The Conference, AFEA

So, I got horribly lost, it started to rain and I walked tons of kilometers out of my way before I found the right building.

This was not the right building.

But eventually I was directed to this one and was unfortunately a little late to the keynote address.

The speech was fascinating - given by Nelson Lichtenstein of UCSB on "The Vertically Integrated Corporation as Model and Measure for a Socially Responsible Capitalism: Towards a Wal-mart World Order?"

I'm not sure he convinced me, but it was an interesting argument that  early Capitalism at least was forced legally to take care of workers and stand behind its products whereas current practices by being outsourced allow corporations to avoid both legal responsibilities and worker organization. The panel was conducted admirably by Prof Donna Kesselman from University Paris-Est Creteil.

 

Our panel started to assemble for lunch. I had a genuine Boeuf Bourguignon  with potatoes and a lovely Crème brûlée for dessert.

Here are our two panel organizers at lunch.

Since our panel was the second afternoon time slot I went to an earlier panel on race-consciousness versus colorblindness. I think this is Marion Pulce presenting below.

Olivier Richomme both conducted the panel as well as presenting on the "Racial Politics of Impasse."

In the mean time Katti needed to get some copies made so we got to see a bit of the inside of the Sorbonne. I loved the sign on the copy machine.

 

It asks that people not brutalize the copy machine.

Then it was time for our session. It started off with Andreas presenting on "Kickass and the disappearance of cinematic auteurship."

 

He wins the prize for being the most photogenic of our group!

 There were a few technical issues, but our valiant leaders got everything ironed out and we were off and running.

The second presentation was by me actually. I described the ways that Joss Whedon had influenced the Avengers film and the way that he used the figures to comment about the strengths and weaknesses of American culture.

Our third presenter was Silvain. Honestly I was so nervous after my talk that I forgot to photograph him, but I'm stealing this shot from later.

Sylvain talked about Costume and Superheroes, examining the increase of rigid armoring in costumes after the 9-11 attacks. I agree wholeheartedly in his discussion of Iron Man and the first two Dark Knight films, but I actually think the third one eases off and returns to valuing of the softer human tissue - that the last film emphasizes the weakness and mortality of the human body, but  only this way are we also susceptible to love.

I don't really know when this picture was taken, but we are all so serious here!


Katti came next with her presentation on Hunger Games, Divergent and Black Widow.

Here she makes a point about the second Hunger Games film and how the roles of women are improving in media savvy as well as capability.

 

 Our final presenter was Aurelie. Every picture I took of her was either blurry or she had a goofy expression on her face, so alas I have no good photo of an interesting presentation on Dexter and the hybrid hero/antihero. I feel terrible that I missed getting a good photo of her and Silvain.

Clementine was on top of everything and had gotten us a reservation at a wonderful French restaurant. There were two set menus but each offered choices and it was very hard to decide.

 

It was a wonderful experience and gave the Film and History people a chance to reunite again. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't too great in the restaurant, so the pictures don't do the people justice.

 Janet would present on True Blood and American Horror Story the next day and Karen just came in to give everyone morale support.

 

 

You can see we had a real good time!

I don't know who the hag is on the left, but doesn't Janet look pretty (That's why this shot ends the blog for this day.