International Symposium Keynote Stories We Don’t Tell: Essaydox Essay and Esse Trauma, History, and the Essay Film Ross Lipman Melis Behlil Friday, 7 October, 10 am – 6 pm (followed by film programme with guests) In the journey from thought to expression−from Their reflectiveness and subjectivity make the essay Zeughauskino, Deutsches Historisches Museum spirit to flesh−an essay is transformed. Its essence film an ideal mode to deal with personal and collective Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin is mutable ‘till locked, and its form becomes part of memories, histories and traumas. I will be examining Conference language: English its character. Moving image essays, thankfully, are several essayistic films that circle around the same a highly fluid form. The present moment of their historical trauma from different angles. In films by de- The International Symposium explores contexts of development is particularly exciting as technological scendants of Armenian genocide survivors, filmmak- production and the future of international essay advances enable new structures. Yet in that excite- ers are questioning what this means for their identity. films. Artists, essayists, film critics and scholars ment lies peril, as structures become recognized and In films made by Turkish grandchildren of Armenians discuss philosophy, aesthetics, contextual position regulated. With roots in the written word, the illus- who had been adopted and/or converted in Turkey, and future prospects of today’s essay films. The trated lecture, and the movies, a rapidly developing filmmakers try to uncover an unspoken past. By ana- working approaches, new forms of presentation, future looms ahead. This presentation asks where lysing these films, I will contemplate the possibility of and distribution channels being employed by essay- the essence of a moving image essay lies amidst reconciling with a traumatic past through essay films, ists are to be examined. To what extent do literary this shifting landscape. It asks: what is the “esse” both on a personal and perhaps a national level. forms influence the creative process of essayists? of cinematic essays? Which roles do autobiographical elements play in Melis Behlil is an Associate Professor of Cinema the essay form? Here the focus is on contemporary Ross Lipman is an independent filmmaker and Studies and Chair of Radio, Television and Cine- essay films, which deal with migration, (auto)bio- archivist. Formerly Senior Film Restorationist at the ma Department at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, graphies, literature and memory and perceptual UCLA Film & Television Archive, his many restora- Turkey. Her areas of research interest are media processes. tions include Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, Kent industries, production studies, contemporary cinema Mackenzie’s The Exiles, the Academy Award-winning in Turkey, and subjective documentaries. Her book, Participation in the symposium is free. Registration documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and works Hollywood is Everywhere: Global Directors in the is required in advance at [email protected]. by Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Blockbuster Era has been published by Amsterdam and John Cassavetes. He was a 2008 recipient of University Press in 2016. In addition to teaching Anthology Film Archives’ Preservation Honors, and and other academic duties, she writes film reviews Participants is a three-time winner of the National Society of Film for various publications, co-hosts a weekly radio Critics’ Heritage Award. His essays on film history, show, and is a member of the Turkish Film Critics Melis Behlil technology, and aesthetics have been published in Association. Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Artforum, Sight and Sound, and numerous academic Head of Radio, Television and Cinema Department books and journals. His most recent film restorations at Kadir Has University Istanbul are Thom Andersen’s Eadweard Muybridge, Zoo- From Home Movies to Moving Homes praxographer and the film Crossroads. First-Person Documentaries and the Sarah Cooper Migrant Experience Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London Igor Krstic´ The Essay Film between Festival Favourite Thomas Elsaesser and Global Film Practice Today more and more filmmakers address their family Professor Emeritus at the Department of Thomas Elsaesser stories in so-called ‘first-person documentaries’, Media and Culture, University of Amsterdam, often to uncover buried family secrets, but frequently Visiting Professor at Columbia University Given the enormous popularity of the ‘essay film’, also to rework ‘immigrant suffering’, hence, the often both as a practice among artists and filmmakers, and painful experiences that moving from one place to Igor Krstic´ as a topic for academic research and writing, it may another brought to other family members. However, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Film, be a good moment to take stock, to try and redefine these films can also be understood as filmic ‘autobi- Theatre and Television, University of Reading what we mean by this label, as well as to expand its ographies’, in which their producers inscribe not only reach, and include works from beyond the European their ‘selfs’ into new ‘oral family histories’, but also Ross Lipman home of the essay film. We may also want to listen seek to come to terms with what they perceive as Filmmaker and restorationist at the to some of the critical voices that have begun to traumatic or inconsistent in their own lives. UCLA Film & Television Archive challenge the form from within the filmmaking com- munity itself, and to explore further the distinctions Dr. Igor Krstic´ studied literature, film and media at Laura Rascaroli between documentary and essay film, between found- the universities of Tübingen, Amsterdam and Mann- Professor of Film & Screen Media footage film and essay film, and between essay film heim. From 2014 to 2016 he worked as a Postdoctor- at University College Cork, Ireland and the video essay. al Fellow on a DAAD-funded research project about My lecture tries to delineate a certain genealogy that essay films, personal documentaries and the figure of Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias wants to provide a clearer sense of the dynamics the migrant at the University of Reading. He is the Filmmaker, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic that drives the topicality of the essay film and ties its author of Slums on Screen (Edinburgh University prevalence into the globalized world picture of con- Press 2016) and co-editor of the forthcoming volume Bo Wang temporary visual culture. World Cinema and the Essay Film (planned for Wall- Filmmaker, Beijing, China flower Press / Columbia University Press in 2017). Thomas Elsaesser studied English Literature and Moderation: Jörg Taszman Comparative Literature at Heidelberg University and Film critic, amongst others for the University of Sussex. He went on to work as a Diaspora experiences, essayistic narratives Deutschlandradio Kultur, Die Welt, epd Film film critic in London and as editor international of and Asian subjectivity Monogram magazine. Starting in 1972, he taught at Bo Wang the University of East Anglia. In 1976, he created the institution’s Film Studies programme and served as Japanese literary critic Takeuchi Yoshimi consid- its director until 1986. Elsaesser was then called to ered Asia’s modernity as an experience of the in- the University of Amsterdam, where he built the first vasion of Europe. For him Asia had become merely Film and Television Studies programme in the Nether- a subject of modernity, split from being a subjec- lands, serving as its director from 1991 to 2001. From tivity itself. Taking the writings of Takeuchi Yoshimi 2001 to 2008, he worked as a research professor at as a starting point to discuss the opposition be- the University of Amsterdam. Since being conferred tween Asia as a subject of Western modernism the status of Professor Emeritus in 2008, he has held versus a subjectivity of its own, the lecture will guest professorships at Yale University (2006 – 2012) show how it may be possible to re-address this and Columbia University (since 2013). conflict and explore the issue of Asian subjectivity

