NPR’ morning edition included a segment by Vassar film scholar, Mia Mask titled “Eat, Pray, Love, Leave: Orientalism Still Big Onscreen.” Its message is simple:”Oriental” cliches are still prominent in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Not only do films about 40-something women heading to the East (e.g., Eat, Pray, Love, Cairo Time, and Sex in the City) repeat the tired triteness of the exotic, timeless East where one heads to find oneself but films such as Syriana hash out their own stereotypes, of both the people and the physical spaces they occupy.
Which got me thinking–what are the alternatives? Do we need to look towards alternative cinema (such as Iranian New Wave ) or are there examples within Hollywood that challenge these stereotypes? I can’t think of any immediately but, perhaps others can? If so, please comment.
Paula Willoquet-Maricondi’s edited collection, Framing the World: Ecocriticism and Film is hot off the press. You can find a description at the University of Virginia Press website.
In addition, Paula also currently has a CFP for ASLE’s conference upcoming in June that should be interesting to those engaging in ecomedia pedagogy that involves college sustainability initiatives (I can see innovative projects such as college community based film festivals, eco-blogging, awareness campaigns and the like fitting this category).
CFP: Teaching Sustainability: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Approaches
In 2009, The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment
published the “Climate Neutral Campus Report†outlining the role of higher
education in addressing “the greatest intellectual, moral, and social
challenge human civilization has ever faced†(6), the challenge of
fostering a healthy, just, and sustainable society. While an increasing
number of US Colleges and Universities are making environmentally
sustainable practices a focus of campus operations, educating for
sustainability is yet to become a curricular focus across all degrees and
disciplines, the necessary foundation for a significant paradigm shift that
some call the “sustainability revolution.â€
I am seeking proposals on specific approaches to integrating sustainability
education into the curriculum: for example, as part of the graduation
requirement; through the creation of new courses in a wide range of
disciplines or that are interdisciplinary (all disciplines welcome); by
re-designing courses so as to incorporate an educational experience aligned
with the principles of sustainability; by creating interdisciplinary
programs on sustainability.
Depending on the level of response, multiple panels or formats (traditional
session, roundtable, or paper jam) will be considered. Please send a 600
word proposal by October 1 to Paula.Willoquet@Marist.edu. Please include
contact information and bio.
Two news bits caught my attention this weekend and prompted this short post. The recent Economist’s article Cue the Fish is old news to wildlife film scholars. However, it does point towards promising research in examining wildlife television and animal shows in the global audience context, something that hasn’t received much attention.
And discussing global contexts, this Australian film, Animal Kingdom, about gangsters in suburban Melbourne suggests ecocritical potential too. Are the cliches of contemporary nature television too easily played out in gangster flicks? Or is this a more subtle commentary on humans and animals? (I haven’t seen the film but the reviews do pique my interest.)
Panel Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010
The success of the Food Network and The Discovery Network series The Deadliest Catch demonstrates the continuing emphasis on food consumption and production in a global economic environment, an emphasis also found in literature and film. Publications such as Michael Pollan’s Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (1991) and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), for example, laid the groundwork for documentaries and feature films addressing environmental consequences of the food industry have become increasingly popular. See, for example, Darwin’s Nightmare (2004), Supersize Me (2004) to We Feed the World (2005), Our Daily Bread (2005), Fast Food Nation (2006) and the recent critically acclaimed King Korn (2007), Food, Inc. (2008), The Cove (2009), The End of the Line (2009).
This panel will explore and evaluate filmic representations of the environmental consequences of food production and consumption in relation to both content and style with at least one question in mind: When do documentary and/or feature films addressing the food industry move from document to art?
For example, the Austrian film, Our Daily Bread may provide the most effective argument against the move to industrial farming because it eliminates verbal explanation altogether. By relying exclusively on visual rhetoric, Our Daily Bread works as a powerful rhetorical tool, undiluted by either ambivalent multiple viewpoints or a voiceover that sometimes disguises the consequences of industrial farming on display. Multiple readings of a variety of films with food consumption or production at their center are welcome.
We are seeking proposals of approximately 600 words that address this broad theme of food and film in relation to the environment. Proposals from a variety of disciplines and perspectives are welcome.
Please send abstracts by email to Eastern Illinois University Professors: Robin Murray and Joseph Heumann at rlmurray@eiu.edu by October 15 and include your name, email, and affiliation.
“…but the fact remains that despite ecological claims for the virtual economy, the digital era may be no less energy-hungry than the paper-based world of 20 years ago. Part of the reason is the so-called rebound effect…”
This quote is from a recent Guardian article that discusses the carbon footprint of the internet. This article is one of many that demonstrates the need to pay attention to the material resources used or wasted during production, distribution, and consumption of virtual media. Sid Dobrin and I are hoping to engage conversation about material impacts at ASLE’s Ecological Media workshop.
Currently enjoying a 9.2/10 rating among fans at Internet Movie Database (#3 among all films rated), Christopher Nolan’s Inception continues to storm the summer box office. Yet while the film centers around the effort to convince the heir to the world’s largest energy conglomerate to break up his father’s monopoly, the film fails to explore this motif at any length. While Nolan’s attention to realism is drawing rave reviews, as it did for The Dark Knight (2008), the film misses a number of opportunities to engage in ecorealism – the representation of real world socio-ecological concerns within fictional narrative. I found this aspect of the film somewhat surprising given Leonardo DiCaprio’s green credentials (for example producing and narrating the documentary 11th Hour) and the fact that he convinced Warner Bros. to install solar panels to provide some of the power required to run the film set. More on that effort by Michael d’Estries for Forbes.com.
ASLE Biennial Conference, June 21-26, 2011. Bloomington, IN
Call for papers can be found at their website.
Sid Dobrin and Salma Monani will be leading a pre-conference seminar directed at Ecological Media. Check the pre-conference webpage.
Deadlines for submissions: Friday, November 5, 2010.
Notifications of accepted and rejected proposals will be e-mailed by February 15, 2011.