Screen Cultures at Filmforum Festival 2013
http://www.filmforumfestival.it/
Oliver Carter and John Mercer presenting in Gorizia March 2013
The Italian Filmforum Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and as usual has attracted an international audience of film scholars to the University of Udine to explore ideas around cinema and contemporary visual arts. The festival has always had a commitment to providing a venue for the discussion of emerging or marginal areas of debate including videogame studies, postcinema, film heritage and porn studies.
The programme for the festival can be found here:
http://www.filmforumfestival.it/?page_id=8
Since 2009 colleagues in the Screen Cultures team have been supporters of this festival and have presented at the annual Spring Schools superbly organized at the campus in Gorizia by the tireless Federico Zecca, Enrico Biasin and Giovanna Maina. This has become an important event for Screen Cultures colleagues as it’s an opportunity to meet up annually with scholars working in the same or similar fields and discuss plans for future collaborations.
This year, Oliver Carter and John Mercer have joined forces with Dr Sharif Mowlabocus from the University of Sussex, to present a panel on approaches to porn in the UK.
Oliver discussed a new piece of research that he is embarking upon that looks at the political economy of porn production in Britain during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In particular he focusses on the work of a selection of key industry players including Mike Freeman the owner of the notorious Videx.
John talked about his ongoing research into gay pornography and the challenges of writing about a topic that is not only controversial but also ephemeral and changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Following on from an excellent panel earlier in the week convened by Feona Attwood (Middlesex), Clarissa Smith (Sunderland) and the porn director Anna Span about UK porn, John’s presentation made some observations about what Britishness and the idea of Europe means for gay porn.
Sharif Mowlabocus presenting at Gorizia 2013
Sharif gave a presentation about a major piece of research into attitudes towards bareback sex within the gay community in East Sussex that he has conducted in conjunction with The Terrence Higgins Trust. More information about the Porn Laid Bare project can be found here:
http://www.pornlaidbare.co.uk/