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film short experimental best for BAFTA a awarded ing a book on film and the imagination. the and film on book a ing

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Screen Media. Screen Critical Studies, School of Visual Arts, New York. York. New Arts, Visual of School Studies, Critical

Alphaville: Journal of Film and and Film of Journal Alphaville: of Editor General is and Visual at member faculty a also is He 2014. in

published by Oxford University Press in 2017. She She 2017. in Press University Oxford by published Festival Film International Berlin at programme

and Spanish. Her new book on the essay film will be be will film essay the on book new Her Spanish. and Seminar in 2013 and attended the Berlinale Talents Talents Berlinale the attended and 2013 in Seminar

several languages, including Chinese, Italian, Polish, Polish, Italian, Chinese, including languages, several others. He was a fellow at the Robert Flaherty Film Film Flaherty Robert the at fellow a was He others.

David Rhodes. Her work has been translated into into translated been has work Her Rhodes. David Guangzhou, Asia Society Texas Center, among many many among Center, Texas Society Asia Guangzhou,

(2011), co-edited with John John with co-edited (2011), Essays Centenary ioni: hagen, Shanghai Biennale, Times Art Museum in in Museum Art Times Biennale, Shanghai hagen,

- Anton and Mazierska, Ewa with co-written (2006), Copen- in CPH:DOX York, New in MoMA like venues

Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie Movie Road European the and Travel Postmodern works have been exhibited internationally, including including internationally, exhibited been have works

Crossing New Europe: Europe: New Crossing (2009), Film Essay the and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. His His York. New Brooklyn, in based filmmaker and

The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and and Cinema Subjective Camera: Personal The (b. 1982, Chongqing, China) is an artist artist an is China) Chongqing, 1982, (b. Wang Bo

the author and editor of several volumes, including including volumes, several of editor and author the

Media at University College Cork, Ireland. She is is She Ireland. Cork, College University at Media through essayistic narratives. essayistic through

is Professor of Film and Screen Screen and Film of Professor is Rascaroli Laura expressed experiences, diaspora on based