Events

Zoom-In is a thesis showcase presented by the MA Film and Media Studies class of 2021. The fourth annual and aptly-named Zoom-In event  took place virtually on Zoom on February 4th and 5th. This year, the event included presentations, discussion panels, Q+As, and supplemental screenings. The program continued to investigate classical problems for our field (documentary, montage, adaptation) as well as issues emerging from today’s media ecologies. Topics included Venezuelan melodrama, Chinese crime cinema, Internet sovereignty, streaming services, Post-Soviet film, and more.

Full Schedule

Thursday, February 4, 2021

9:00 am: Opening Remarks for Day 1

Panel 1: New Media

9:15 am: July Xu

"Virtual Culture and How They Get There"

9:30 am: Joseph Fischer

"Traversing the Boundary of the Screen: Contextualizing lmmersive, Cinematic Environments in Theme Parks"

9:45 am: Paul Attard

"i did the digital dash: practices of experimental cinema artists at the turn of the 21st century"

10:00 am: Q+A

Panel 2: Internet

10:15 am: William Zhou

"From 'lnternetworking' to 'Splinternet': What Does Internet Sovereignty Mean for the Future of Internet?"

10:30 am: Emma Weeks

"Because You Watched: Exploring Netflix's Predictive Algorithm and Its Impact on Accessibility, Community, and Exhibition"

10:45 am: Madeleine Collier

"What's Inside?: The Scopic Regime of the End-User Society"

11:00 am: Q+A

Panel 3: Gender

11:15 am: Juan A. Ramirez

"Melodramas of Masculinity: Queerness and Gender in 21st Century Venezuelan Cinema"

11:30 am: Spandita Behera

"Hindi Cinema's Contemporary Heroine:The Post-postcolonial Mode, Abject Agency and The New Woman in Kahaani"

Recommended Screening: Kahaani (Netflix)

11:45 am: Violet Tang

"Contemporary Chinese Women's Struggle and Self-Liberation Will in Send Me to the Clouds (2019)"

Recommended Screening: Send Me to the Clouds (YouTube)

12:00 pm: Q+A

12:15 pm: Closing Remarks for Day 1

Friday, February 5, 2021

9:00 am:  Opening Remarks

Panel 1: National+ Post-National

9:15 am: Jing Peng

"The Participation of Chinese Cinema in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, 1950-1953"

Recommended Screening: To Resist America and Aid Korea (Bilibili)

9:30 am: Zoe Jiao

"Chinese Crime Genre in the 1990s: Struggle for a Golden Age"

Recommend Screening: Bloody Morning (YouTube)

9:45 am: Marissa Elaine C de Baca

"Ordinary Ruins: Tracing Mao's Socialist Utopian Vision in Zou Xueping's Trash Village"

10:00 am: Maria Teresa Fidalgo

"Through the Eyes of Whose Validation: The Universal or The National"

Recommended Screening: Amores Perras (Amazon Prime)

10:15 am: Kristen Santer

"Why Are East European Films So Damn Depressing? or What Does it Mean to Be 'Post'?: Investigating and Identifying the Postcolonial Mode in Post-Soviet Cinema"

Recommended Screening: Repentance (YouTube)

10:30 am:  Q + A

Panel 2: Aesthetics

10:45 am: Mark Ebbay

"Still-Birth and Philippine Cinema: On Colonialism, Subectivity and Abjecthoods"

11:00 am: Simone Dill

"I Can't Watch This Anymore: Meditations on Black Aesthetics" -

Recommended Screening: Queen & Slim (HBOMax)

11:30 am: Po Chen

"Application of Rhythm Theories in Cinemetrics: Visualizing Antonioni's Trilogy of Modernity and Discontent"

11:45 am: Jialin Zhang

"Blurring the Line Between Art and Pornography: A Reimagination of Japanese Pink Cinema"

Recommended Screening: Wet Woman in the Wild (Amazon Prime)

12:00 pm:  Q+A

12:15 pm:  Closing Remarks for Day 2