[csaa-forum] CFP - Special issue of Feminist Media Studies - Independent Women: From Film to Television

[Claire Perkins]

*CALL FOR PAPERS*



*Special Issue of Feminist Media Studies (**Vol. 19, No. 6, December 2019*
*)*

*Independent Women: From Film to Television*



Issue Guest Editors: Claire Perkins (Monash University) and Michele
Schreiber (Emory University)



Working in television has historically been considered ‘bread and butter’
labour for female filmmakers around the world. For decades, women have
taken on roles in the production, writing and direction of broadcast series
as a way of supporting their ‘real’ and hard-won work in feature
filmmaking, with these television jobs rarely considered part of their
professional profile by themselves or others. Insofar as it functions as
paid employment but is not seen or valued at a symbolic or material level
in the same way as the development of a film, this type of women’s
television work functions as a form of invisible labour. And, given that a
large majority of female filmmakers work primarily in spaces outside the
global channels that are constructed and understood as ‘mainstream’, this
mode of labouring has been especially recognisable in the career pathways
of women broadly identified with independent sectors of film production
around the world.



As we move toward the end of the twenty-first century’s second decade,
though, this narrative is undergoing a critical transformation. Radically
displaced from the cultural and technological profile that it developed
during the twentieth century, television is now regularly valued as the
preeminent screen art format of our age, with its once defining distinction
from cinema far less pronounced. At the same time, a change in the profile
of popular feminism in the contemporary era has led to the reanimation of
issues and discourses from earlier feminist movements, such as systemic
inequality, body politics and labour. And, relatedly, the issue of gender
equity in screen industries is in the spotlight, with renewed calls for
action from industry, government and celebrity organisations leading to
schemes that actively support women’s creative leadership in television
production.



In this environment, the work that female practitioners from the
independent sector undertake in and on television has taken on a wholly
different status and potential. In the Anglophone west, the critical logic
of ‘Peak TV’ is in large part founded upon a conception of the current
moment as a golden age for female-driven and female-focused content. As a
result, women such as Jane Campion (*Top of the Lake*), Ava DuVernay (*Queen
Sugar*), Lena Dunham (*Girls*) and Sharon Horgan (*Catastrophe*) are now
hailed as the visionary creators of their celebrated series, and the
historically negative role of the director-for-hire has become a type of
acclaimed cameo appearance for the numerous women who labour on multiple or
individual episodes of high profile series, including Lisa Cholodenko (*Olive
Kitteridge*, *The Slap*), Andrea Arnold (*Transparent*, *I Love Dick*), So
Yong Kim (*Queen Sugar*) and Susanne Bier (*The Night Manager*).



Many questions arise as a result of this shift. For instance, have these
programs increased the presence of imperfect female characters, with women
valued for their unlikeability, anger, vulnerability and precarity, rather
than traditionally feminine characteristics? Has the rise of digital
platforms allowed women practitioners to exercise more control and
singularity of vision than has been historically offered in traditional
television production? How is the global conception of independent
production shifting along with these industry paradigms?



This special issue interrogates this shift in women’s television work and
how it is being understood and valued globally. It aims to cast a
transnational perspective on the migration of female practitioners from
film to television, exploring how the industrial, textual and critical
logic of independence moves across formats in different contexts. How is
the profile of women’s television work changing around the world as a
result of this migration, even if women still hold only a small percentage
of the share of creative roles overall? How does this television work
connect to the revitalisation of the category of ‘women’s filmmaking’ in
academic screen studies and distinguished media circuits over the past
decade or so? How does the narrative of imperfect womanhood operate outside
the Anglophone west? And, ultimately, (how) are these changes impacting
upon the long-standing marginalisation of women in screen production?



Topics for consideration by both scholars and practitioners include, but
are not limited to:



·      the gender politics of television series driven by women from
independent film sectors around the world



·      the transnational reach and reception of content identified with the
narrative of ‘Peak TV’ that is driven by women from the independent sector



·      the historical and political significance of the invisible labour of
women from independent film sectors working in television



·      the impact of transnational digital television platforms around the
world upon the kinds of feminisms that female filmmakers from the
independent sector can engage and generate, and the politics of
independence that surround these (conglomerate) platforms



·      the strategies by which independent female filmmakers working in
television both promote and resist traditional auteur practices and
discourses



·      the potential of the category of ‘Indie TV’ for female filmmakers
and contemporary television feminisms



·      practitioner experience of moving from independent film to
television production



Please submit a 350-word abstract as well as a short (2-page) CV to Michele
Schreiber (mjschre at emory.edu) and Claire Perkins (claire.perkins at monash.edu)
by April 15, 2018. Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by
July 1, 2018 and asked to submit complete manuscripts by December 15, 2018.
Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication of the paper,
which will be subject to peer review.



*Aims and Scope *

Feminist Media Studies provides a transdisciplinary, transnational forum
for researchers pursuing feminist approaches to the field of media and
communication studies, with attention to the historical, philosophical,
cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions and analysis of sites
including print and electronic media, film and the arts, and new media
technologies. The journal invites contributions from feminist researchers
working across a range of disciplines and conceptual perspectives.



Feminist Media Studies offers a unique intellectual space bringing together
scholars,
professionals and activists from around the world to engage with feminist
issues and debates in media and communication. Its editorial board and
contributors reflect a commitment to the facilitation of international
dialogue among researchers, through attention to local, national and global
contexts for critical and empirical feminist media inquiry. When preparing
your paper, please click on the link ‘Instructions for Authors’ on the Feminist
Media Studies website (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rfms) which provides
guidance on paper length, referencing style, etc. When submitting your
paper, please do not follow the link ‘Submit Online’ as special issue
papers are handled directly via email with the special issue Editors.


-- 
Dr Claire Perkins

Senior Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies
Honours coordinator, School of Media, Film & Journalism

School of Media, Film & Journalism
Room B4.27a, Caulfield Campus
Monash University
Victoria 3145
AUSTRALIA

+61 3 9903 1239
claire.perkins at monash.edu

http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/claire-perkins/


New videographic essay
<http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/intransition/2017/09/07/dead-time>
for InTransition out now
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