Announcements

Transparency of Sources of Funding and Waived APCs for Independent Scholars
After the end of the starting grant by the DFG we rely on grants and subsidies, including APCs. We are exploring this path encouraging all of you to work on a sustainable OA funding practice via institutions and universities in the humanities.
Due to recent questions concerning our funding model, we would like to name our financial sources. Apparatus Journal is an independent open-access journal, committed to transparency, also when it comes to funding: We have received support exclusively from universities and institutions in Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, Norway, the United States, and Switzerland.
We take pride in our ability to waive fees in many cases, especially when it comes to independent scholars. Please note that Apparatus open access publishing would not be possible without our volunteers, who deserve utmost respect, especially in the current era when decolonising our minds starts with a critical attitude towards names and toponyms.

  • Would you like support the Apparatus Open Access publishing community by buying a print copy of "Decolonising the (Post-)Soviet Screen"?

    11-09-2024

    Our first printed book, "Decolonising the (Post-)Soviet Screen", reevaluates the Soviet Union's cinematic legacy, highlighting complex identities and anti-colonial themes across Soviet and post-Soviet films.

    Read more about Would you like support the Apparatus Open Access publishing community by buying a print copy of "Decolonising the (Post-)Soviet Screen"?

  • January 2024 Newsletter

    06-01-2024

    Dear Readers and Authors,

    Happy New Year! As we continue our scholarly journey, we reflect on the ongoing war in Ukraine and reaffirm our commitment to unbiased, free exchange of knowledge in film and media studies.

    2023 Highlights

    • Publication of Issue No. 16: "The Haunted Medium II: Moving Images in the Russian Empire," edited by Rachel Morley, Natascha Drubek, Oksana Chefranova, and Denise J. Youngblood. Read more
    • Publication of Issue No. 17: "Decolonising the (Post-) Soviet Screen I," edited by Heleen Gerritsen.  Read more
    Read more about January 2024 Newsletter

  • Apparatus Newsletter 2022

    02-01-2023

    Dear Readers and Authors,

    The year 2022 was a particularly difficult one for our region. Russia’s war against Ukraine is entering its eleventh month.  Apparatus has continued its mission to be an unbiased scholarly forum dedicated to promoting the free and civil exchange of knowledge and ideas about film, media, and digital cultures in central and eastern Europe. We all hope that 2023 will bring peace to Ukraine!

    Publications

    We published two provocative issues in 2022.

    Read more about Apparatus Newsletter 2022

  • Vladimir Padunov (1947-2022)

    07-07-2022

    Вечная память

    Vladimir Padunov, long-time professor of Slavic languages and literatures and film studies at the University of Pittsburgh and member of the Apparatus editorial board, died on June 26, 2022, a few weeks after his 75th birthday.

    Volodya had been battling cancer for some time, so while his death did not come as a surprise, it was still a shock.  As his colleague and friend for 35 years, it’s hard for me to grasp that this brilliant, passionate, eccentric man is no longer with us. His contributions to Russian and Slavic film studies as a teacher, scholar, and curator are as legendary as his vast erudition and exacting intellectual standards. It’s well-known that Volodya did not suffer fools, but although he could sometimes be prickly, he was also kind-hearted and extraordinarily generous. To offer one small example of his generosity, Volodya’s unstinting support of my work early in my career, which included persuading the University of Texas Press to publish a second edition of my first book, made an enormous difference to me. Why did he bother? He received nothing in return (apart from my enduring gratitude), but this is who he was, a true original, настоящий человек.

    Vladimir Padunov will be sorely missed by his family (including his wife Nancy Condee and their children Kira and Nikolai), his many friends and colleagues around the world, and his legion of students past and present.

    Denise J. Youngblood
    University of Vermont

    Read more about Vladimir Padunov (1947-2022)

  • New issues 12-13

    07-01-2022

    Dear readers and authors of Apparatus! 

    We hope you all had a good start in the new year. Some maybe even had the opportunity to dance into 2022. The turn of the year gives us an opportunity to look back on 2021, which was quite eventful for both the Journal and our association DiGZ, e.V. which supports the journal.

    Brand new is the Berlin issue on Soviet Estrada and Pop Music under the title Putting the Empire to Music. The Phenomenon of Vocal-Instrumental Ensembles (VIA). No. 13 (2021), edited by Clemens Günther and Christiane Schäfer.

