historical Films
• “Revenge of the Talking Heads” (reflections of contributors/participants involved in medieval-themed documentaries)
• Teaching with Medieval Film
• Terry Jones and the Middle Ages (e.g. Crusades, Medieval Lives, Barbarians)
• “Visualizing the Middle Ages” (what images are chosen to accompany medieval-themed documentaries and do they represent an accurate picture of the Middle Ages)

Please submit proposals, with abstracts of 250 to 500 words and complete contact information, to the area chair no later than August 1, 2006. Submissions should be addressed to the area chair at the following address:

Michael A. Torregrossa
34 Second Street
Smithfield, RI 02917-3627
Michael.A.Torregrossa@gmail.com

Complete details about the conference can be found on the Film & History web site at http://FilmandHistory.org