The XIIIth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association
Melbourne, November 16-19, 2006

Welcome to the 2006 Film & History conference website. Details about the conference themes and our current call for papers can be found on this page. Additional information about the conference program will be added to this site in the months preceding the conference.

Jointly presented by the Department of Visual Culture, Monash University and The School of Applied Communication, RMIT University.

Telling Stories: Cinema, History and Experience

The Film and History Conference is held every two years and is an opportunity for international film scholars, archivists, and filmmakers to present their thoughts on recent debates and events in the fields of: film history, national and transnational cinemas, film theory, film practice and the importance of cinema to specific communities.

The celebration of a variety of cinema milestones in recent years reminds us of the importance of film history to our sense of the cinema’s accomplishments. 2006 is a year for taking stock of significant events in the cinemas of Australia and New Zealand. For instance it is a century since the production of the first Australian feature film and the opening of the first purpose built cinema in Australia; it is the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of television into Australia and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the New Zealand Film Archive.

Given the significance of anniversaries such as these, the 2006 Conference is an opportunity to reflect on twin concerns - how the cinema is transformed by history and how history accounts for the cinema. But equally it is an opportunity to think about the role film historians themselves play in the measurement of legacies - including their own.

With this in mind the XIIIth Biennial Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Film & History Association will adopt four main themes:

• Historical Film Theory and Criticism
• Histories of film theory and criticism
• New approaches to (trans)national cinema
• The uses of historical film theory and criticism

• Film, Memory and Allusion
• The history wars in the cinema
• Indigenous histories
• New and potential archive practices
• Personal memory and new media
• Remembering the national in transnational cinemas

• The Social Experience of Cinema-going
• Experiences of the moving image on a screen other than a cinema
• Diasporic film audiences in Australia
• Regional audiences
• Cinema architecture
• The role of cinemas in community sustainability
• Trends in cinema consumption

• The Junction of Television and Film
• Television goes to the movies
• The small screen sensibility of some Australian cinema
• Mini-series
• Television and its role in film production

The convenors are open to further suggestions around these themes. Enquiries can be sent to one of the conference convenors:

Adrian Danks email Adrian.Danks@rmit.edu.au

Con Verevis email Con.Verevis@arts.monash.edu.au

Deane Williams email Deane.Williams@arts.monash.edu.au

Deb Verhoeven email Deb.Verhoeven@rmit.edu.au

Call for Papers

The Conference Conveners will accept proposals for papers until May 30th 2006. Abstracts of no more than 250-words and a 100-word biography should be sent to Con Verevis: Con.Verevis@arts.monash.edu.au.

A selection of refereed conference papers will be published in advance of the Conference in the October 2006 issue of Senses of Cinema. Delegates seeking to have their work considered for publication should submit an essay of approximately 3,000-words no later than August 30, 2006.
For more information contact Con Verevis: Con.Verevis@arts.monash.edu.au.