FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 21, 2007
CONTACT:
David Church, 360-333-9452
Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association
sfsucinema@gmail.com
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~cinegsa
EVENT: 2007 Cinema Studies Graduate Student Conference
DATE: November 1-2, 2007
TIME: noon-8 pm (Nov. 1), 9 am-5 pm (Nov. 2)
PLACE: August Coppola Theater, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA
ADMISSION: Free, open to the public
Lynn Hershman Leeson to screen Strange Culture and deliver keynote address
San Francisco, Sept. 21, 2007 -- An upcoming two-day conference in cinema studies will explore the important political and aesthetic changes brought about by new advances in digital cinema. "Shoot, Rip & Burn: Cinema's Digital Insurgency" is the latest incarnation of an annual conference organized by the Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association (CSGSA) at San Francisco State University. It will feature presentations by graduate students from around the world, and a special keynote address by filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson, one of the world's foremost new media artists. The conference will take place November 1-2, 2007, in the August Coppola Theater (Fine Arts Building, Room 101) on the SFSU Main Campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The future of cinema has been hotly debated in recent years, especially in the wake of rapidly developing and proliferating digital media technologies. These debates have yielded predictions about utopian hopes for re-envisioning social change, potential opportunities for new cinematic forms, and even fears about the death of film altogether.
"Digital cinema has been alternately heralded as a revolution, a revelation, and a curse," says CSGSA president David Church. "For cinema, the rise of digital culture still seems to raise more questions than answers, and this is why it remains a very necessary topic for analysis." He explains that this conference will not merely offer broad speculations about things to come, but instead focus on how digitally informed sensibilities are already transforming cinema in practice.
To emphasize this sort of practice, conference organizers have invited keynote speaker Lynn Hershman Leeson, who will be screening her highly acclaimed new film, Strange Culture (2007), and discussing her recent work. Hershman Leeson is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, and chair of the Film Department at San Francisco Art Institute. She has earned numerous international awards for her extensive work in photography, film, video, installation, and interactive computer and net-based media art.
The Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association at SFSU is dedicated to furthering the study of cinema in all its forms, bridging the gap between theory and practice. The organization actively promotes academic discussion with other students of cinema, providing a forum for presenting new research and ideas on moving image culture.
For additional information about "Shoot, Rip & Burn: Cinema's Digital Insurgency," please contact David Church or visit http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~cinegsa.