University of St Andrews - Centre for Film Studies
Report on Activities during 2013/2014 academic year
Contents
0. Introduction
1. PEOPLE
Management
Visiting Scholars and Part-Time Staff
New Appointments
Departures
Postgraduates
ALUMNI………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5
2. PUBLICATIONS
Film Festival Yearbook Series
Books published by members for the period September 2013/ August 2014...... 7
Publications by members for the period September 2013/ August 2014
3. TALKS...... 12
Seminar Series...... 12
Talks and conference presentations by members for the period September 2013 / August 2014 12
4. FUNDING AND AWARDS...... 19
5. EVENTS/ACTIVITIES...... 21
6. POSTGRADUATE...... 22
7. PROJECTS...... 24
REF 2014: Impact Case Studies...... 24
New Website for the Department of Film Studies...... 24
St Andrews Film Studies publishing...... 25
Frames: Cinema Journal...... 25
The Reel Film Society...... 25
8. OTHER / KT/ IMPACT...... 26
9. FORTHCOMING...... 28
Events...... 28
The Criterion Collection’s Role in Disseminating World Cinema...... 28
Publishing: St Andrews Film Studies...... 28
CFS Speaker Series...... 28
10. APPENDICES...... 29
Appendix 1 – Reel Film Society...... 29
Appendix 2 – CFS Speaker Series...... 30
Appendix 3 – Research Screenings...... 33
Appendix 4 – The London Korean Film Festival in St Andrews...... 34
Appendix 5 – Leena Manimekalai, Tamil Filmmaker in St Andrews...... 36
Appendix 6 – The Cineclub Juanpablo Rebella...... 36
Appendix 7 – 60 Hour Film Blitz...... 37
Appendix 8 – PG Study Day...... 39
Appendix 9 – PG Conference...... 43
0. Introduction
This year saw a continued success for the Centre for Film Studies. There were new appointments this year, including Chris Fujiwara, Artistic Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, as Honorary Reader in Film Studies (November 2013), Professor Robert Burgoyne as a Visiting Professor at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil (May 2014), and Dr. Michael Cowan will be joining staff in January 2015 as Reader in Film Studies. There was funding success this year, including grants from The Royal Society of Edinburgh (Dina Iordanova) and The Carnegie Trust (Dina Iordanova and Brian Jacobson). The CFS Speaker Series had a strong roster this year, with guests such as Laura Mulvey, Annette Kuhn, and Diane Negra drawing a significant attendance. Professor Mulvey’s talk was practically standing room only. Lastly, staff and postgraduate students saw continued success with publications and conference papers.
There was a continuation of past successes, and growth in confidence in our online presence: major web-based projects included the online Frames Cinema Journal ( further development of a website exploring the history of local cinema culture in St Andrews: Cinema St Andrews ( in the Twenties; and the website for the St Andrews Film Studies publishing house (StAFS, In addition, a new website for the Department of Film Studieshas been launched, which encompasses the CFS webpages as well. The major overhaul of the CFS pages online include a more image-driven lay-out, clearer and more succinct texts as well as a entirely new, more flexible and navigable structure.
The department also saw a continued success with organisingconferences, workshops, symposia, and other events. Professor Robert Burgoyne delivered the Inaugural Lecture “The War Film as a Mode of Historical Thinking: Generational Memory in Letters from Iwo Jima” (October 2013) and followed with a series of prestigious talks around the country. Professor Dina Iordanova travelled extensively around the globe to deliver talks and keynotes throughout the academic year, including events in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi. Othermajor events were organised on the following topics:“Feminist Film Festival in St. Andrews” in which Dr. Stefanie Van de Peer delivered a lecture on “Feminist Film Studies in a Global Context” (October 2013); a symposium on “Mania and Media” in Hilversum, Netherlands organised by post-doctoral fellow Dr. Bregtje Lameris (September 2013); Dr. Leshu Torchin presented on her monograph Creating the Witness: Film and Human Rights Advocacy at a seminar series at the University of York (October 2013); the student organised screening series The Reel Film Society; and John Trafton organised and hosted our regular “60 Hour Film Blitz” (March 2014).
There were postgraduate organised conferences too, the annual ‘Postgraduate Conference’ and ‘Postgraduate Study Day’, which this year was dedicated tothe subject of Approaching Animation: Critical Enquiries into the Arts, Artists, and Industry, as well as a postgraduate run initiative of providing Film Blitz candidates with practical experience – workshops on storytelling, camera angles and editing were organised in the weeks running up to the Filmblitz.
