Film Festival and Conference
Tulane University
November 3-6, 2010

Conference organizers:
Ana M. López (Tulane University), Rebecca Atencio (Tulane University) and Leslie March (Georgia State University)

As the capstone of a year-long film series devoted to the work of Brazilian woman filmmakers, this conference will gather filmmakers and an international cadre of film critics and scholars to engage in a broad conversation about Brazilian women filmmaking today.

After the 1990 dismantling of state support for filmmaking in Brazil, the vacuum created in the national cinema ended up an unexpected fertile ground for the emergence of a new generation of women filmmakers and for the continued activities of filmmakers from the 1980s who were able to take advantage of new federal and state initiatives (post 1992-95) in support of cultural production.

Mulheres da Retomada will focus on this body of films and on its place in contemporary Brazilian cinema and society. It is framed by the following questions:
a. What difference does it make when a Brazilian woman wields the camera?
b. How do woman filmmakers theorize about their experiences in the world and their practice?
c. What are the relationships among questions of gender, race, and class in Brazilian film?
d. Can feminist theory make a contribution to film practice in Brazil?

We welcome proposals that engage critically with these issues by offering new readings of exemplary texts and/or bringing marginal texts to light.
Some potential areas of exploration include:

• Format Frontier: From Documentary to Fiction and Back
• The Public and the Private: Spheres of Memory and History
• Violence, Love and Citizenship
• Gender and Geography
• Modes of Spectatorship
• Popular Culture and the Filmic Imaginary
• Social Histories of Women/Filmmaking in Brazil
• Comparative/Transnational Studies
• Gender, Gesture and Affect

Papers for presentation should be 20-25 minutes long and may be considered for publication in an anthology. Those wishing to present papers (in English or Portuguese) should send a title and a 250 word abstract by July 10, 2010 to the either of the email addresses listed below. Please send your abstract as an attachment to the email. Please include the title of your paper, your name (and the names of any co-presenters), institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone number, and email address. Also, please indicate whether your presentation will require any special equipment. Pre-constituted panels are welcomed. If submitting a panel for consideration, please include a top sheet with panel title, participant names and a brief abstract of the panel topic in addition to the individual paper proposals. Notification of acceptance to the conference will be made by August 15, 2010.

For more information on the conference, location and arrangements, visit the Stone Center for Latin American Studies website at http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/.

This program is generously funded by the Newcomb College Memorial Institute and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University.

Prof. Ana M. López lopez@tulane.edu
Prof. Rebecca Atencio ratencio@tulane.edu