the left conference – photography and film criticism

CALL FOR PAPERS  UNTIL THE 21ST JULY 2017

Since the late nineteenth century, the printed photograph in the media stood as a powerful tool for denouncing social injustice and claiming better life conditions – i.e. as seen in the work of Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, or Joshua Benoliel, among many others. In the early decades of the twentieth century the use of images had a significant boost with film, when directors such as Flaherty, Eisenstein, John Grierson, Vertov, Dvorjenko or Ivens, combining documental intentions with avant-garde experimental claims, made possible to discuss political and historical conditions.

The aim of the conference is to discuss and debate photographs and film as a social tool from a leftist stance. In particular, to examine and explore the relation of documentary practices and political commitment in different historical circumstances throughout the twentieth and the twenty first centuries.

The seminar/conference together with a film projection program will take place at Contemporary Art Museum of Chiado in Lisbon on November 16-18 2017.

We invite paper submission of no more than 500 words abstract that focuses on photography and film related to:

• the creation of documentary as a social and political weapon;

• the soviet revolution as an experimental wave in photography, design and film;

• anticolonial and postcolonial imagery;

• women rights and feminist imagery;

• avant gardes and ideology claims;

• the role of images in the leftist movements;

• Contemporary art practices and social and political criticism;

• Alan Sekula legacy and the political commitment with images.

Keynote speakers
Gail Day (University of Leeds)
Steve Edwards (Birbeck College)
Antonio Somaini (Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III)

Conference Venue & Dates
Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado / National Museum of Contemporary
Art – Museu do Chiado
Faculdade das Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa / Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon
November 16-17-18, 2017

Languages
English

 

Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (UNL/FCSH)

Centre for research in Communication, Information and Digital Culture /FCSH (CIC.Digital / FCSH)

Communication and Language Research Centre / FCSH (CECL / FCSH)

Institute of Contemporary History / FCSH (IHC / FCSH)

Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon (BELAS-ARTES ULISBOA)

National Museum of Contemporary Art – Museu do Chiado, Lisbon

Please send your abstracts until July 21st, 2017 to:
paulo.catrica@gmail.com
detomasi.filippo@gmail.com
lais.ines@gmail.com