1. PEOPLE
Management
The Management Committee of AY1314 comprises: Mr. Bernard Bentley (Spanish), Prof. Robert Burgoyne (Film Studies), Prof. Berys Gaut (Philosophy), Prof. Christopher Hawkesworth (Deputy Principal and Vice Principal of Research), Prof. Dina Iordanova (Film Studies)) and Prof. Gill Plain (English).
Changes are ahead for AY1415 as Dr Leshu Torchin takes up the role of Director and Professor Derek Duncan (Modern Languages) and Dr Jeffrey Murer (International Relations) join the Management Committee.
Visiting Scholars and Part-Time Staff
Pablo Echart, Lecturer in Screenwriting. Director of the MFA in Screenwriting, University of Navarra (Spain), 9 June – 11 July 2014Marcia Tiemy Morita Kawamoto, Doctoral Student, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 1 June 2014 – 1 May 2015.
Jean-Michel Frodon taught FM4204 Asian Cinemasin Semester 2with Dina Iordanova and held informal cinema salons (organised by Dennis Hanlon), which were greatly enjoyed and appreciated by all attendees.
Richard Dyertaught FM4111 The European Crime Film in Semester 2.
New Appointments
- Robert Burgoyne served as Visiting Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil (May 6-18, 2014)
- Michael Cowan was appointed to Reader in Film Studies in May 2014. He will officially join staff in January 2015
- Lucy Donaldson was appointed Teaching Fellow in July 2014, to join the department in AY1415.
- Jean-Michel Frodontaught a 14 days master class (March 17th-29th) at Sarajevo Film factory about the work and life of Jean-Luc Godard.
- Elisabetta Girelli was appointed to Senior Lecturer in Film Studies beginning September 2014
- Dina Iordanova served as Visiting Professor at Palacy University, Olomouc, Czech Republic (November 2013), Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey (December 2013) and at Taylors University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (April 2014). She was appointed as Director of the new Institute for Global Cinema and Creative Cultures. She stepped down as Director of the CFS in September 2014.
- Leshu Torchinreceived the following appointments:
- Director of the Centre for Film Studies in May 2014
- Global Scholar and Core Member of The Religion in Diaspora and Global Affairs Humanities Studio Lab, ‘Humanitarian Ethics, Religious Affinities, and the Politics of Dissent’, University of California Humanities Research Institute (2013-15).
- Member of the AHRC Peer Review College (1st June 2014 to 31 December 2017)
- Member of Panel B, AHRC Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, beginning February 2014.
- John Trafton joined staff as the new Research Coordinator for the period of January to July 2014.
- Joshua Yumibe was appointed Director of Film Studies, and founder of the Bachelors of Arts in Film Studies at Michigan State University, beginning 2015,
Departures
Stefanie Van Der Peer, Research Coordinator, left the department in January 2014.
John Trafton left after the end of the contract in July 2014.
Postgraduates
Chelsea Wesselssuccessfully defendedherPhD thesis, “Once Upon a Time Outside the West: Rethinking the Western in Global Context.”She will graduate in November 2014.
AndrewDorman successfully defendedhis PhD thesis, “Cosmetic Japaneseness: Cultural Erasure and Cultural Performance in Japanese Film Exports (2000-2010)”He graduated in June 2014.
Kathleen Scott successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Cinema of Exposure: Spectatorship and Suffering Female Bodies”. She will graduate in November 2014
Natthanai Prasannam, Philip Mann, Grazia Ingravalle, Amber Shields, Rohan Crickmar, Alex Taylor, Andrei Gadalean, and Eileen Rositzka started their PhD research in September 2013.
4 new PhD students will join us in 2014-2015
- Connor McMorran – will work with Dennis Hanlon
- Shorna Pal – will work with Dennis Hanlon
- Sanghita Sen – will work with Dennis Hanlon
- Isabel Segui – will work with Dennis Hanlon
Alumni
Dr Matt Holtmeier, who received his PhD in Film Studies in 2013, has accepted the position of Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Screen Studies in the Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts program at the Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College. Matthew will be teaching students to develop skills in critical media analysis, focussing on the aesthetic, historical, and ideological elements that make up world cinema. Congratulations to Dr Holtmeier. We wish him every success.
Ms Emma O’Brien (MA (2011) and MLitt (2012), Film Studies) works as an Assistant Analyst for global communications agency Way to Blue, where she runs analysis on social media sites in orderto compile insight reports on the efficacy of marketing campaigns. She also sits in on the creative team’s brainstorming sessions where ideas for new film campaigns originate. The campaigns vary in size, from smaller indie campaigns for films like Only Lovers Left Alive, to larger client campaigns such asHow To Train Your Dragon 2.
