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The coordinators of the Chicago Film Seminar have taken the unusual step this year of organizing its yearly slate of speakers around a unified theme, taking Dudley Andrew's recent book What Cinema Is! as either a direct or an indirect point of departure. Here is a copy of the prompt distributed to the invited presenters: "In What Cinema Is! Bazin's Quest and Its Charge (Blackwell, 2010), Dudley Andrew posits classical cinema—fictional feature films made between 1938-1968—as the norm, not as a way of defending the canon for its own sake, but for the sake of defending 'an instinct of looking and listening' that developed out of long, critical engagement with that form of cinema. For Andrew, 'the legacy surrounding the feature film has caused the most heated and robust debates in film theory,' and if we are to cherish anything in a time of disciplinary upheaval, we should treasure the energy and focus behind those debates. Indeed, 'such debates...have ...

The organizers of the Chicago Film Seminar hope that this blog can achieve multiple purposes for the CFS: Announcing and profiling upcoming speakers Posting abstracts or summaries of CFS presentations Posting summaries of formal responses to talks Allowing for more sustained discussion of the content of these talks, or of other ongoing research projects, new books or articles, etc. Providing links to local film and media departments, resources, and special events Sustaining a communal conversation that encourages greater attendance at monthly talks Encouraging more forms of energetic involvement with the CFS, and ongoing discussions about its goals and prospects Please stay tuned as this blog develops. We look forward to seeing you in the comment threads, and at our 2010-11 presentations! In the Comments: As a new or a longstanding participant in CFS, what would you most like to see happen on this blog? How can it serve to enrich our Thursday night presentations and conversations, and...