LIZZIE THYNNE, filmmaker, writer and Senior Lecturer in Media and Film at the University of Sussex, talks to REFRAME Conversations about her theoretical and practice research into film biography (for the video version and further details please go to: http://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/conversations/archive2013/thynne/).

 

In REFRAME’s interview, as well as her earlier films Child of Mine (Channel Four Television, 1996) and Playing a Part: The Story of Claude Cahun (2004), and her written research on biographical and subjective filmmaking, Thynne talks about her recent experimental documentary On the Border (directed by Thynne, UK, 2013, 56 minutes), a daughter’s exploration of her Finnish family’s history prompted by the letters, objects, and photographs left in her mother’s apartment. Fragmented memories, dreams, and diary entries are juxtaposed with the director’s journey to significant places and people in that history from during and after the Russo-Finnish wars, 1939 – 1944. Her mother, Lea, and her siblings were evacuated from the disputed border territory of Karelia. Lea’s father was killed in 1941, fighting alongside the Germans against the Soviets. His death in action is contrasted with the more indirect impact of the war and its aftermath on the destinies of the remaining family. In this hypnotic work of mourning and remembrance, past and present, associations, memory and imagining intertwine, as the film charts the lingering traces of conflict and exile across generations.

On the Border was published, alongside a written research statement by Thynne and peer-review reports on the work, in the peer-reviewed journal SCREENWORKS, Vol. 4, 2013: http://jmpscreenworks.com/?pid=thynne. Thynne’s films for the SISTERHOOD AND AFTER: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project (British Library/University of Sussex) are online here: http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/sisterhood/about.html. Thynne’s chapter ‘The Space Between: Mothers and Daughters in Anne Trister’ first appeared in Tamsin Wilton (ed), Immortal Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image  (London: Routledge, 1995). For further details of Thynne’s other films and publications please go to: http://lizziethynne.co.uk

REFRAME VIDEO/AUDIO CREDITS:

    Video/Audio Production and Editing: RACHEL TAVERNOR
    Interview, Titles and Direction: CATHERINE GRANT

©2013 REFRAME (except for film clips from Thynne’s work which are used with her permission in this documentary; other film clips are used under ‘fair dealing’/'fair use’, for scholarly, critical and exemplary purposes only)

First published by REFRAME Conversations on October 7, 2013

REFRAME Conversations: Lizzie Thynne on Film Biography (October 2013)

The first in REFRAME's series of podcasts, a key part of our Open Access explorations in Digital First" media, film and music studies publishing.

Our first offering is an interview, which took place on September 26, with Rosalind Galt, author of PRETTY: Film and the Decorative Image (Columbia University Press, 2011). PRETTY has just won the inaugural award from the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies for the Best Book in 2011.

In this engaging and informative interview, Galt talks in detail about the research that led to her book, some of the filmmakers and critical theory that inspired her work, and where her research is going next. The interview is available in a video format (http://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/blog/2012/10/01/reframed-video-podcast-on-pretty) as well as the audio version. You are most welcome to embed it, and link to them, on your own websites. And you are very much encouraged to share it throughout your social networks. All the formats are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license.

REFRAME on PRETTY- Interview with ROSALIND GALT by Catherine Grant September 2012

REFRAME Seminar: "DÉCOUPAGE and Otto Preminger's CARMEN JONES" by Christian Keathley at the Centre for Visual Fields

The recording of a Film Studies research seminar given by Christian Keathley at the Centre for Visual Fields, University of Sussex, on December 4, 2013. (you can see a video version here: https://vimeo.com/56699861)

Keathley, Associate Professor of Film and Media Culture at Middlebury College, USA, is the author of CINEPHILIA AND HISTORY, OR THE WIND IN THE TREES (Indiana University Press, 2006), and is currently working on a second book, THE MYSTERY OF OTTO PREMINGER (under contract to Indiana University Press). Professor Keathley’s research interest also focuses on the presentation of academic scholarship in a multimedia format, including video essays (see his Vimeo account here: vimeo.com/user6973764).

For links to numerous examples of Keathley's scholarly work online, including items he mentions in this talk, please visit: filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/2012/11/to-cinephilia-and-beyond-christian.html.

Recording by Rachel Tavernor. Additional Editing by Catherine Grant. January 2013


REFRAME Research in Media