Filmmakers, critics convened for University Film and Video Association event
During the final week of July, Elaine Roth, professor of film studies and chair of the English department, took a group of graduate students to Augsburg University in Minneapolis for the annual conference of the University Film and Video Association. Roth and the students submitted proposals to IU South Bend to fund the trip, and the subsequent grant made the visit possible.
Roth observes that film conferences are usually devoted to either filmmaking or film criticism, but this one focuses equally on the auteurs and the analysts.
“One of the nice features of this conference is that both faculty who analyze media and those who make media participate, which is unusual. These populations are usually fairly distinct,” Roth says. “The combination results in a productive blend of perspectives and knowledge.”
The participants attended panels and presentations, as well as gaining invaluable experience by offering their own presentations as well.
Lillian Magers-Pershing will graduate in December as an English major with a History minor. As part of the English department’s 4+1 degree program, she is already accumulating credits towards her master’s in English. Magers-Pershing says that her background is analytical and critical, so it was enlightening to explore films from the filmmakers’ own perspectives.
“When a filmmaker was presenting a movie, we got to hear about making a film from a producer’s point of view, a director’s point of view, a writer’s point of view – all of these different people who come together to share an art,” Magers-Pershing says. “At a screenwriting panel, we got to sit in and read the parts and then talk about the screenplay, someone’s work-in-progress. It was great to look at something that’s not quite completed yet and get to see people’s thought processes as they’re writing.”
Jessie Jimenez (B.A. ’24, M.A. ’26) and Sahara Mackey (B.A. ’24, M.A. ’26) are both recent master’s recipients who are currently serving as visiting English lecturers this fall. Both of them note that the conference offered insights into critical theory but also practical discussions about the profession itself.
“Before I came to my cohort, I was always called crazy for the things I would say to my friends, but they just didn’t see what I saw,” Mackey says. “When you get to go to a conference, you get to see experts and graduate students presenting about topics that don’t fit into any box, and it’s not crazy. There’s no cap on what you can think or what questions you can ask.”
“It wasn’t just about analyzing film – there were panels discussing film education and education in general. We’re in a tenuous time and we’re not sure what the state of higher education is going to look like a couple of years from now,” Jimenez says. “It was a show of solidarity, a space where we could get together and say, ‘We’re educators and we’re in this together – how do we make the best out of what we have and help our students as well?’ It was a space for that, too.”
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