    The issue also includes an article by Patryk Babiracki which thematised the trips to Poland by the German-born photojournalist Lisa Larsen: “A Reframing of the 1950s: Poland and America through the Lens of Photojournalist Lisa Larsen”, 

    and a Video Lecture by Peter Bagrov and Anna Kovalova (in Russian) on Elizaveta Thiemann: “The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Elizaveta Thiemann, a Baroness Who Made Films, Played the Part of Alexandra L’vovna Tolstaia, Lived Fifty Years After Her Own Death, Died in Obscurity, But Came Back to Film History”.

    In April 2021 ​"Pandemic Cinema in Central and Eastern Europe" (ed. by Raoul Eshelman, Mario Slugan, and Denise J. Youngblood) was published. "Pandemic Cinema" was the first edited collection to discuss such films as a genre internationally. The four articles deal with productions from Central and Eastern Europe, namely Germany, Poland, and Russia. The texts were written and edited during the Corona pandemic in Australia, the UK, Germany, the USA, and the Netherlands. 

    In No. 12, we introduced a new journal section and genre – Review Article, which may extend to the length of a regular article. We would like to kindly invite everyone to contribute to this new section and bring this genre to life.

    In the summer, we upgraded our OJS software making the Journal more reader and citation friendly. However, we could not automatically transfer the “Object for Review” catalogue, and a manual transfer of book titles (with covers) exceeded our personal and financial capacities. 

    In Issue 13, we are introducing a new publication genre – Open Peer Review, Open Peer Commentary and Pre-Print, which should encourage a dialogue between colleagues in the field before the final version of a book is published. To this end, just a few days ago, we introduced a new Apparatus section – The Book Lab which includes excerpts from "Hidden Figures. Rewriting the History of Cinema in the Empire of All the Russias" by Natascha Drubek. Apparatus has published the introductory chapters of the first part and the conclusion of the book. The Book Lab contributions receive a DOI and can be cited as a pre-print. We welcome comments on this pre-print and plan to publish them in the form of an Open Peer Commentary. The first Open Peer Comment from Denise Youngblood has already been received. Anyone interested in participating in this laboratory is cordially invited to do so. Scholars at any stage of their career may contribute in the form of writing or commenting.

    Just before Christmas, we were notified that Apparatus has received the 2022 Manifold Grant. Among other recipients are: Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, Malaysian Institute of Art, Marbach Weimar Wolfenbüttel Research Association, Open Education Network and Public Books. This year-long grant will enable us to produce monographic publications in innovative ways. 

    We hope you enjoy reading about and listening to Soviet pop music and we wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year!

    The editors of Apparatus

    P.S. Donations to our association are possible and welcome since 2021, no matter how small or large. Should you be able to support our nonprofit association DiGZ (Gemeinnütziger Verein, Berlin) with a donation, you can use our account number at Postbank:

    "Digitalen Zugang zu Wissen demokratisch gestalten e.V." 

    DE44 1001 0010 0936 4201 06. 

    Tax residents in Germany can deduct their donations to tax-advantaged organisations in their tax returns as special expenses. Upon request, DiGZ will gladly issue a donation slip (only necessary for sums above 200).

    A big thanks to those who supported us in the past via Gofundme. It is still possible to donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-new-issue-of-open-access-journal-apparatus

    Read more about New issues 12-13

  • APPARATUS needs your support

    04-06-2021

    Go fund the special issue "Pandemic Cinema in Central and Eastern Europe" (ed. by Raoul Eshelman, Mario Slugan, and Denise J. Youngblood) in number 12 of the Open Access journal APPARATUS, the first edited collection to discuss such films as an international genre. The texts were written and edited during the Corona pandemic in Australia, the UK, Germany, the USA, and the Netherlands.

    Read more about APPARATUS needs your support

  • Call for Papers

    05-02-2021

    Special Issue of Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe, Spring 2022 

    The Haunted Medium: Moving Images in the Russian Empire

    Ed. by Oksana Chefranova, Natascha Drubek, and Rachel Morley

    Send proposal by 8 March 2021

    Read more about Call for Papers

  • Newsletter Issue 10-11 (2020)

    31-01-2021

    Dear colleagues, friends, and supporters of Apparatus,

    Looking back on 2020 from the (socially distanced) vantage point of the new year we’re delighted to share with you a recap of last year’s activities, when we published two issues of Apparatus, as usual, plus we introduced a new open-access format in HTML which we called Open Apparatus Books.

