Screening Diasporas in the Pacific: Voices, Narratives and Mobilities

Screening Diasporas in the Pacific: Voices, Narratives and Mobilities

Organizer
A/Prof Arezou Zalipour and Dr Duncan Caillard, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Aotearoa New Zealand
ZIP
-
Location
Aotearoa
Country
New Zealand
Takes place
Digital
From - Until
30.09.2024 - 31.01.2024
Deadline
30.09.2024
By
Connections Redaktion, Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics, Universität Leipzig

This edited collection will examine how diverse communities that have moved within and across the Pacific have used moving images to explore the dynamic interplay of cultures, ethnicities and communities, contributing to a growing body of literature on diasporic screen studies.

Screening Diasporas in the Pacific: Voices, Narratives and Mobilities

Call for Chapters

Editors:
A/Prof Arezou Zalipour and Dr Duncan Caillard, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Aotearoa New Zealand

Timeline/Workflow:
- Proposal Submission Deadline: September 30th 2024
- Notification of Acceptance: October 15th 2024
- Full Chapter Submission Deadline: January 31st 2024

The history of the Pacific has been shaped by waves of human mobility and cultural exchange, from millenia of Micronesian, Melanesian and Polynesian wayfaring, to European colonisation and generations of migrants from Asia, Europe and the Americas. Across these communities, film has emerged as a powerful medium for exploring questions of identity, culture and belonging amidst changing socio-political realities. From the experiences of Samoan diasporas living in Aotearoa New Zealand in Albert Wendt’s Sons for the Return Home (1979) and Tusi Tamases’s One Thousand Ropes (2017), and Tongan diaspora in Vea Mafile'o’s Lea Tupu'anga/Mother Tongue (2023) to the struggles of Japanese-American migration in Hawai’i across Picture Bride (1995) and I Was A Simple Man (2021), stories by and about diasporic communities within the Pacific have played a key part in the region’s cinema. In recent years, Pacific-focused film festivals and international funding organisations have forged fresh connections across the region, establishing dynamic new contact points between creators, audiences, and the industries. These collaborations and initiatives have catalysed vibrant voices, narratives and mobilities in ways previously unexplored.

This edited collection will examine how diverse communities that have moved within and across the Pacific have used moving images to explore the dynamic interplay of cultures, ethnicities and communities, contributing to a growing body of literature on diasporic screen studies. Hamid Naficy’s Home, Exile, Homeland (1999) brought together prominent theorists of cinematic migration, setting the stage for his seminal book An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking in 2001. Berghahn and Sternberg’s European Cinema in Motion (2010) explored post national stories of migration in European cinema. Rondilla Spickard and Hippolite Wright’s Pacific Diaspora (2002) explored the interlaced stories of migration and movement that have defined the region, themes explored further in Zalipour’s Migrant and Diasporic Film and Filmmaking in New Zealand (2019), the first collection to focus on multi-cultural screen representations and practices in New Zealand.

Screening Diasporas in the Pacific: Voices, Narratives and Mobilities seeks to shift static conceptions of culture and society towards one that prioritises motion, flux, and the hybridisation of identities, stories and experiences. It will bring together case studies of screen voices, narratives and productions shaped by transnational flows that transcend geographic boundaries across the Pacific.

We conceptualise the Pacific region as a site of mobility, contact and connection for various Indigenous Pacific Islander and diasporic communities together navigating their identities across multiple spaces through cultural production. Screening Diasporas in the Pacific: Voices, Narratives and Mobilities will offer a comprehensive examination of how makers and storytellers in and of the Pacific shape on-screen representations and are situated within global screen industries. We welcome studies of diverse forms of screen work and culture, including (but not limited to) feature film production, short films, television series, screen-based installations, animation, and film festival and audience studies.

We invite contributions from both established and emerging writers, scholars and practitioners. We are currently in conversation with academic publishers.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

· Fiction and non-fiction screen works by and/or about any diasporas in the Pacific region
· Creative practices among diasporic filmmakers
· Collaboration within and between diasporic communities in the Pacific
· Transnational partnerships and connections between and within the Pacific region
· Social, cultural and political dimensions of moving image production in the Pacific
· Pacific diasporas in national film industries including (but not limited to) Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States
· Pacific-focused film festivals, production companies, screen collectives, industries and institutions
· Studies of specific films, directors, producers, actors, etc.
· Audience studies and viewership practices

Submission Details:

Abstracts of up to 300 words and a biography of 100 words should be emailed to Arezou Zalipour at arezou.zalipour@aut.ac.nz and Duncan Caillard at duncan.caillard@aut.ac.nz by September 30th 2024. Decisions will be returned October 15th 2024.

The chapter drafts of 4,500-7,000 words (including references) are due January 31st 2025.

Contact Information

Kia ora, I am thrilled to announce the continuation of my scholarly research journey with a forthcoming book, 'Screening Diasporas in the Pacific: Voices, Narratives, and Mobilities'. Building on the success of my previous work, 'Migrant and Diasporic Film and Filmmaking in New Zealand' (2019), which garnered significant attention from media, industry, and academia, this new project delves deeper into the dynamic new contact points between creators, audiences, and the industries across the Pacific region.

This edited collection will examine how diverse communities that have moved within and across the Pacific have used moving images to explore the interplay of cultures, ethnicities, communities and collaborations, contributing to a growing body of literature on diasporic screen studies. I am delighted to co-edit this volume with Dr Duncan Caillard, the Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Communication Studies.

We invite all interested in contributing to this timely project to submit their abstracts by 30th September 2024.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me at arezou.zalipour@aut.ac.nz

Contact (announcement)

arezou.zalipour@aut.ac.nz

https://academics.aut.ac.nz/arezou.zalipour
Editors Information
Published on
13.09.2024
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