Emerson to host University Film and Video Association conference

Emerson College is set to play host to the University Film and Video Association’s (UFVA) 2011 Conference later this week. Film and video practitioners and scholars from around the world will convene on campus August 3–8 to take part in panels, screenings, presentations, and workshops, all pertaining to the conference’s theme: the future of media education.

Conference highlights include a keynote address by Director of Academic Programs at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy Holly Willis; a presentation by the editor of the hit shows Mad Men and Lost Chris Nelson and the CEO of the digital media editing software company Avid Gary Greenfield; and exhibits of several conference participants’ works in the Huret & Spector Gallery in Emerson’s Tufte Performance and Production Center.

“The way that our students are learning is changing dramatically with online networks and our participatory culture,” said Willis. “The film industry itself is also changing and expanding way beyond theater and DVD.” Willis will delve into these issues in her speech as well as how these changes have “altered paradigms for teaching” in film and video programs and across other disciplines.

Emerson has hosted the University Film and Video Association annual conference once before, in 1999. The current University Film and Video Association president is Emerson Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts Robert Sabal.

“This is going to be great for Emerson,” said Jean Stawarz, conference host and associate professor of visual and media arts at Emerson. “When the University Film and Video Association was here in 1999, it really put Emerson on the map, and since then we’ve added so many great facilities for filmmakers.”

Founded in 1947 as the University Film Producers Association, the University Film and Video Association has developed into an organization of more than 1,000 professionals and institutions involved in the production and study of film, video, and other media arts. Today, the association is an international organization in which media production and writing meets the history, theory, and criticism of the media.

University Film and Video Association members are image-makers and artists, teachers and students, archivists and distributors, college departments, libraries, and manufacturers.