Organized by Interfilm – SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication) – WACC (World Association for Christian Communicationwith support from Studies in World Christianity and the Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik (GEP)
Conference website: http:/www2.div.ed.ac.uk/research/film07
This is the fourth international ecumenical film conference, following on from meetings in Mannheim (Germany), Iasi (Romania), and Crete. At these meetings a wide range of films were considered, and placed in their cultural, historical and religious backgrounds. The conference program will be structured around short papers, showcases, presentations, workshops, discussions, daily screenings and informal conversations. Delegates will also be invited to a reception to mark the publication of The Film and Religion Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2007) edited by Jolyon Mitchell and S. Brent Plate. The key questions to be addressed at this conference include: How is the move from conflict to reconciliation depicted cinematically in different cultural contexts? To what extent can violence or conflict in films help to promote peace? Why is peacemaking so rarely explored in film? How and why do some film-makers express the cry for peace? How do audiences interact with films which portray the move from conflict to reconciliation? What kinds of solutions are offered in cinema to a variety of social, political or religious conflicts? How far do cinematic portrayals of peacemaking differ from traditional theological or religious understandings of how reconciliation can be achieved?