URL: Edition 92 – Centre for Media & Celebrity Studies (CMCS)
Welcome to our Fall edition! As we celebrate our 11th anniversary, we are excited to invite you to our upcoming panels.
Please mark your calendars, share this invitation with colleagues and friends, and join us in the live public chat on our video channel: https://www.youtube.com/@cmcs_media. Links to participants are embedded (below).
Special acknowledgment goes to our panelists, supporting the current themes of all talks and screenings. Calls for screenings, exhibits, and talks will be in our next New Year edition.
Upcoming Panels
Saturday, October 26 – 12 pm BST
Film Studies Panel – Book Talk & Screenings
Audience login link: https://www.youtube.com/@cmcs_media
Featuring:
Incomplete: The Feminist Possibilities of the Unfinished Film
Screenings:
The Critic (Opening Scene) – Dir. Samita Nandy http://samitanandy.com/
Project Reve (Trailer) – Dir. Ian Dixon https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/cris/rp/rp00738
Panelists: Alix Beeston, Ian Dixon, Kiera Obbard, Helen Dewberry
Saturday, November 17 – 12 pm BST
Feminist Film Production – Panel Talk and Screenings (Trailers)
Audience login Link: https://www.youtube.com/@cmcs_media
Featuring:
*The Lies We Tell Ourselves
Dir. Saara Lamberg
Synopsis:
Life imitates Art and Art imitates Life. An eccentric director on the rise travels to Cannes Film Festival, Berlin, German countryside, New Caledonia, Australia and England to create her latest art house film and has to negotiate many hurdles before finally fulfilling her vision. From promoters that try and make her sleep with the “right people”, to washed up stars that have ridiculous requests, from make up artists become coke dealers, to uninvited naked auditions, her artist’s path is never boring.
Bio:
Finnish Australian Saara Lamberg is a director, actor, writer and producer. They have received several awards including the Best Film and Best Director at Influx Awards (California 2022), Best Film and Best Director at Veracruz World Film Awards (Mexico 2022), Best Film at the IFF (Milan 2018), the Best Film at the FAFF (Los Angeles 2017), Cinema Australia Audience Award (Melbourne 2017), Bronze prize at the Beverly Hills screenplay contest (Hollywood 2013), Best Actor at Comfy Shorts (Melbourne 2014), Best Drama at the Connect Film Festival (Melbourne 2014) and Best Actor (Lithuania 2004). They lived in England 2006-2010 and studied in the critically acclaimed Dartington College of Arts, graduating with a BA (HONS) degree in Theatre and Choreographic Practices in 2007. They moved to Melbourne in January 2010 and received a Distinguished Talent Permanent Residency in 2012 and citizenship in 2014. Innuendo was their first feature film, opening theatrically in Melbourne 2017 and broadcast nationally in Australian free to air television in 2019. Their second feature film Westermarck Effect was completed and released 2022 at the Cannes Cinephiles selection. Their third feature The Lies We Tell Ourselves was shot in various film festivals around the world and was fully improvised. Lamberg has two other features in production: Conversations with Spithead and COMA. In their personal life, Lamberg has struggled with tragedies such as losing their mother to early onset dementia and themselves facing breast cancer in their thirties. They are a board member and a host of Filmonik Melbourne (of the internationals Kino Movement) and Montsalvat Collective. Lamberg is known for their personal strength and courage, as well as extreme work ethic and friendly attitude on and off set.
*Fevolution
Written, Directed & Produced by Anastasia Antonakaki
Synopsis:
A woman narrates a fairytale in a forest, during dawn. Suddenly, she finds herself caught in an electronic but natural ecstasy with two more women. After an exhausting ode in the forest, the ritual is transferred on a theatre stage, where the reality multiplies itself and performing is an act of every-day life.
Bio:
Anastasia Antonakaki is a Greek writer and Director, primarily known for her experimental short film Fevolution (2024). Fevolution has been presented at Clermont-Ferrand’s Short Film Reference Market (Shortfilmwire), 9th Edessa Short Film Festival and Art Number 23 Gallery in Athens and Prague. The film explores themes of ritual, gender, nature and transformation. The blending of reality and performance highlights Antonakaki’s interest in abstract storytelling and theatrical elements. Antonakaki is involved in multiple aspects of her projects, not only writing and directing but also production, movement/choreography, lights and sound design. She holds a strong connection to greek culture and performance arts, which often influences her work. Fevolution, her standout project, is a prime example of her unique visual and thematic style. Her whole life she has studied in multiple academic fields always with her eyes and hands on creating moving images either on screen or on stage. She is a PhD Candidate on Movement and Image and she is consistently training and educating herself on film, theatre and movement.
