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Ninth International Domitor Conference, 2006 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 
30 May - 2 June

Conference Program
Schedule of Screenings

The ninth international Domitor conference will be hosted by the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA), 30 May - 2 June 2006. Conference activities will take place in the auditorium and assembly hall of the Rackham Graduate School, lecture room B of the Modern Language Building, and the Michigan Theater (a restored 1928 palace cinema). 

The subject or theme of the conference will be the concept of the "national" or the "nation" and early cinema. This subject is of particular importance for early cinema because it encompasses a great number of different issues. If early cinema developed principally as an international phenomenon, for instance, when, where, how, and to what degree did it become "national" or "nationalized"? What conceptions of the nationalö in circulation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries became bound up with early cinema¦ for instance, how was the "national" aligned with (or against) European colonialism, American imperialism, and the phenomenon of oceanic migrations? Given the Atlantic pervasiveness of social Darwinism and eugenics, how did films racialize and gender national differences, for both ideological and commercial purposes? In what ways could specific practices - from production and distribution to exhibition, programming, and promotion - be characterized as "national"? In what ways were audiences "nationalized" (or not) through early cinema programming? How might certain emerging genres (e.g., westerns, historical films, comedies or comic series, mythologicals) be described as "national", or how might one or more genres reveal something particular about a "national" culture or its construction of identity? How might the "national" be figured in close textual analysis (including intertitles and sound accompaniment), or how might close textual analysis reveal something about a nationalö The subject or theme of identity? 

The conference will involve four days of individual presentations, roundtable discussions, and special screenings. Because Domitor is a bi-lingual organization (English and French), all presentations and discussions will be presented in one of the two languages and translated in the other. Several programs of films (including 35mm) will be screened during the conference. We welcome suggestions for particular film titles and/or events as part of those programs. 

If you have questions or wish further information, please e-mail Abel at richabel@umich.edu 
or send him a fax (in English or French) at 1-734-936-1846. 

Conference Program 

Please download a printable version of the program 
here (word)

All events are free and held in Rackham’s Amphitheater (4th floor), unless otherwise noted

Monday, May 29
8:00 pm: Multi-media show, “Our Empire” [1900], at the Michigan Theatre 
David Francis (US Library of Congress, retired); Frank Gray (U of Brighton)

Tuesday, May 30
9:00 am: Welcome and announcements
9:30 am: Early Cinema: National or Transnational?
Frank Gray (U of Brighton), “Our Navy and Animated Imperial Entertainment in 1900”
Ian Christie (Birkbeck College, U of London), “’By Jingo’: early patriotic entertainments with film”
Jonathan Auerbach (U of Maryland), “Nationalizing Attractions”
11:15 am: National Exhibition
Kaveh Askari (Wayne State U), “Media Aesthetics in the American Lyceum”
Paul Moore (Ryerson U), “Nationalist Film-going Without Canadian-made Films” 

1:45 pm: Early Cinema and Immigration/Assimilation
Marta Braun (Ryerson U), Charlie Keil (U of Toronto), “Living Canada: Image and National Short”
Marina Dahlquist (Göteborgs U/Stockholm U), “Teaching Citizenship via Celluloid” 
Giorgio Bertellini (U of Michigan), “Faces and Landscapes”
3:30 pm: Early Cinema and Regional vs. National Issues
Sheila Skaff (U of Texas-El Paso), “Early Cinema and ‘The Polish Question’”
John Welle (U of Notre Dame), “The Cinema Arrives in Italy: City, Region, Nation in Early Film Discourse”
Gwendolyn Waltz (Independent Scholar, Philadelphia), “Annexed Nation: The Tale of Assimilation Told by Silent Ramona”
8:00 pm: Screening of Nonfiction Films, at the Michigan Theatre
Bryony Dixon (National Film and Television Archive, London) selected Joye Collection films in color.
Nico de Klerk (Nederlands Filmmuseum, Amsterdam) selected Colonial Institute films, plus others

