A Honeymoon of Cinema & Audiences? Film Cultures in Transition: Spain 1970 – 1990
In Autumn 2019, the Department of Art History at Complutense University in Madrid will hold an international workshop focusing on the transformations in Spanish film cultures during the 1970s and 1980s. From the perspective of a New Cinema History that explicitly wants to be more than a history of its films, this exploratory workshop analyses the way cinema was distributed, consumed and discussed by concentrating on the institutions, discourses, places and practices that were not films but without which there would be no films.
Important changes at both international and national levels converge in the two decades under consideration. They include general film cultural transformations usually summed up as the ‘death of cinephilia’ at the end of the trente glorieuses (1945-1975): a profound transformation of the ways of watching cinema, of talking and writing about it (questioning for instance the realist, politically engaged paradigm in film criticism), that resulted in or reacted to cinema’s loss of social relevance. At the same time, this was also the period – at least in the Spanish case – of the birth of film studies as an academic discipline, a change of cultural policies and subsidiaries, the emergence resp. reactivation of important institutions such as Film Academy, National Film Archives (Filmoteca Española / Nacional)…
These general lines of development must be considered against the background of a society rapidly changing from dictatorship to democracy, searching for European homologation (‘Salir a Europa’ as a common motto of this generation), critically engaging with its recent past and actively reconsidering the role cinema should play in these transformations. Most of these changes proved crucial for an intense revitalization of a Spanish ‘New Cinema’ during the late 1970s (a period described as a Honeymoon of modern cinema and its audiences), but also for an institutionalization of a specific art cinema tradition through state film cultural initiatives in the 1980s that resulted in a growing disaffection among local audiences, which turned their backs on national films.
Considering these aspects, this workshop is interested in contributions that could, but are not limited to, illuminate some of following aspects:
- Places and practices (Where is cinema?):
- Transformation of the cinematographic dispositif: Changing conditions of the cinematic experience.
- Emergence of alternative spaces, multiplexes and art-cinema houses.
- Museums and festivals as refuge of a new cinephilia.
- Cinema and the new artistic institutions.
- Discourses (What is cinema?):
- Transformation of the canon (from realism to postmodernity): What is Spanish quality cinema?
- Permutations of classic cinephilia in specialized magazines and general press.
- Criticism, theory and politics; the academic discourse.
- Institutions (What is cinema good for?):
- State cinema policies and the question of the canon (who defines quality cinema?)
- Archives, film schools, academies as forgers of canon and taste.
The workshop is open to scholars of a broader set of disciplines: urban studies, film and media studies, anthropology, art and cultural history etc. Although the focus will be especially on the Spanish case, the conference is interested in innovative perspectives bringing together different spatial contexts. Therefore, comparative approaches are highly encouraged.
In conjunction with the workshop, a follow-up publication is planned.
The workshop is part of the research project Film Culture in Transition, carried out at the Department of Art History at Complutense University in Madrid.
Proposals of 2000 characters or less (in Spanish or English) for a 20-minute paper should be e-mailed to the following addresses no later than September 15th 2019: ferramos@ucm.es. Each proposal should be accompanied by full contact information and a CV. An introducing keynote by an expert is planned.
The organizers will cover the cost of accommodation. We hope to also provide a subsidy toward travel costs. The authors of selected contributions will be notified until 30.09.2019 if the proposal has been accepted.