The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema is pleased to present the Mary Ann Beckett-Baxter Memorial Lecture 2009-10:
Can we still think (with) images? Peut-on encore penser (avec) les images ?
Acclaimed filmmaker Rodrigue Jean, in conversation with film scholar and critic André Habib
Date: Friday, March 5, 2010
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: EV Building, 1515 Ste. Catherine Street West, Room EV 1.615
Free admission. Everyone welcome.
The event will be presented in both English and French.
Pre-lecture Screening with a special introduction by Rodrigue Jean and André Habib
Hommes à louer/Men for Sale (directed by Rodrigue Jean, 2009) Presentation in French, with English sub-titles * recently nominated for a 2010 Jutra Award for Best Documentary
Friday, March 5 2 to 5:30 p.m. Concordia University J.A. de Sève Cinema, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, LB 125
Presented with the generous support of the Mary Ann Beckett-Baxter Memorial Fund and sponsored by Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema's Film Studies MA Program and Dr. Thomas Waugh, Concordia University Research Chair in Documentary Film and in Sexual Representation.
***
Discussion
In an era of "digital reproduction", a boundless flow of images gives the appearance of endless and infinite possibilities of seeing. Behind this "democratic screen" which claims to show everything and represent everything, especially the worst, is outlined not only the shadow of a worn out meaning, but also the equivalence of all things presented in a diffuse totality devoid of politics. How then can we make images in a world that feeds off catastrophe? Biographies
Rodrigue Jean A writer, director and producer of dance, theatre, cinema, Rodrigue Jean has led a varied life. After studying biology, sociology and literature, he devoted himself to choreography before directing his first short-film "La Déroute" in 1989. He went on to film the documentary short film "La Voix des rivières" (Telefilm Canada Prize for best medium length Canadian film at FIFCA in Acadie) and "La Mémoire de l'eau," which won Best Script and Most Promising Director at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax. His next two feature length films garnered him public and critical acclaim: "Full Blast" (Special Jury Prize at Toronto Film Festival in 1998) and "Yellowknife" (critically acclaimed as best Québécois film of 2002). With "L'Extrême frontière" (2005), he paid homage to his birthplace, Acadie, devoting a documentary to the oeuvre of poet Gérald Leblanc. In 2006 the documentary, "Hommes à louer," he painted a fair portrait of male prostitution in Montréal. Rodrique Jean won the Best Feature Length Canadian Film prize at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival for his third feature film "Lost Song".
André Habib is Assistant Professor at the Department of Art History and Film Studies at Université de Montréal. After earning a Master degree in Film Studies at Concordia University with a thesis on Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema, he completed a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Montreal in 2008, with a thesis on the imaginary of the ruin. From 2002 until 2007 he was editor-in-chief of the journal Intermédialités and since 2002, he has held the position of editor at the online magazine Hors Champs. He co-edited, with Viva Paci, the collection Chris Marker et l'imprimerie du regard (L'Harmattan, coll. "Esthétiques," 2008), as well as a special issue of the semiotic journal Protée on the "Imaginary of the Ruin" (in collaboration with Richard Bégin et Bertrand Gervais). His research focuses on Iranian cinema, expanded cinema, and experimental cinema, as well as on cinephilia and melancholy.
