OFF-SCREEN SPACES:
REGIONALISM AND GLOBALISED CULTURES

An international conference on Film, Television and Media: Cultures and Policies

28-30 July 2004
University of Ulster, Coleraine - Portrush site


Organised in association with
Center for Media Research, University of Ulster

     

REGISTRATION



This major international conference will explore the relationship between 'global' popular culture and various definitions of 'local' culture. Crucial to an understanding of this relationship is the concept of 'the region' as it has become reconfigured by global economic and cultural forces. Regional cultures exist in relation and in opposition to dominant national cultures and interact with them in complex and contradictory ways.

National cultures are themselves often posited as 'regional' cultures in opposition to the global and the concept of 'critical regionalism' has been canvassed as a challenge to global conformity or homogeneity. On the other hand, in line with the strategies of multinational corporations more generally, multinational software manufacturers have divided the global market into 'regions' for the purpose of controlling the DVD market. This would suggest that, despite the potential of regional cultures to offer alternatives to the global market, there is in fact nothing intrinsically challenging or radical in the concept of the region.

The conference will explore the complex and contradictory relationships among the local, the regional, the national and the global and assess the implications for both media representation and local, national and transnational audio-visual policy. Central to discussions will be the concept of comparative film studies and a number of papers will address the rationale and theoretical implications of comparative media research.

The conference also encourages papers that explore the role that new ICTs play in shaping regional digital cultures and politics. How, for instance, have social movements adopted new technologies in order to become organised in ways that challenge national borders? What responses have the state and supranational entities had to such practices? How have new media industries redefined cartographies of production, distribution and consumption and what are some of the new antagonisms and collaborations that attend such socio-technical formations? The conference is interested in both theoretical and reflexive empirical responses to questions along these lines.

KEYNOTE LECTURES AND PLENARY SESSIONS:
WEDNESDAY 28 JULY 2004
6:00pm LT8 Opening Keynote Lecture John Tomlinson: Globalisation and Cultural Identity
...   It is fair to say that the impact of globalisation in the cultural sphere has, most generally, been viewed in a pessimistic light. Typically, it has been associated with the destruction of local cultural identities, victims of the accelerating encroachment of an homogenised, westernised, consumer culture. This view, the constituency for which extends from academics to anti-globalisation activists, tends to interpret globalisation as a seamless extension of - indeed as a euphemism for - western cultural imperialism. Whilst not denying the obvious power of globalized capitalism to distribute and promote its cultural goods in every corner, this paper will suggest a quite different analysis of the cultural impact of global modernity : that cultural identity, properly understood, is much more the product of globalisation than its victim.
THURSDAY 29 JULY 2004
9:15am LT8 Keynote Lecture

Ang, Ien: Changing Meanings of Asia and Asianness in Contemporary Global Culture

   

This address will reflect on the multiple and shifting meanings of the term 'Asian' in today's globalising world. It will look especially at the disjunctures between 'Asian' in Asia and 'Asian' outside Asia, especially in the West. The growth of large Asian diasporas in Western countries has created increasingly prominent discourses of 'Asian' identity and culture in those countries, which diverge significantly from the ways in which the term 'Asia(n)' is given meaning within the Asian region itself. Examples will be drawn from identity politics, popular culture and media consumption.

5:15pm LT8 World Premiere Screening Rebel Frontier (Desmond Bell, 2004, 64 mins.)
  The latest film from prize-winning documentary filmmaker, Desmond Bell, deals with Irish and Finnish opposition to US involvement in the First World War. The story is told through the eyes of a Dashiell Hammett type Pinkerton Agent spying on the miners of Butte Montana who strike to halt copper munitions production. The film is in the style of Bell's previous prize winning film 'Hard road to the Klondike' - a creative documentary making extensive use of archive material. The voice-over narration is by celebrated Hollywood actor, Martin Sheen. Desmond Bell will attend the screening and answer questions afterwards.
FRIDAY 30 JULY 2004
9:15am LT8 Keynote Lecture Toby Miller: The People of the United States Cannot be Trusted: Globalised Hollywood 2
2:00pm LT8 Panel Discussion Film Policy in the UK: Four Years of the Film Council
   

Panel:

David Steele, Senior Executive Researcher, UK Film Council
Prof. Sylvia Harvey, University of Lincoln
Prof. John Hill, University of Ulster and member, UK Film Council
Richard Williams, Director Northern Ireland Television Commission)

