October 14, 2009

SIUC to host Foreign Language Film Conference

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Third Annual Foreign Language Film Conference comes to Southern Illinois University Carbondale Oct. 22-24

The theme this year, “Bringing Walls Down,” observes the 20-year anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Many of the papers and presentations focus on walls and boundaries -- physical or not -- and also how historical realities have changed.

The keynote speaker is Anke Pinkert, an associate professor of German and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Pinkert is the author of “Film and Memory in East Germany.” Her research interest includes the Holocaust and post-German unification as represented in film. Her current project examines the role of popular movies in education Her address, “Creating Change Twenty Years after the Fall of the Wall: Autobiography, Film and Pedagogy,” is at 11 a.m. on Oct. 23 in the Student Center.

Students may register for the conference for a $40 fee, and faculty may register for $100. For more information, and for a complete conference schedule, visit http://languages.siuc.edu. To register, go to the Division of Continuing Education Web site at www.dce.siu.edu or call 618/536-7751.