Conference Report: ‘From the National to the Transnational: European Film and
Television in Transition’, Saturday May 7 2005.
The aim of the conference ‘From the National to the Trans-national: European Film and
Television in transition’ was to examine how rapidly changing modes of delivery and
spaces of circulation are resonating in film and television texts, within a variety of
national contexts. Nine distinguished guest speakers whose research defines and
addresses the area under discussion, from a variety of perspectives, shed further light on
such problematic concepts as the ‘National’, ‘Trans-national’ and ‘Europe’.
Professor John Caughie (University of Glasgow) used the film Morvern Callar (Lynne
Ramsay, UK, 2002) as a case study for exploring larger notions of art cinema in both
aesthetic and institutional terms. Distinguishing art cinema from ‘quality’ cinema,
Professor Caughie illustrated the many ways in which ideas of the ‘national’ as they may
variously be interpreted can support or impede the production of art cinema. Having
flagged, succinctly, one of the central themes of the conference, Prof. Caughie’s address
was succeeded by a thorough questioning of the conceptualisation of British cinema in
terms of the ‘national’, by Prof. Sarah Street (University of Bristol). Prof. Street’s
comprehensive presentation loosened established ideas around cultural policy, an
approach maintained by Prof. Farrel Corcoran’s (Dublin City University) questioning of
the way in which television production in Eastern Europe may be linked to collective
identity shaping or more pertinently, be considered to be culturally representative.
Differentiating between ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ globalisation theory Prof. Corcoran cast
doubt on existing notions which posit cultural globalisation as a new paradigm,
suggesting instead that it is merely cultural imperialism by another name.
Prof. Dina Iordanova’s (University of St. Andrews) expertise on the media landscapes of
Eastern Europe anchored a thorough exploration of how political and commercial
expediency can dictate the progress of both a filmmaker and his/her film. Her case study
of the little-known Balkan production Dust (Lev Manchevski, UK, Ger., It., Rep. of
Macedonia, 2001) offered a macro perspective of how exoticisation and hype framed
such productions, yet remained under-observed by Western European critics whose focus
stubbornly centred on the political significance of this and other texts. Dr Tim
Bergfelder’s (University of Southhampton) intriguing examination of the cross-cultural
(self-) positioning of Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, as realised in his acclaimed
film Head-On (Fatih Akin, Germany, 2004) examined further the aesthetic and
production practices of director whose work deliberately undermines concepts of
nationhood and identity.
Dr. Glen Creeber’s (University of Aberystwyth) provocative survey of key European
television series, successful both at home and abroad, stirred debate around ideas of
genre, the nation, the personal and memory. Dott. Laura Rascaroli’s (University College
Cork) presentation on the highly personal work practices and texts of French ‘district
filmmaker’ Robert Guedigian pressed further the notions of the personal, confronting ‘the
local-embodied’ with the ‘global disembodied’. Dr Sarah Cardwell’s (University of Kent)
elegant discussion of the role of literary adaptation, in this case of ‘novels of manners’
and Dr Graham Allen’s (University College Cork) survey of various Hammer versions of
Frankenstein, reminded us of Prof. Caughie’s introductory injunction to bear in mind how
cinema may as, according to Attridge the literary does, ‘occupy the place of the Other.’
Lively discussion throughout the day’s panel session suggested that a negotiated
understanding of the terms of the conference theme, is part of a more widely significant
adjustment in thought imperative to an interpretation of a significant media-cultural
development.
I. Kleinecke and A.M.Mullally, June 2005.