Dr Chelsea Wessels (PhD 2014) has accepted a post as lecturer in the department of Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts at the Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College. This autumn, she will be working with Dr Matt Holtmeier and Prof Patty Zimmermann (who presented at the Centre for Film Studies in 2011) on the introductory film module where she will give lectures and hold seminars.
Our Undergraduate alumni are also enjoying success: Cordula Schnuer(MA 2011)sat on the Press Jury of the Luxembourg City Film Festival in March 2014; Andrew Slater(MA(Hons) 2010)has been working on the ‘Our War’ series for BBC, with the next series anticipated this autumn; and Catherine Slater(MA(Hons) 2011)works at the Imaginarium Studios as PR Assistant to actor Andy Serkis (which also granted her the opportunity to be present at the first table read of the new Star Wars film).
2. PUBLICATIONS
The Centre for Film Studies publishing wing, St Andrews Film Studies, continued to expand its activities this year with a new series. The Film Festival Yearbook Series is now complemented with a Series entitled Films Need Festivals, Festivals Need Films. Within this new series, the first publication was Sustainable Projections by Alex Fischer. StAFS published thesixth volume of the Film Festival Yearbook, this time devoted to Film Festivals in the Middle East and edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer. All of these books are available from the website, Plans are also underway for a seventh edition of the Film Festival Yearbook.
Film Festival Yearbook Series
Advisory board: Dudley Andrew, Alberto Elena Diaz, Jean-Michel Frodon, Faye Ginsburg, Andrew Higson, Adrian Martin, Richard Porton, B. Ruby Rich.
Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer (eds.) Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East, St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2014.
Investigating the film culture and the respective film festivals of this wider area, this book reveals how a culturally informed geopolitical scope can ultimately shape a distinct and evolving take on the world. Exploring the history and politics of film festivals that are located in non-Western territories and that are thus often influenced by distinctive ideologues and agendas permits us to not only register difference but also see the logic that shapes the diversity. These are festivals that foreground cinematic texts from lesser-known aesthetic and conceptual traditions and display them in unique contexts. The cinemas and the narratives featured here reflect the political and cultural dynamics of an area that alternates between vibrant and volatile.
This book then looks in much detail at the large international and smaller national film festivals that take place in the Middle East and North Africa: their programming, audience development and event organisation. This collection of essays investigates the circuit of films, the impact of festivals and the representation of the Middle Eastern peoples, cultures and languages on international screens. This is a study of the many festivals that have shaped the cultural identities of the region in the past, as well as the new and vibrant festivals that permeate the region.
Books published by members for the period September 2013/ August 2014
Girelli, Elisabetta. Montgomery Clift, Queer Star. Michigan: Wayne State University Press: December 2013.
Frodon, Jean-Michel and Olivier Assayas, Assayas par Assayas. Paris: Stock, 2014.
Iordanova, Dina.Cinema of Flames: Balkan Film, Culture and the Media, originally published by the BFI, was translated in Turkish and released by the prestigious Istanbul publisher Agora, 2013.
Iordanova, Dina and Stefanie Van de Pier (eds) (2014) Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East. St Andrews Film Studies.
Publications by members for the period September 2013/ August 2014
Bernard Bentley
"Antonio Román’s Fuenteovejuna in 1947: Censorship and the Prisms of the Present,"Tesserae: Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 2014.
Robert Burgoyne
"Colour in the Epic Film: Alexander and Hero," The Return of the Epic Film, ed. Andrew Elliot (Edinburgh University Press, 2014): 95-109.
"Gainsbourg: Puppetry in the Musical Biopic," New Directions in the Biopic, ed. Belen Vidal and Tom Brown (New York and London: Routledge AFI Film Readers, 2014): 259-273.
"Haunting in the War Film: Flags of Our Fathers," in Gjelsvik, Anne and Rikke Schubart, eds, Eastwood's Iwo Jima (Wallflower, 2013): 157-169.
"Suicide in Letters From Iwo Jima," in Gjelsvik, Anne and Rikke Schubart, eds, Eastwood's Iwo Jima (Wallflower, 2013): 231-244.
Andrew Dorman
“European Nightmares: Horror Cinema in Europe since 1945, edited by Patricia Allmer, Emily Brick and David Huxley – Reviewed,”Horror Studies Journal4.2 (2013).
“Japanese Cinema Goes Global: Filmworker's Journeys by Yoshiharu Tezuka – Reviewed,”Asian Cinema 23.2 (Fall/Winter 2012).
Richard Dyer
"The Pervasiveness of Song in Italian Cinema," in Popular Italian Cinema,. Bayman, L. & Rigoletto, S. (eds.). (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013): 69-81
"White Enough," in The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture, ed. Siân Lincolnand Yannis Tzioumakis (eds.) ( Wayne State University Press, 2013):73-85.