    In 2020, Apparatus celebrated the 5th anniversary and has been suggested to be included into the SCOPUS database.

    We were delighted that Denise Youngblood has joined our team as an editor. Irina Schulzki has in 2020 become the publishing director. Evgenia Trufanova is now the head of the Review Section. Another 2020 addition to our team was John-Thomas Eltringham, our new IT director...

    Read more about Newsletter Issue 10-11 (2020)

  • Vol. I des neuen Publikationsformats erschienen: OAB = Open Apparatus Books

    12-10-2020

    Am 9.10.20 ist der erste OAB-Band in der Reihe der OAB erschienen. OAB steht für das Buchformat OAB=Open Apparatus Books. Er trägt den Titel 

    Doing Performance Art History. Perspectives of Actors and Observers

    und besteht aus 24 HTMLs mit eigenen DOIs, von denen einige auch Videos der Künstlerinnen und Künstler enthalten.

    Read more about Vol. I des neuen Publikationsformats erschienen: OAB = Open Apparatus Books

  • Vol. I des neuen Publikationsformats erschienen: OAB = Open Apparatus Books

    10-10-2020

    On October, 9, 2020 the first volume in the new OAB series was published. OAB stands for a new book format Open Apparatus Books. It is entitled Doing Performance Art History. Perspectives of Actors and Observers and consists of 24 HTMLs, each with its own DOI. Some of the contributions also contain videos of the artists. Enjoy!

    Read more about Vol. I des neuen Publikationsformats erschienen: OAB = Open Apparatus Books

  • CfP for a Special Publication of Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe

    20-05-2020

    Pandemic Movies in Central and Eastern European Film and Television

    Guest edited by Raoul Eshelman, Mario Slugan, and Denise J. Youngblood

    Deadlines for abstracts: 19 June 2020

    Notifications of acceptance: 29 June 2020

    Deadlines for full articles:  2 October 2020 

    Read more about CfP for a Special Publication of Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe

  • New Special Issue published APPARATUS 8 (2019)

    10-09-2019
    The editorial team of the online journal Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe would like to draw your attention to the recently published Issue №8 (2019) co-edited by J. Alexander Bareis (Lund University) and Mario Slugan (Ghent University). The Special Issue titled Fiction in Central and Eastern European Theory and Practice tackles a topic poorly researched not only in our region of interest but in film theory more generally – the concept of fiction in embedded in the notions of fiction and non-fiction cinema alike. Contributors to the issue include J. Alexander Bareis, Mario Slugan, Natalija Majsova, Krunoslav Lučić, Aleksandar Bošković, and Enrico Terrone. Read more about New Special Issue published APPARATUS 8 (2019)

  • goEast – Festival des mittel- und osteuropäischen Films (10.-16. April 2019 in Wiesbaden)

    05-04-2019

    Das vom DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum veranstaltete goEast – Festival des mittel- und osteuropäischen Films findet vom 10.-16. April in Wiesbaden zum 19. Mal statt.

    Mit der Hommage ehrt goEast den Altmeister der polnischen Neuen Welle, Krzysztof Zanussi, mit einer umfangreichen Retrospektive. Das diesjährige Symposium beschäftigt sich unter dem Titel „Konstruktionen des Anderen. Roma und das Kino Mittel- und Osteuropas“ mit einem kontroversen Themenkomplex: Einerseits werden „Zigeuner“-Stereotype im Film, von der NS-Zeit bis Emir Kusturica, einer kritischen Revision unterzogen. Andererseits stehen Filme von Roma Filmschaffenden und die Lebenswelten der Roma in Mittel- und Osteuropa im Fokus. Gerahmt wird die Filmretrospektive von Vorträgen, welche die (film-)historischen, soziopolitischen und kulturellen Aspekte des Themenkomplexes kritisch unter die Lupe nehmen.

    Ein ganz besonderes Highlight ist 2019 auch die Deutschlandpremiere von Anniversary of the Revolution (Godovščina Revoljucii, UdSSR, 1918) des Dokumentarfilm-Pioniers Dziga Vertov.

