CALL FOR PAPERS

Declarations of Independence: Belonging and Subversion in Independent Film and Media

An area of multiple panels for the 2018 Film & History Conference:

Citizenship and Sociopathy in Film, Television, and New Media

November 7-11, 2018

Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club, Madison, WI (USA)

Full details at:

DEADLINE for abstracts: June 1, 2018

If the mainstream film and media industries are communities united by collective standards and established protocols, independent film and media makers trouble these bonds through attacks onaesthetic conventions, industrial practices, and norms of on-screen representation. The entrenched “citizens” of the dominant system exist in tension with these outsiders whose interventions can be deemed either the clarion call of the insurgent or the irrational, even “sociopathic,” ravings of the interloper.At the same time, ever-shifting boundaries between the mainstream and independent realms complicatewhether a text, individual, or institution can so easily rest on either side of this seeming dichotomy.

This area asks presenters to consider the utility of the insider/outsider binaries that so often structure conceptions of independent film and media. How do independent texts, producers, distributors, exhibitors, and audiences mount challenges to normative ideas and institutions within the film and media world? Why are certain “disruptive” visions incorporated into the industrial and social mainstream while others remain beyond its reach?

Possible topics include:

  • On-screen representations of citizenship and its vicissitudes
  • The figure of the sociopath in independent film and media
  • Independent institutions as alternative models of belonging
  • Industrial rhetoric surrounding outsiders and independence
  • Negotiating citizenship and belonging within independent institutions
  • Dual citizenship: crossing the independent/mainstream “divide”
  • Pledging allegiances: audiences and fandom for independent film and media
  • The artist as sociopath: constructing outsider identities and personas

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, visit the Film & History website (

Please e-mail your 200-word proposal to the area chair:

Matt Connolly

University of Wisconsin-Madison