Wednesday, May 31
9:00 am: Early Cinema: National or Transnational?
Nico de Klerk (Nederlands Filmmuseum), “The Colonial Institute of the Netherlands” 
Joshua Yumibe (U of Chicago), “From Switzerland to Italy and All Around the World: The Joseph Joye and Davide Turconi Collections” 
Pelle Snickars (Swedish National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images), “Archival nationalism: the recycling of early cinema”
10:45 am: National nonfiction?
Wolfgang Fuhrmann (U of Kassel), “Film and Ethnography in Germany, 1900-1930"
Oliver Gaycken (Temple U), “The National Character of Popular Science Filmmaking”
Frank Kessler (U of Utrecht), “Representing the National in Early Non-Fiction”

1:30 pm: National Exhibition
Canan Balan (U of St. Andrews), “As the Train Arrives: Promotion and Reception of the First Films in Istanbul”
Gunnar Iverson (NTNU, Trondheim), “The Norwegian Municipal Cinema System and the Development of a National Cinema” 
Joseph Carncarz (U of Siegen), “The Emergence of a National Cinema in Germany, 1911-1914"
3:15 pm: Sound/Language in Early Cinema: National or Transnational?
Charles O’Brien (Carleton U), “Sound-on-disc cinema and electrification in Britain, Germany, and the USA, 1907-1910"
Germain Lacasse (U of Montréal), “Joseph Dumais et la langue du cinéma muet canadien français” 
Daniel Sánchez (Rey Juan Carlos U), “A National Voice? Spanish Lecturers and Their Attempt to Naturalize Films”
5:00 pm: Domitor General Assembly
8:00 pm: Screening of American and European Comic Series, at the Michigan Theatre

Thursday, June 1
9:00 am: Tour of Clements Library or of the Michigan Theatre (sign up required)
10:45 am: Genre: National or Transnational?
Matthew Solomon (CUNY-State Island), “Transnational Magic: Theatrical Orientalism and the Trick Film”
Amanda Keller (Indiana U), “Seeing the World by Staying at Home: Slapstick, Modernity, and American-ness ”
Rob King (U of Michigan), “‘A Purely American Product’: Tramp Comedy and White Working-Class Formation in the 1910s”

1:45 pm: Genre: National or Transnational?
Dominique Nasta and Muriel Andrin (Université libre de Bruxelles), “European Melodrama and World War I: Narrated Time and Historical Time as Reflections of National Identity”
Jacques Polet (U de Louvain), “Le réferent historique dans le cinema des premiers temps: entre affirmation nationale et stratégie d’expansion” 
3:00 pm: Gender: National or Transnational?
Andrea Haller (U of Trier), “Who is the ‘right’ star to adore? Nationality, masculinity, and the female audience in Germany during the First World War” 
Mark Hain (Indiana U), “‘Black Hair, Black Eyes, Black Heart: Theda Bara and Race Suicide Panic”
4:15 pm: Hollywood/national discourse
Wyatt Phillips (New York U), “The Material Preconditions of Genre Consciousness in American Silent Film and Subliterature.”
Jennifer Bean (U of Washington), “The Hollywood Imagination: ‘Movie-Land’ and the Magic Cities, 1914-1916" 
5:30 pm: Joseph Garncarz (U of Siegen), Ian Christie (Birkbeck College): exhibition database demonstrations
8:00 pm: Screening of National “Epics” and Sensational Melodramas, at the Michigan Theatre

Friday, June 2
9:30 am: Early Cinema as “Window on the World”
Tom Gunning (U of Chicago), “Early Cinema as Global Cinema”
Pierre Véronneau (U de Montréal), “Au-delà national: une filmographie en question”
Jane Gaines (Duke U), “All the Kingdoms of the World: Women’s Dreams of Technological Dominance”
11:15 am: Language in Early Cinema: National or Transnational?
Rudmer Canjels (U of Utrecht), “Localizing American Mysteries: Translating Daily Life”
Torey Liepa (New York U), “Mind-Reading/Mind-Speaking: The Emergence of the Linguistic Consciousness in American Silent Cinema”