    Das komplette Programm ist zu finden unter: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/de/programm

    Read more about goEast – Festival des mittel- und osteuropäischen Films (10.-16. April 2019 in Wiesbaden)

  • New Issue published APPARATUS 7 (2018)

    19-03-2019

    Apparatus Issue 7 continues the exploration between the "invisible" art of editing and the creative work of women editors in Russia and Eastern Europe, by widening its geographical and chronological scope to include historical and contemporary editing practices and case studies of women editors working in Central and Eastern Europe, who have influenced and continue to shape film form in national contexts and further afield. This issue includes contributions by Raluca Iacob, Anastasia Khodyreva, Daria Shembel, and Jelena Modrić, as well as Szilvia Ruszev's digital études, introducing a new section "Artistic Research", which aims to open up the realm of practice-led research.

    Issue No 7 >> Read more about New Issue published APPARATUS 7 (2018)

  • New Issue published APPARATUS 6 (2018)

    10-08-2018

    This special issue of Apparatus aims to reveal the invisible. Its methodology is to bring to light the influence of women on film form, their significance, their skills, and their expertisethrough their work as editors and beyond. By bringing together, for the first time ever, ideas and information about Ėsfir’ Shub, Elizaveta Svilova, Anna Pudovkina, Vera Popova, and Lilia Brik, under one cover, the issue lays the ground for new narratives of Soviet filmmaking, narratives that account for the essential creative work of women in bringing films and theories into being.

    Issue No 6 >>

     

    Read more about New Issue published APPARATUS 6 (2018)

  • Film Lesen: DER STRENGE JÜNGLING (Sowjetunion, 1936)

    17-04-2018

    18. April 2018, 19.00 Uhr
    Filmmuseum Potsdam

    GÄSTE
    Dr. Natascha Drubek
    Herausgeberin Apparatus
    Irina Schulzki
    Redakteurin Apparatus

    MODERATORIN
    Prof. Dr. Ursula von Keitz
    Filmmuseum Potsdam/
    Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF

    http://www.filmmuseum-potsdam.de/index.php?id=62e306027d7115aa8148001d907f4db1&year=2018&month=4

    https://www.facebook.com/events/212173076208252/

    Read more about Film Lesen: DER STRENGE JÜNGLING (Sowjetunion, 1936)

  • Call for papers for the themed issue: Fiction in Central and Eastern European Film Theory and Practice

    23-01-2018

    Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe

     

    Call for papers for the themed issue

     

    Fiction in Central and Eastern European Film Theory and Practice

     

    Guest edited by Alexander Bareis and Mario Slugan

     

    There is a rich theory of fiction in Central and Eastern European thought ranging from the concept’s relation to epistemology (Hans Vaihinger) and literature (Käte Hamburger) to the more recent developments in narratology (Monika Fludernik), fictional worlds theories (Lubomír Doležel) and psychoanalysis (Slavoj Žižek). Although applied to a range of media and domains other than literature, it is the communication model derived from the analysis of literary fiction that still dominates theorising about fiction. The popular idea in Anglo-Saxon analytical philosophy that fiction is not necessarily best described as a mode of communication, but rather as a complex, rule-based game of imagination in the fashion of children playing with their toys as props (Walton Kendall) has had little currency in the region. When it comes to film, moreover, even though the privileged domain of film theory has been fiction film, theorists have rarely contemplated how the very nature of fiction informs their theories. Béla Bálazs famously maintained that the content of film images lives in the present. But how can we have a temporal relation to fictional worlds depicted on screen to begin with? Soviet film theorists and filmmakers theorised and exploited the ability to produce specific affects in the audience. But they left the paradox of fiction unanswered: how can fictive entities cause actual emotions in audiences? In the case of film history, finally, the categories of fiction and non-fiction have been taken for granted with Méliès’ trick-films exemplifying the former and the Lumière brothers’ actualities the latter. When it comes to fiction/non-fiction dichotomy Siegfried Kracauer’s verdict remains the common wisdom: “The films they [Lumière and Méliès] made embody, so to speak, thesis and antithesis in a Hegelian sense” (1960, 30). But why not treat The Arrival of a Train as a short fiction about a train arriving at the station and A Trip to the Moon as a documentary recording (with a lot of substitution splicing) of actors playing on a theatre set? The fiction / non-fiction divide in film studies needs to be addressed both theoretically and case-specific, incorporating new theoretical approaches from different fields.

    Therefore, this special issue of Apparatus invites contributions to theorising film fiction as well as analysing the way Central and Eastern European filmmakers and theorists have engaged fiction. Topics may include but are not limited to:

    -       what is fiction film? How do we distinguish it from non-fiction?

