Call for papers : Dependance/Independance : Indian cinemas (November, 13-14th 2013, Paris, France)

Université Sorbonne nouvelle-Paris 3
IRCAV – Les Cinémas indiens

Dependance/Independance : Indian cinemas

November, 13-14th 2013 - INHA

Call for papers
In April 2013, India will celebrate 100 years of (its) cinemas. This plural needs to be stressed,
especially because of the western world tendancy to hide the diversity of indian industries behind the
sole Mumbai's Bollywood popular cinema. This international symposium will look at all of the different
trends and styles which caracterize each industry set in a particular region, with a particular language.
The concepts of « dependance » and « independance » should allow a vision of links and
tensions between these cinemas. Evidently those words appeal to India History, from muslim invasions
to Gandhi and Nehru struggle for the Independance of the Union (1947). They also resonate with
economy and industry (from studio production to independant creation ; the evolution of distribution).
Besides, introducing the originality of the research group Les Cinémas indiens, the history of film
forms is marked by rules (the so-called formula films), migrations, revivals, shifts, hybridisations… At
this point reappears the Bollywood spectrum, monumental then monolithic, which presents itself as a
role model, most of the time at the expense of singularities (regional and/or formal). As such, we can do
nothing but question its own independence towards the West.

We're expecting contributors to articulate the multiplicity of these aspects with aesthetic,
historic, economic, sociocultural and technical analysis. A formal analysis, an historical period, a
regional industry or even a single film will allow us to explore this dialectical question of
dependence/independence.
Here are some examples :
- The « independence » of song-and-dance sequence within the global movie’s structure.
- Numerous film versions between regional industries.
- Analysis of the generation of independent filmmakers standing out from mainstream industry
with a more realistic mise en scène and new ways to produce their films.
- From subcontracting to the claim of a national production in animated cinema.
- Enslavement or emancipation of televisual production and video games from popular film.
- Or a masterpiece as Pyaasa, often studied as a historico-political object, but which can also
enlighten the studios’ aesthetics and the American shadow over aesthetic (Chaplin and
Capra…).

Proposals (2500 characters) must be submitted for May 31, 2013, with a small biography and
personal bibliography at this address : lescinemasindiens@univ-paris3.fr
Presentations will be 30mn, in French or in English.

Scientific Committee: Amandine d’Azevedo, Térésa Faucon, Jitka Préval, Charles Tesson
(Université Paris 3)

For more informations:
http://lescinemasindiens.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/Lescinemasindiens