1:45 pm: Early Cinema and Colonialism/Imperialism
David Mayer (U of Manchester), “Fights of Nations and national fights”
Panivong Norindr (U of Southern California), “Enrolling Early Cinema in the Service of the French Nation”
Greg Waller (Indiana U), “The Japanese Invasion, 1909-1915” 
3:30 pm: Concluding Roundtable Discussion 

Schedule of Screenings

Please download a printable version of the schedule of screenings
here (word)

List of Archives:
Australia National Film and Sound Archive
LoC Library of Congress
London National Film and Television Archive, UK
NFM Netherlands Film Museum

5/29:
Our Empire, 1900 (London)
(including Nelson, Modern Heroism, Boxer Rebellion, Boer War)

5/30: Travelogues
13 Colored French Films from the Joye Collection (London)
Boating on the Ardèche, Gaumont 1910 6 minutes
Pineapple Industry, Pathé 1910 6 minutes 
In the Land of Monkeys and Snakes, Pathé 1910 5 minutes
Making Butter in Normandy, Pathé 1910 5 minutes
In the Gulf of Salerno, Pathé 1909 5 minutes
The Lumber Industry in Australia, Pathé 1912 5 minutes
Glimpses of Bird Life, Pathé 1910 6 minutes
Japanese Festival, Pathé 1911 3 minutes
Children’s Floral Parade in Nice, Pathé 1911 3.5 minutes
Palmas in the Canary Islands, Gaumont 1910 3.5 minutes
Dynamite Fishing in the Solomon Islands, Pathé 1909 4 minutes
Picturesque Romania, Gaumont 1912 4 minutes
The Snail Industry, Gaumont 1911 3 minutes

Colonial Institute Films (NFM)
Arrival of a Mail Steamer at Tanjung Priok 5 minutes
Car Ride through Weltevreden 18 minutes
Trip Along the National Railways on Java 7 minutes
Native School of Veterinary Medicine at Bogor 7 minutes
Native Life in the Villages 8 minutes

Selected nonfiction (NFM)
Hydraulic Locks in Ontario, Butcher 1911 6 minutes
The Isle of Rhodes, Savoia 1912 4 minutes
Russian Turkestan, Gaumont 1913 5 minutes

5/31: Comedies
Fight of Nations, AM&B, 1906 5 minutes
Le Nez de Rigadin, Pathe 1911 (London) 8 minutes
Rosalie et Leontine vont au theatre, Pathé 1911 (London) 3 minutes 
Max Pedicure, Pathe 1914 (London) 15 minutes
Les epingles, Gaumont 1913 (NFM) 13 minutes
Bout-de-zan et le crime au telephone, Gaumont 1914 (NFM) 7 minutes
Fricot Soldato, Ambrosio 1913 (NFM) 6 minutes
Lea Bambola, Ambrosio 1913 (NFM) 6 minutes
Polidor ginnasta, Pasquali 1913 (NFM) 8 minutes 
The Riot, Keystone 1913 (London) 10 minutes
Bunny’s Dilemma, Vitagraph 1913 (LoC) 10 minutes
A Safe Investment, Vitagraph 1915 (LoC) 14 minutes
From Patches to Plenty, Keystone 1915 (LoC) 15 minutes


6/1: Epics/Melodramas
Ned Kelly, J.&N. Tait, 1906 (Australia) 2 minutes
The Fall of Troy, Itala, 1910 (NFM) 30 minutes
Le Courier de Lyon, SCAGL, 1911 (London) 30 minutes 
Indian Massacre, 101-Bison, 1912 (LoC) 25 minutes
Le Railway de la mort, Gaumont, 1912 (NFM) 25 minutes