Film expert seminars
30 January 2009
Internationally recognised film experts will be at LJMU throughout February and March to give a series of seminars.
The first in the series, delivered by Professor Murray Smith of the University of Kent, takes place on February 9. Entitled “Green,” it will explore the role of conscious cognition in film spectatorship. Professor Smith’s research interests include the psychology of film; the place of emotion in film reception; the philosophy of film; music and sound design in film; and popular music. His publications include Trainspotting (British Film Institute, 2002), Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (co-edited with Steve Neale) and Thinking through Cinema (co-edited with Tom Wartenberg).
The second seminar will be held on Monday 16 March and is being hosted by Dr Thomas Austin of the University of Sussex. His talk will raise issues surrounding damage and disability in documentaries; the construction of masculinity and ethnicity; and representational strategies. Thomas Austin is the author of Hollywood, Hype and Audiences (2002), Watching the World: Screen Documentary and Audiences (2007) and co-editor of Contemporary Hollywood Stardom (2003).
The final seminar is taking place on Monday 23 March and will be given by Dr Belen Vidal of King’s College, London. The talk will look at intimacy, trauma and melodrama in contemporary filmmaking in Spain. It will investigate issues of gender, genre and trauma with particular focus on two Spanish films. Dr Belen Vidal has published material in journals such as Screen and Journal of European Studies and most recently, on the transnational cinema of Isabel Coixet in the edited collection Contemporary Spanish Cinema and Genre.
Everyone is welcome to attend any of the seminars and booking is not necessary. All talks take place in the Dean Walters Building (Room 006) at 6pm.