Saturday, January 4 – 2 pm BST
Poetry Film – Panel Talk and Screenings (Trailer)
Login Link: https://www.youtube.com/@cmcs_media
Featuring:
*In an Ideal World I’d Not Be Murdered – a poetry film collection. Written by Chaucer Cameron, it’s both a fictional and re-enacted story, and contains fragments of memory from a world of prostitution. Told in 12 poems and 3 voices.
Synopsis:
How could memory and traumatic experience be visually represented in poetry film, without re-traumatising, fetishizing or stereotyping? How important is poetry film for Chaucer Cameron’s writing? This short video essay offers some insights into these questions.
Statement:
Poetry film, in similar ways to written poetry, is an ideal vehicle to express the non-linear, fractured nature of memory and in particular traumatic memory. Memory that is fragmented and ambiguous and not necessarily experienced in a linear, time specific way – even though some moments may be remembered in acute detail. This poetry film collection contains those fragments of memory from a life once lived in prostitution – told in twelve poems, 3 voices, one city. Poetry film is also a perfect form for telling personal histories. It can present situations that repeat or change, can switch from light to dark, and can bear a burden that sometimes seems impossible.
Bios:
Chaucer Cameron is author of In an Ideal World I’d Not Be Murdered which was published by Against the Grain Press in 2021. Her poetry has also been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Chaucer is creator of Wild Whispers (2018) an international poetry film project, and has presented poetry film at various poetry and film festivals, including Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, Athens Poetry Film Festival, and Atticus Review Journal. Chaucer is poetry editor of the online magazine www.poetryfilmlive.com.
Helen Dewbery has taught poetry film extensively, in person and online. Her work has appeared internationally at poetry and film festivals, where she has also presented talks and curations. For seven years she delivered a programme of poetry film events at Poetry Swindon Festival, including events in the community and an outdoor projection.
Editor at www.poetryfilmlive.com and poetry film editor at www.speltmagazine.com
URL: https://vimeo.com/helendewbery
*Feminist Poetry Film by Kiera Obbard (TBA)
Panelists:
Helen Dewberry, Chaucer Cameron, Kiera Obbard @ kieramarg13, Nidhi Shrivastava @shnidhi Georgia Hertz @thegeorgiamoon/
Past Events
Sunday, October 6 2024
LIVE Screenings & Panel Talk for Films O Derradeiro Passo and Windows
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LTWK9I5EmM&t=75s
Dir. Hussene Keshavjee
Watch and join celebration the 3rd anniversary of the Portuguese film O Derradeiro Passo, originally released at Cinema Sao Jorge, along with the latest online release of the award-winning short, Windows
Keywords: Language translation, linguistic contexts, embodied interpretations, visual storytelling, filmmaking and acting, art and ethics, social justice movement
Panelists: Hussene Keshavjee, Ana Albuquerque, Bob Tapper, Alfredo Paixao
Saturday, July 24, 2024
CMCS Wall of Fame Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
URL: https://youtube.com/live/ynhLJWgE2BM
More: https://filmfreeway.com/WallofFameFestival
Best Film Award Winner:
Ashley MacDonald Dir. September 7, 2012 IMDb
2024 Finalists screened are:
Kiera Obbard @kieramarg13 Dir.Caregiving
Marcel Barragan @marcel.barragan Dir. Life Reborn
Michael William Dodge @christidodge Dir. Around to It
Ana Monica Parreira @ana.monica.parreira Dir. The Tide
Ashley MacDonald & Dominique Jean @bashmac709 @unabashedimages Dir. September 7, 2012
We also proudly featured film artists: Christopher Michael Heisler @camcat.pt (cinematographer) & Marko Mitic @markoavramovicmitic (actor). Thanks to our special guests, who supported our memorable screenings, panels, and stories of all Semi-Finalists leading up to the final event. Very special acknowledgments go to:
Bethany Usher @bethanyusher
Govindini Murthy @tigermurty
Shetal Shah @shetalshahwashere
George Tsouris @george.tsouris
Ian Dixon @iandixon661
Nidhi Shrivastava @shnidhi
Swati Chugh @director_swati
We look forward to recommending our nominees for future screenings after our interactive media workshop. Stay tuned for the workshop announcement, additional announcements and conversations on our social media X @celeb_studies & IG cmcs_media.
Please note last-minute updates / clock changes on our channel. Broadcast notifications will be notified to channel subscribers.
That’s all for now! Have a wonderful start to Fall (or Spring in the southern hemisphere), and I look forward to continuing our conversations on Saturday, October 26th onwards. For media inquiries, email info@cmc-centre.com
Kind regards,
Samita Nandy, PhD
Director, Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS)
Former Adjunct Faculty, University of Toronto,
Toronto Metropolitan University, and Curtin University
Alumni, American Academy of Dramatic Arts (LA)
URL: www.cmc-centre.com www.samitanandy.com