For some people six things come to mind when they think about Philadelphia and film: Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, and the mose recent Rocky Balboa. However, beginning on Thursday, The Society for Cinema & Media Studies holds its annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Looking through the SCMS program, one finds a dizzying array of fascinating panels and papers, with topics ranging from American silent film and “The Wire” to Mumblecore and the crisis of male identity in virtual pornography. While it would be impossible to list all the fascinating and provocative panels on film, television, and digital media, we’ve highlighted some papers CUP and Wallflower authors will be delivering (names of panels in parentheses). We hope this provides a glimpse into the depth and diversity of the conference and if you are at the conference please stop by our tables. And and stay tuned for an announcement later this week about a special sale on film titles!:
Peter Decherney: “Legally Unique: Chaplin, Copyright, and the Beginning of the End of Participatory Culture” (Copyright Frontiers: Imitation, Remixing, and Censorship)
Wheeler Winston Dixon: “Not Whether but When: Post 9/11 Nuclear Terrorism” (American Film in the Age of Terrorism)
Alison Griffiths: “Film and the Museum Sponsored Expedition: Developments at the AMNH in the 1920s” (Intimate and Instructive Views: Museum Sponsored Expedition Films of the Twenties)
Henry Jenkins: “The Public Sphere in a ‘Hybrid Media Ecology: YouTube, Network Television, and Presidential Politics.” (Television as a Cultural Center: The Future of the Public Sphere)
Jonathan Kahana: (Designing Community: The Architecture of Activism)
Geoff King: “Speciality Architecture in Focus: The Design of Indiewood Cinema Release Slate” (American Independents)
Alison Landsberg: “Gender Trouble on the Frontier: Interracial Love and the Limits on National Belonging in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Square Man” (Race and Gender in American Film)
Adam Lowenstein: “Haunted Houses: in the Global Village: Recent Japanese Horror Films and Globalization” (The Contemporary Horror Film)
James Morrison: “Camp, Horror, and Aging: The Case of Shelley Winters” (Aging American Actors)
Susan Ohmer: “Foote, Cone, and Belding: Hollywood and the Ad Agency” (Advertising and Cinema: 4 Case Studies)
Murray Pomerance: “Hitchcock the ‘Moralist’: Proprieties of Appearance in The Lodger and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)” (Hitchcock and Morality)
Mark Shiel: “On the Threshold of Revolution and Postmodern Decline: Representations of Los Angeles Circa 1968 (Architectures of Revolt: The Cinematic City Circa 1968)
Ed Sikov: “Don’t Let’s Ask for the Moon–We Have a Star: Bette Davis as Gay Icon (Bette Davis: Actor and Star)
Carol Vernallis: “Soundtracks for the New Cut-up Cinema: Music, Speed, and Memory (More Notes on Soundtracks)