Jean-Michel Frodon
Benoit Jacquot (Paris: Institut Française, 2014)
“From Pen to Camera: Another Critic,” in Tom Conley and T. Jefferson Kline, eds. A Companion to Jean-Luc Godard. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).
“Le Dernier Métro: A Underground Golden Coach,” in Dudley Andrew and Anne Gillain eds. A Companion to François Truffaut (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013): 571-583.
“Unexpected but Fertile Convergence” in Richard I. Suchenski, ed. Hou Hsiao-hsien. Vienna: Filmmuseum Synema Publikationen. No Date.
“Gilsoddeum, Im Kwon-taek’s way” in Jung Sung-il ed. Fly High, Run Far: The Making of Korean Master Im Kwon-taek. (Busan: Korean Film Archive/Dongseo University, 2013).
“The Film Festival Archipelago in the Arab World,” in Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer eds. Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East (St Andrews Film Studies, 2014).
“Du cinema au present,” in Hervé Joubert-Larencin avec Dudley Andrew, ed. Ouvrir Bazin (Paris: Editions de l’œil. Paris, 2014).
“Violence critique,” in Eric Marty et Jérémie Majorel ed. Critique et violence (Paris: Hermann éditeurs)
“Considérablement inconsidéré,” in Sébastien Thiery ed., Considérant (Paris: Post-Editions/Lignes)
“Ozu, réalisateur de musicals,” in Diane Arnaud and Mathias Lavin, ed. Ozu à present (Paris: G3j)
“Disponibilité augmentée,” in Anaël Pigeat, ed. Clement Cogitore, Studio Visit (Paris: Presses du Réel)
“Festivals de cinema dans le monde arabe,” in Revue des mondes musulmans et de la méditerranée n°134, December 2013. Marseille.
“Francia, un caso unico al mondo”, Otto e mezzo n°13, March 2014. Roma.
Ana Grgic
“Archival film festivals as Sites of Memory,”in Film Festival Yearbook 5: Archival Film Festivalsed. Alex Marlow-Mann (St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2013)
With Raluca Iacob. “Yugoslav (Hi)stories: a country which no longer exists, except on film”, Issue 4 (On-line). Frames Cinema Journal (December 2013).
Dennis Hanlon
“Making Waves: Anand Patwardhan, Latin America, and the Invention of Indian Third Cinema,”Wide Screen 5.1 (February 2014)
Dina Iordanova
“Hushed Histories: Women in Balkan Filmmaking,” in The Celluloid Ceiling: Women Film Directors Breaking Through, ed. Gabrielle Kelly and Cheryl Robinson (London: Supernova Books,2014).
With Stefanie Van de Peer.“Introduction,”Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East, ed. Stefanie Van de Peer(St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2014).
“Film Festivals as Conduits for Parallel Cinema: Bollywood,” in Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East, ed. Stefanie Van de Peer (St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2014).
“Carole Zabar’s Other Israel Festival,” in Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East, ed. Stefanie Van de Peer (St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies, 2014).
“Chronicling and Countering: 20 Years “Balkan Survey,” in Balkan Survey 1994-2013, ed. Dimitris Kerkinos (Thessaloniki: Thessaloniki International Film Festival): 18-24. Also available at Film Icon Journal On-line:
“Cinema Is On The Internet?” in BIFF Forum (Busan: Busan International Film Festival, 2013):114-128.
“Bulgarian Cinema: Optimism in Moderation,” inCinemas in Transition: Eastern Europe Since 1989, ed. Peter Hames and Catherine Portuges (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013).
“Instant, Abundant, and Ubiquitous: Cinema Moves Online,”Cineaste, 39:1 (Winter 2014): 46-51.
“Modern Marriage on Stromboli,” Essay on Roberto Rossellini’s Stromboli (1950), with Ingrid Bergman. Booklet to the Criterion Collection’s (New York) DVD of the film, September 2013 (
Interview with Professor Iordanova:
Jindriska Blahova, "Empirical research on film festivals is crucial but almost impossible". An interview with Dina Iordanova. ILUMINACE, 26:1(2014):99-105.
Brian Jacobson
“Infrastructure and Intermediality: Network Archaeology at Gaumont’s Cité Elgé,” Amodern: A Journal on Media, Culture, and Poetics 2 (2013) -
“Film, Technology, and Imperialism at the Pan-American Exposition, 1901,” in Meet Me at the Fair: A World’s Fair Reader, ed. Laura Hollengreen, Celia Pearce, Rebecca Rouse, and Bobby Schweizer (ETC/Carnegie Mellon Press, 2014): 337-350.