    -       theories of fiction and its relation to cinema (Vaihinger, Hamburger, Fludernik, Žižek, Doležel, Iurii Lotman, etc.)

    -       potential for cross-fertilization with Anglo-Saxon theories of fiction (Kendall Walton, Gregory Currie, etc.)

    -       the importance of fiction for film theory and history (Bálazs, Kracauer, etc.),

    -       fictionalization of historical events in Soviet filmmakers (Sergei Eizenshtein, Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, etc.)?

    -       the relation of authenticity to fiction (Czech new wave, Yugoslav black wave, Romanian new wave, Russian new authenticity, etc.)

    -       the relationship of documentary and fiction filmmaking in an auteur’s oeuvre (Krzysztof Kieślowski, Werner Herzog, Ulrich Seidl, etc.)

    -       fiction/non-fiction hybridity throughout the history of cinema (docudramas, reenactments, fake newsreels, Hale’s tours, etc.)

    The Special Issue of Apparatus is scheduled for publication in Spring 2019.

    In the first instance, please send abstracts of 300 to 500 words, together with the title, up to 5 references, a short bio, contact details and institutional affiliation to the guest editors of the Special Issue of Apparatus – Alexander Bareis (alexander.bareis@tyska.lu.se) and Mario Slugan (mario.slugan@ugent.be) – for initial selection. Although for this themed issue we prefer abstracts in either English or German, in line with the Apparatus policy to publishes articles in all of the languages of Central and Eastern Europe abstracts in other languages of the region will also be considered. Selected articles will undergo an editorial and double-blind peer reviewed process before final acceptance.

    Deadlines for abstracts: 30 March 2018

    Notifications of acceptance: 27 April 2018

    Deadlines for full articles:  28 September 2018

    Read more about Call for papers for the themed issue: Fiction in Central and Eastern European Film Theory and Practice

  • Call for Papers for themed issue Revealing the Invisible: Women and Editing in Central and Eastern European Film

    16-08-2017
    Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe:Call for papers for the themed issue

    Revealing the Invisible: Women and Editing in Central and Eastern European Film

    Guest edited by Adelheid Heftberger and Karen Pearlman

     

    Women have been a vital part of film production since its beginning. However, their history in all its richness has not been adequately studied.[i] This themed issue of Apparatus - Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe, scheduled for spring 2018, will focus on women’s creative work, particularly in a significantly under-theorised aspect of film: editing.

     

    Editors are regularly ascribed characteristics that align with invisibility. Mary Lampson (editor of films by Emile de Antonio and Barbara Kopple) for example, says, echoing many editors’ descriptions of themselves: “Many good editors are sort of introverted, shy people, observers of life.”[ii] Their sense of rhythm has been frequently praised, and of course the patience it needs to work through abundant material and interact with directors and other members of the production team. These industry standard descriptions raise questions: are these traits gendered (in fact or in perception)? Are they less valorised than the qualities ascribed to (usually male) directors? Are sense of rhythm and structure, and skills of observation being insufficiently recognised as significant creative contributions in the evaluation of films? Are the products of editing processes, which are coherent and compelling structures, rhythms, and styles in the movement of story, emotion, image and sound[iii], being overlooked in the evaluation of film due to truisms about their ‘invisibility’?

     

    Is there a connection between the under-theorising of editing and the under-theorisation of women in film production? Editing is often described as the ‘invisible art’. Co-editor of this themed issue Karen Pearlman has proposed that good editing is not invisible, and to describe it as invisible is an industrial issue for editors who are also relegated to invisibility.[iv] Invisibility of women has been noted as a significant issue in disciplines of history, art and art history. Given that editing is one of the very few areas of film production that is even close to gender parity in employment, and that many classic films having been crafted by female editors,[v] the question arises: is there a relationship between the historical invisibilities of women and editors?

     

    Soviet montage is one kind of editing which stands out in opposition to ‘invisibility’. It is highly visible, and some of the female editors of the Soviet Montage period are relatively well known still (for example Esfir’ Shub or Dziga Vertov’s collaborator and wife Elizaveta Svilova).[vi] However others have been more or less forgotten (like Vera Khanzhonkova, the wife of the early film producer Aleksandr Khanzhonkov). We know from commentaries of their contemporaries that these women were respected as editors in their time. For example, in Sergey Yutkevich’s and Aleksandr Levshin’s scenario “A Film About Films”[vii], which never got made, these three women were meant to feature as prime examples for creating innovative editing. It is also worth mentioning that both Shub and Svilova were working mostly on documentary films and even mostly with found footage. But even the “screen visibility” Yutkevich and Levshin were prepared to give to female editors, would not necessarily mean clearer understanding of the process as a whole, their collaborations with their colleagues and their degree of independence.

