The aim of this project is to bring together a number of students and scholars from UC Berkeley whose work is concerned with issues of visual mimesis in film, new media and art and who are interested in sharing their own research and investigate communal workgrounds. Our hope is to better understand and promote the multi-faceted field of non-fiction film. Our calendar of events for the 2011/2012 academic year will be divided in two parts: in Fall 2011, we will meet on a bi-weekly basis to discuss a pre-established number of readings. Moreover, we will organize screenings of films collectively chosen, and we will analyze the theories and forms that have accompanied the emergence and development of non-fictional modes of representation in contemporary Western culture, with a specific focus on a comparative approach between American and European filmic traditions. In Spring 2012, we will continue our regular meetings, moving on to the study of avant-garde and experimental films, videoart and hybrid forms of non-fiction. At the end of each semester, we will organize guest lectures given by prominent scholars whose work has inspired and influenced our research in this field. Throughout the whole academic year, we will also organize and advertize a series of related screenings, open to the whole UCB academic community. We will encourage the participation of students and scholars from other departments who have an interest in film, as well as foster intellectual and productive ties with other Townsend Working Groups, such as the Visual Cultures and Graduate Film Groups and the Regional Oral History Office and School at the Bancroft Library.
