Millennium Film Journal #57: Call for Contributions
Violence & Artists’ Cinema
Deadline: December 15th 2012

Violence can be our greatest fear, or our greatest turn on.

Artists’ cinema allows viewers and practitioners to personally address and confront violence and the violent, from the Kuchars’ playing war games in the Catskills, to the undercurrents of violence in the work of Kenneth Anger or Mounir Fatmi; from Deborah Stratman’s meditation on the aggression of US border protection, to M. M. Serra’s investigation of self-mutilation as an art form. Deeper than subject matter, film, itself, can become a body and object of aggression and violence: consider the work of Paul Sharits. Or a cinematic work can attack its audience – wounding viewers on a visceral level.

How have the portrayals and enactments of violence in artists’ cinema been affected by the instability of borders, video games, drone attacks, the concept of terrorism, the embattled economy, and personal and public unrest brought on by economic instability? What roles does violence play in artists’ cinema? It is a catharsis, taboo or something else all together? Has this purpose changed as we’ve entered into the 21st century or does it touch on an age-old instinct?

We invite theorists, artists, technicians, historians and critics to contribute texts relating to these concepts and questions of violence in relation to artists’ cinema.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• In order to reserve a place in consideration, please submit a letter of inquiry including a one to two-page statement of your intentions by November 1st, 2012.

• All submissions should include a title and name of the author in the body of the document.

• Submit all texts in a double-spaced, .doc Word format.

• Reviews should range from 700-1000 words and address works released or exhibited within the last six months. Footnotes are not permitted in the review section.

• Usually articles are 10,000 words or less.

• If the work has been previously published, include this information, but we prefer original texts.

• Acceptance of texts for publication is entirely at the discretion of the editors.

• The final submission deadline for all completed works is December 15th 2012.

Submit electronically to editors Grahame Weinbren ([email protected]) and Jessica Ruffin ([email protected])