     

    Visibility can - in Russia but arguably Central and Eastern Europe as a whole - also be understood as a language problem. Even though, for example, Shub left a substantial amount of writings, these writings have not been translated and thus have not been given serious research attention internationally. Language issues extend beyond simple translation issues though. For example, there is a question of how to read between the lines of the writing of Soviet women editors when they may have been writing with the knowledge that their words could be scrutinised by government censors. Significant questions also arise when we consider the kinds of writing and words that women use about themselves and their work. For example, in Red Women on the Silver Screen (1993), Lynne Attwood writes about a Stalin Era women’s conference at which "delegates related the heroic feats of their husbands and discussed what they had done to help". By positioning themselves as helpers, rather than agents and credited creative collaborators, women add to their invisibility. Similarly editors commonly use language that draws a veil around editing processes with words like “instinctive” and “magic”[viii].

     

    Interviews with editors or editors own biographical and experiential accounts are highly relevant to the inquiries of this journal issue but they rarely explicitly address concepts, context and methodology. One disciplinary area currently engaging with the question of academic articulation of editing expertise is cognitive studies of the moving image.[ix] Finally, there is the language used in evaluating films or the processes of making them. Here the language generally positions the director as the decision maker about editing, when in fact, thousands of decisions are made by the editor before showing the director one decision to ratify. The editor makes many creative contributions through their embodied expertise and it would be incorrect to suggest that “the editor functions as a pair of hands rather than as a thinker in the editing process. ... editing is an instance of integrated cognition and action.”[x] Is attributing editing decisions to directors an entrenched systematic erasure of editor’s visibility?

     

    How can unearthing the involvement of female collaboration, specifically editing, in film production change the way we write film history and regard the film canon? How much do we actually know about the presence of female editors in Polish Post-war cinema, Czech New Wave or DEFA-films, just to name a few famous currents within Central and Eastern European Cinema?

     

    How do we have to change our research methods in order to achieve a valid “big data” basis if we need it for our research? How can film archives and/or online knowledge bases support and contribute such research? What are the possible advantages of computer aided tools and how can the data be interpreted in a meaningful way for the investigation into the proposed topic(s)?

     

    In addition to a contribution to film historiography and uncovering archival sources which might shed light on female editors, there are many other possible topics which can be addressed:

    • Women and the history of editing
    • Critical evaluations of editing
    • Editing and authorship
    • Women editors in Central and Eastern European film industries (past and present)
    • Creativity in film editing
    • Historical and contemporary understanding of the difference between a ‘cutter’ (who assembles footage according to instructions) and an ‘editor’ who makes creative contributions and decisions
    • Power structures built into the positioning of women and the crew roles of editing, including, for example, questions of pay, authority, collaboration and credit
    • Particular partnerships and distinctive aspects of these partnership’s creative output
    • Backgrounds and training of editors
    • Women in the Soviet montage era and other contexts as editors, mentors, editor/directors, key thinkers
    • Representation (or not) of women, and of editors in national filmographies and narratives
    • Influence of editors in documentary film, studio style and auteur cinema in different countries / in film history
    • Editing and how rhythm, structure or film style are shaped, shared and perceived
    • Investigations of ideas about what is ‘women’s work’ including, for example stencil coloring, cutting and, recently, digital restoration or typical “female” jobs like knitting, sewing, typing or switchboard operators
    • film historical research, into how editors present themselves, in self-images, how they are described or assessed by others, and how their image developed
    • Other relevant questions and topics welcome

     

    Abstracts (200-350 words) and a short biography should be submitted to Adelheid Heftberger (a.heftberger@zem-brandenburg.de) and Karen Pearlman (karen.pearlman@mq.edu.au) by October 10, 2017 for consideration by the editors. For this themed issue we prefer abstracts in English, but Apparatus generally publishes articles in all of the languages of the region always accompanied by abstracts in English, German and Russian.

     

    Selected articles will undergo an editorial and double blind peer reviewed process before final acceptance.

