[Reader-list] The Indian Cinema Century:Film Technology and the Contemporary

[Kavya Murthy]

School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University Presents An
International Conference-

The Indian Cinema Century:Film Technology and the Contemporary

At the SAA Auditorium
January 10-12, 2013

ALL ARE WELCOME

Concept and Programme

Since its emergence within the complex visual and social matrix of
modernity, cinema’s journey has been one of constant negotiation and
re-negotiation with the contemporary. The cinema of today bears little
resemblance to that modern invention which captured the imagination of the
world at the turn of the century, and this is due to cinema’s protean
felicity to assimilate contemporary technologies and discourses into an
ever-expanding landscape of the “cinematic”. The apocalyptic pronouncements
of the “death of cinema” that followed every major upheaval caused by the
advent of new technologies (the coming of sound, color, anamorphic
proportions, panchromatic film stock, TV/VCR technologies, 3D, piracy and
most recently the digital turn) with the attendant critical discourses of
medium specificity, nostalgia for the lost object, formal purity and
transnational flows - have been belied by cinema’s infinite capacity for
constant self-renewal.

As a first of a series of events that will start off the centenary
celebrations of Indian Cinema, this three day conference will engage with
Indian cinema’s production practices, transnational and domestic
circulation, encounter with new technologies and mediums, the culture of
stardom, the role of music and new industrial and non-industrial
formations. The aim is to come all the way to the contemporary digital
explosion and reflect on some of the key transformative moments that have
occurred prior to the digital. Thus issues related to the transition from
silent to sound cinema, the relationship to Hollywood’s widespread presence
before the Second World War, the transition to colour, and the
transformations in film exhibition will feature at the conference. We will
also aim towards a discussion of new methods of research and archiving
possibilities. The role of Cinema Studies as a discipline within a changing
landscape of film and media culture will be addressed to signpost new
directions for the future.

Participants for this workshop will come from Europe, the United States,
Calcutta, Bangalore and Hyderabad. We hope a conference of this kind will
enable dialogue and collaborative research agendas across institutions,
continents and regions. Conference schedule and other details will be
updated on this page shortly.

Conference Convenors:
Ira Bhaskar , Veena Hariharan, Ranjani Mazumdar

Programme

DAY  I - 10th January

9.00 am – 9.30 am – Registration
9.30 am – Welcome – Vice Chancellor JNU and Dean, SAA

Session I
10.00 am – 11.30 am : Cinema and Location
Chair : Nitin Govil
Speakers: Priya Jaikumar, Ranjani Mazumdar

11.30-12.00 – Coffee Break

Session II
12.00 – 2.15 pm : Exhibition, Audiences and Early Cinema
Chair : Ravi Vasudevan
Speakers:  Steve Hughes, Bindu Menon, Rajan Krishnan

2.15 pm – 3.15 pm – Lunch

Session III
3.15-4.45 pm : The Logics and Circulation of Stardom
Chair: Neepa Majumdar
Speakers: Sabeena Gadihoke, Kaushik Bhaumik

4.45-500 pm Tea

Session IV
5.00-6.30: The Enchantments of Bombay Film Music and
Dance
Chair: Stephen Hughes
Speakers: Shikha Jhingan, Neepa Majumdar,

6.30 –  Tea

DAY II - 11th January

Session V
9.30 am – 11.45 : Transnational Circuits and Early
Cinema
Chair: Priya Jaikumar
Speakers: Ranita Chatterjee, Nitin Govil, Rosie Thomas,

11.45- 12.15 : Coffee Break

Session VI
12.15 – 1.45: Experimenting with Time and the Archive
Chair: Ira Bhaskar
Speakers:  Rashmi Doraiswamy, Lalitha Gopalan

1.45 pm – 2.45pm – Lunch

Session VII
2.45 – 4.15 pm : Stardom, Anger and Badness
Chair: Rosie Thomas
Speakers: Rachel Dwyer, Shohini Ghosh

4.15 -4.45 pm Tea

Session VIII
 4.45 – 6.15 pm: New Industrial Formations : Success, Idea
and Image
Chair: Rachel Dwyer
Speakers: Tejaswini Ganti, Rashmi Sawhney

6.30 pm – Tea

DAY III - 12th January

Session IX
9.45- 11.15 pm : Alternative Histories of the Documentary,
Home Movies
Chair: Madhava Prasad
Speakers:  Ravi Vasudevan, Veena Hariharan

11.15- 11.45 : Coffee Break

Session X
11.45 – 1.15: Experimental Cinemas: Irreverence, Time
and Space
Chair: Ashish Rajadhyaksha
Speakers: Madhuja Mukherji, Subhajit Chatterjee,

1.15 pm – 2.15 pm – Lunch

Session XI
2.15 pm – 3.45 pm: Digital Technologies, New Archiving
Practices and Film Historiography
Chair: Ravi Sundaram
Speakers:  Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Lawrence Liang
3.45 – 4.15 pm – Tea

Session XII
4.15- 6.15pm: Panel Discussion – The Changing Film
Archive – Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Neepa Majumdar, Rosie
Thomas, Ravi Vasudevan, Madhava Prasad, Lawrence
Liang, Ira Bhaskar

6.15 pm  - Vote of thanks – Veena Hariharan

6.30 pm - Tea