Intellect

Studies in Australasian Cinema is an international refereed scholarly journal devoted to the cinema of, and film scholarship from, the Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific region. We would like to announce a call for papers for the following issues:

Issue 6.1 (Apr 2012): Imaging Religion and Spirituality

Issue 6.2 (Aug 2012): Big Screen to Small Screen:   Australasian film and its new formats

The journal features academic articles focusing on current and historical trends, representations, themes, styles, debates and scholarly work from across the region's rich cinema culture: What shapes, and has shaped the contemporary filmmaking landscape in the region? What theoretical and critical discussions of cinema are, and have been in the past, the most visible in Australasia? What policies, practices, modalities and technologies define Australasian cinema?

The editor of Studies in Australasian Cinema is Anthony Lambert.
Contact: Dr. Anthony Lambert,
Media, Music Communication and Cultural Studies (MMCCS),
Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2109.
Telephone: +61 (0) 28502148
Email: anthony.lambert@mq.edu.au


6.1: Imaging Religion and Spirituality in Australasian Film
Editors: Anthony Lambert and Holly Randell-Moon

Issues of spirituality and religion have long between central to the social, cultural and political rituals of many countries and communities within the Australasian-Pacific Island and Oceanic regions. Religion and secularism have also emerged as intense sites of geopolitical conflict in Australasia since the initiation of a now decade-long ‘war on terror’. Cinema plays a vital role in the ways in which community, citizenship, nationality and morality are imagined, normalised and debated. In this special issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema we are seeking papers that focus on filmic engagements with and representations of spirituality and religion. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

•    Representations of all forms religious and spiritual practices whether institutionally, ethnically or individually oriented, in different genres and conventions of filmmaking, e.g. documentary, fiction etc.
•    Representations on any aspect of religion and spirituality from within Australasian/ Pacific Island nations or by filmmakers from across the region.
•    Differences between indigenous and non-indigenous conceptions of spirituality in film production and representation
•    Postcolonial spirituality and religion in film production
•    Filmic engagements with questions of morality and ethics or issues not normally considered as being within the purview of ‘religion’
•    The influence of secular epistemologies and practices on the economies or conventions of filmmaking
•    Film, spirituality and tourism
•    Post 9/11 conceptions of religious affiliation and difference in Australasia
•    Religious events, their mediation and/or representation in film
•    Religion and politics/ the state, including political events and their influence on filmic representations of religion and spirituality in local, national or international productions

‘Imaging religion and spirituality in Australasian film’ will be edited by Anthony Lambert and Holly Randell-Moon. Enquiries in the first instance should be made via email to either anthony.lambert@mq.edu.au or holly.randell-moon@mq.edu.au

Final submissions to this issue close on 17th January, 2012.

Issue 6.2 (Aug 2012): Big Screen to Small Screen: Australasian film and its new formats
Editor: Karina Aveyard

In Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa and the Pacific Island region the burgeoning multi-platform screen media landscape is transforming the technological and locational interface of film spectatorship. It is reshaping cinematic narratives and production techniques, and changing the way screen content is circulated to and consumed by audiences. It has also given rise to important shifts in film policy, with screen agencies eager to seize on the opportunities created by this platform diversification to engage a wider audience for local content.

This themed issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema will explore new theoretical perspectives on emerging trends across local filmmaking, film policy, distribution, marketing, exhibition and the changing cultural and social meanings of film consumption. Topics to be considered include but are not limited to:

•    The convergence and disconnection between ‘heritage’ and ‘new’ media within the current screen landscape.
•    The social and cultural geographies of media multi-tasking and format shifting.
•    New trends in film development, financing and production in Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa and the Pacific Island nations.
•    Opportunities and limitations for local films within these new domestic, globalised and transnational circulatory spaces.
•    How different viewing contexts shape audience responses to screen content, influencing commercial success (or failure) and/or cultural meaning.
•    The changing industrial nature of the film distribution and exhibition.
•    Innovations in screen media film policy.

‘Big Screen to Small Screen: Australasian film and its new formats’ will be edited by Karina Aveyard. Initial enquiries should be sent to: karina.aveyard@griffithuni.edu.au

Final submissions to this issue close on Friday April 27, 2012.

Submission for both issues and can be made directly to the editors or via the journal link: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/article-sub/   

Information and forthcoming issues

- Cinema and postcolonialism
- 'National' cinemas
- Australasian independent film making and films
- Australasian global commercial film making and films
- The representation of the region and its peoples in global cinema

5.2 'Cinema, Modernity and Modernism: Selected Papers from FHAANZ 2010'. Edited by Anthony Lambert and Greg Dolgopolov.
Publication: September 2011.

5.3 'Cities and Australasian Film and Television'. Edited by Ben Goldsmith. Submissions welcome.
Publication: December 2011.