      

     Editor Lilia Brik in 1928

     

    Deadline for abstracts: 10 October 2017

     

    Notification of acceptance: 10 November 2017

     

    Deadline for full articles: 10 February 2018

     

     


    [i] See Leigh, Michele. 2015. “Reading between the Lines: History and the Studio Owner’s Wife.” In Doing Women’s Film History. Reframing Cinemas, Past and Future, edited by Christine Gledhill, and Julia Knight. Urbana.

    [ii] See Anderson, John. 2012. “The ‘Invisible Art’: A Woman’s Touch Behind the Scenes”. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/movies/kim-roberts-kate-amend-and-other-female-film-editors.html.

    [iii] See Pearlman, Karen. 2015. Cutting Rhythms, Intuitive Film Editing. New York; London.

    [iv] Ibid.

    [v] See Cousins, Mark. 2016. “Scissor Sisters”. http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/scissor-sisters, and Galvao, S. 2015. “‘A Tedious Job’ – Women and Film Editing”. http://critics-associated.com/a-tedious-job-women-and-film-editing/.

    [vi] See Kukulin, Il’ia. 2015. Mashiny zashumevshego vremeni: kak sovetskii montazh stal metodom neoficial’noi kul’tury. Moscow.

    [vii] See Yutkevich, Sergey, and Levshin, Aleksandr. 1985. “Fil’ma o fil’me”. In Iz istorii kino. Dokumenty i materialy 11. 23–25, Moscow.

    [viii] See Oldham, Gabriella. 1992. First Cut, Conversations with film editors. Berkeley; Los Angeles.

    [ix] See for example: Pearlman, Karen. 2015. Cutting Rhythms, Intuitive Film Editing. New York; London; Pearlman, Karen.  2017. “Editing and Cognition Beyond Continuity.” Projections, Journal of Movies and Mind; Pearlman, Karen. 2018. “Documentary Editing and Distributed Cognition.” In A Cognitive Approach to Documentary Film, edited by Catalin Brylla & M. Kramer, Basingstoke; Smith, Tim J. 2012. “The Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity”, Projections Journal of Movies and Mind.

    [x] See Pearlman, 2018.

    Read more about Call for Papers for themed issue Revealing the Invisible: Women and Editing in Central and Eastern European Film

  • Updates on Issue 4 and contributions for 18/19

    12-08-2017

    Dear friends,

    We are delighted to announce a new section – SOURCES, which launched in May 2017. The section contains filmographies, bibliographies and other source materials.

    Issue 4 (published in June 2017) covers a range of topics. It contains articles on the reception and censorship of early cinema in Russia/the USSR, and essays on recent Polish, Romanian and Russian film productions addressing questions of authenticity in cinema. For the first time in Apparatus, we publish an interview, with Russian filmmaker and scriptwriter Natalia Meshchaninova who also made the photo on our home page:

    http://www.apparatusjournal.net/index.php/apparatus/issue/view/6

    We currently welcome contributions for issues to be published in 2018/19. We would appreciate if you could submit an abstract beforehand.

    Your Apparatus team: Natascha Drubek, Irina Schulzki, Adelheid Heftberger, Mario Slugan, John Leman Riley, Maria Oprea, Alisa Rethy, and Theo Kraus


    Read more about Updates on Issue 4 and contributions for 18/19

  • The JDC Archives Documentary Film Grant competition open!

    10-01-2017

    The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is accepting applications for the JDC Archives Documentary Film Grant. The $10,000 grant is for post-production and/or distribution costs of a documentary film which draws on the JDC archival collections (http://archives.jdc.org). Applications are due by February 15, 2017. Vist http://archives.jdc.org/about-us/fellowships.html for further information.

    Read more about The JDC Archives Documentary Film Grant competition open!

  • Wikimedia Fellow Program "Freies Wissen" awarded to an Apparatus Project

    29-10-2016

    Adelheid Heftberger, editor of Apparatus, has been awarded a Fellowship from the Wikimedia Foundation Germany. In her project "Enhanced publications: Filmographic Data as Linked Open Data and the Implementation of Audiovisual Media" she will focus on the integration of video content within Open Access publications. Adelheid will explore different video standards and e-publishing formats and will investigate both the technical challenges as well as issues related to rights management. At Apparatus we take Open Access and Open Science seriously and therefore are happy to support the project. 

    https://wikimedia.de/wiki/BildungWissenschaftKultur/Fellowprogramm/Fellows

    Read more about Wikimedia Fellow Program "Freies Wissen" awarded to an Apparatus Project