Animation sympoium reported internationally

CMCI’s recent symposium on animation has been discussed in an article on the Taipei Film Commission’s website. The symposium was organised by Dr Hye-Kyung Lee.

The article can be accessed here.

The Cultural Impact of UK Film: Questions and Evidence

The full report of the seminar “The Cultural Impact of UK Film: Questions and Evidence” has now been published online. It includes the contribution of CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells, who was invited to present his thoughts on the issue.

By way of background: In 2008 the UK Film Council commissioned a consortium of Narval Media, Birkbeck College and Media Consulting Group to undertake a study of the cultural impact of UK film in the period 1946 to 2006, a project undertaken jointly with the British Film Institute. The final report, “Stories we tell ourselves: the cultural impact of UK film 1946-2006”, was published by the UK Film Council in June 2009, and in the following November the research was presented to academic, policy and commercial researchers at a seminar hosted by the UK Film Council, Birkbeck College and Royal Holloway, University of London.

Richard began: “You might expect me to be a cheerleader for the cultural and creative industries. But I want to stand up and proudly say the wrong thing, because I’m particularly interested in what Sara [Selwood] phrased rather well as the politics of cultural impact. So rather than being a cheerleader this afternoon, I’m probably going to end up as a provocateur…”

Whether or not you agree, the seminar report is published at: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/6/4/Cultural_Impact_Seminar_Report_27_Nov_2009.pdf

Tough marks for Obama from CMCI Lecturer

Last Wednesday, on the first anniversary of the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen was asked by Metro International newspapers in Sweden and Denmark to produce a report card for Obama, judging his performance so far in five categories, with one sentence for each category (not a lot of room for nuance!).  For those of you conversant in Swedish, here is the piece; the Denmark piece in embedded in this post.

Need an English translation?  Cohen criticised Obama and his PR people for allowing “right-wing Republican zealots” to define his health care plan, which spread numerous falsehoods about the plan, and damaged its chances at being passed; Cohen took him to task for taking too much time in passing meaningful regulation of banks and investment firms, allowing financially risky behaviour to again threaten the world’s economy.  He also commented on Obama’s new Afghanistan war strategy:  ”if the US could not defeat an insurgency in Vietnam with more than 500,000 soldiers, how can they expect to do it with one-quarter as many in a rugged country more than twice as large?”

But Cohen awarded Obama good marks for his Cairo speech, which redefined America’s stance on terrorism, for his efforts to repair and elevate the image of the United States overseas, and for his progress in dismantling the Guantamano prison camp — he has released the majority of its detainees, even if he was not able to close it as quickly as he promised he would.  

Overall, Cohen awarded the President a B-minus grade, but with the recent election of a Republican senator in the state of Massachusetts, Obama has lost his filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and will now face an even tougher time getting his agenda enacted.  The gridlock that plagued and characterised American national politics from 1995-2000 may be returning for an encore in 2010.

New faces at CMCI!

It’s a new year and there is lots of news from CMCI, in particular some new faces (seven: count them!) that you’ll see around. I hope that you’ll make them all welcome.

First, we are very happy to welcome Professor Ros Gill who officially began at KCL on Jan 1st; although she has popped in to KCL to welcome students at induction in October, and chaired a seminar in November for CMCI. You will all be hearing much more from Ros this term as she gets settled in teaching her option ‘Creatives’ and taking up her role as Director of Research.

Part of Ros’s role is to develop CMCI’s research profile; in this light it is great that we are to be joined by a number of researchers from around the world who will stimulate and learn from our work here. This new influx certainly helps to form a critical mass for research seminars that will also begin this term (for PhDs and Staff only).

Welcome also to Warsan Ali, who starts as Internship & Communications Officer on February 1st. Warsan studied Politics and Sociology at the University of Bristol. She comes to us from the Edinburgh International TV Festival where she has been coordinator of the Festival’s two talent initiatives. Before that she worked for the Penguin Group where she organised the staff learning and developement programme.

We’d also like to welcome four new visiting researchers to CMCI:

Prof. Leilei Li

Tian Yuan

Jonathan Denis-Jacob

Pedro Pinto

and two new PhD students:

Ana Elias

Anna Watts

Finally, we say thank you to Richard Howells in his role as Director of CMCI; as you will know from Richard’s letter at the end of last term he will be taking a well-earned sabbatical this year. Andy Pratt takes over Richard’s role from as Director of CMCI as of January 1^st, and Harvey Cohen takes over Richard’s role of PhD Director as of the same date.