5:00pm LT8 Closing Keynote Address

Pat Loughrey, Director, Nations and Regions, BBC: Local Identity in the Global Village: the BBC's Regional Policy



CONFERENCE PAPERS:
Caterer, James 'Playing the Lottery Twice: the Dual Nationality of Stella Does Tricks'
Chambers, Ciara 'Representing the Local: Newsreel Coverage of Irish Neutrality in World War 11'
Cooke, Lez '"Regional" British Television Drama in the 1960s and 1970s'
Davis, Amy M 'The "Dark Prince" and Dream Women: Walt Disney and Mid-twentieth Century American Feminism'
Davidson, Kelly 'The Hyper North: A Tourist Guide to Northern Ireland'
de Lannoy, Yuna 'Kurosawa's Russia'
Elsey, Eileen 'Distillation: The Short Film as critical Space'
Flynn, Roddy 'Ireland and the New International Division of Labour'
Guenther, Kathrein, Margaret Dickinson and Sylvia Harvey 'Getting Films to Audiences: Aspects of Regional and National Policy and Practice in the UK'
Hill, Andrew 'Northern Ireland and pre-Troubles BBC Drama'
Horrocks, Simon 'An American in Hong Kong: The Work of Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia'
Hung, Hsiu - Chin 'The Possibility of Regional Cultures: Intra-Asian TV Drama Flow'
Jackson, Rhona 'By Jingo, we're British: An Exploration of British Identity in a Time of Regionalism'
Kaewprasert, Oradol 'Film in Thailand'
Karpovich, Angelina & Xin Zhang-Stalhi 'For Whom the Lantern Hangs: Raise the Red Lantern across Borders and Boundaries'
Ko, Mika 'Representing Okinawa: Contesting Images in Contemporary Japanese Cinema'
Langlois, Tony 'Music, Images and Technology in Morocco'
Maasilta, Mari 'An analysis of Karmen in the Context of Globalised Cinema Industry and Senegalese Nationalism'
McLaughlin, Greg and Steve Baker 'US Imperialism and Media Studies in Ireland'
Moore, Paul 'Laughing through our Ears: James Young and Sonic Comic Identity in Northern Ireland'
Murphy, Kenneth 'Internationalisation, Convergence and Broadcasting Policy in Ireland'
Porter, Robert 'What is political Cinema?'
Roscoe, Jane 'Australian Big Brother: The TV Equivalent of the McOz Burger?'
Rossiter, Ned 'Regionalism and Comparative Internet Research: A Technics of Methodology'
Selfe, Melanie 'The Role of the Provincial Film Society in Mediating National Cinema Discourse'
Scott, Alistair 'Shieldinch or Raploch, Community Lives on Television: Fact or Fiction'
Sydney-Smith, Susan 'Get Carter and "the Northern": The glocalisation of the British Crime Movie'
Thornton, Niamh 'Zapatistas: Reclaiming the Margins Through Technology'
Tobias, James 'Shin-Tokyo-Gakumon: Learning Tokyo by Creating it Otherwise'
Van den Bulck, Hilde and Dave Sinardet 'Is National Identity the Weakest Link? The Articulation of National Identity in a Globalised Popular Television format'
Vitali-West, Valentina 'Action Women'
Wieten, Jan and Mervii Pantti 'Mourning becomes the Nation: Television Coverage of the Murders of Anna Lindh and Pim Fortuyn'
Willemen, Paul 'The Conceptualist Vector in Comparative Film Studies'
Woodward, Kate '"…and to a lesser extent, Wales…" New Cinema in Wales'
Woollock Stephen 'Regional Relocation: Humberside County Council and the Exclusion of the "World"'

 

REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE:

Conference information and the registration form can be downloaded here:

Download the information sheet and registration form as PDF (184KB)

Download the information sheet and registration form as Word document (350KB)

 

CONTACT US:

CONFERENCE ORGANISER:

Dr Martin McLoone
Centre for Media Research
Associate Director, AHRB Centre for British Fim and Television Studies

CONFERENCE CO-ORDINATOR

Conference bookings, abstracts and enquiries to:

Janet Mackle
Conference Co-ordinator
Cultural Development
University of Ulster
Coleraine
Northern Ireland BT52 1SA

Tel: +44 (0) 28 7032 4683

e-mail: spacesconf@ulster.ac.uk

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Last modified 7 July, 2004 ; web@bftv.ac.uk