Merry Christmas, Dr Burke

It’s an especially merry Christmas for CMCI postgraduate research student Wendy Burke, who has sailed though her viva (with no corrections!) to be awarded her PhD.

Wendy’s thesis: “A Dutch occupation: The representation of World War Two in films from the Netherlands, 1962 to 1986”, analysed the films as reflections of the underlying concerns of Dutch society from the time the films were made.

This incorporated ideas on communal memory (what people choose to remember and, crucially, to forget about their collective past), the making and upholding of myths, cultural coping (in which traumatic events are re-mediated through cultural forms) and the re-writing of history towards preferred versions of events.

Before she became a PhD student, Wendy worked for fourteen years in television and video production as a researcher, assistant producer, then for the latter eight years as a producer and director of both broadcast and non-broadcast programmes. Productions include the historical series ‘Gallipoli 1915′ and ‘The Somme 1916′ for ITV, ‘Leap of Faith’, for BBC2, documenting the road to the Atlanta Olympics of World Champion triple jumper Jonathan Edwards, and two fifteen-part series of makeover show ‘Gardening Angels’.

Wendy was supervised at CMCI by Dr Richard Howells. Congratulations, Dr Burke!

Congratulations!

… to recent MA CCI graduate Ross Gooderson, who has just been appointed Business Affairs Assistant with the Ambassador Theatre Group.

According to Ross, “It’s an absolutely fantastic opportunity to get to know the serious business workings behind the company and I’m delighted to be offered the job! [...]  Undoubtedly, the knowledge and experience that I’ve gained this year from MA CCI – from both the theoretical side of the course and the internship – has been the main contributing factor to the job offer and therefore I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the department at KCL”.

Lostincci would also like to congratulate former student Paul Vialard on being offered a place at the Royal College of Music. We wish you the best of luck!

Sing CMCI

Thanks and congratulations to the CMCI Singers, who marked the end of term with a charity Christmas recital in the college chapel.

The choir was made up of students on the MA in CCI, supplemented by lecturer Dr Ruth Adams and conducted by our own Dr Nick Wilson.

The programme ranged from Rutter to Ellington, and included a lullaby composed by Nick himself. The event culminated with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, as part of BBC Radio 3’s “Sing Hallelujah” initiative. A retiring collection was maid in aid of the BBC’s Children in Need appeal.

(Santa) hats off to all concerned.

Can the Arts Save the Economy?

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells‘ contribution to the Battle of Ideas debate on “Can the Arts Save The Economy” is now available via online audio at:

http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2009/session_detail/2548/

The event was held at the Royal College of Art in London: joining the discussion with Richard were James Boyle, former controller of BBC Radio 4, Angus Kennedy, IT consultant, Karl-Erik Norman the opera singer and Secretary General of the European Cultural Parliament, and Douglas Slater, the writer, critic, political strategist and policy advisor, and co-founder of Stonewall.

You can hear Richard argue that the arts cannot save the economy -and neither should they be expected to either.

Deep Impact

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells was an invited speaker at a UK Film Council event to launch their latest report: “Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves: The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946-2006.”

Richard praised the allusion to Clifford Geertz in their title, but (controversially) criticised their focus on “impact” at the expense of “value” and “meaning”, which he found much more interesting and intellectually relevant. You can make your own mind up, of course, by reading the report online at http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/f/i/CIReport_010709.pdf

The other speakers were Professors Roy Boyne (Durham), Christine Geraghty (Glasgow) and Maire Messenger-Davies (Ulster). The panel chairs were Professor John Hill (Royal Holloway), and Sara Selwood, editor of Cultural Trends. The report was presented by the eminent film historian and commentator Professor Ian Christie.

Alumni updates

Many thanks to Penelope Sacorafou and Claire Flannery (MA CCI 2008-9) for getting in touch to give us their updates!

Penelope is involved in CultureLabel, a website which, among other things, facilitates the commercial activities of museums. They have produced a book on the topic which is free to download from their website.

She was also involved in ArtBarter, “The platform for exchange between artists and the public“. Check the website for upcoming events.

Claire’s initiative is called ArtFeelers, and they organise art tours of the East End and other events.

We’d love to hear what other MA CCI alumi are involved with…