The USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies and USC Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures announced the preliminary program for the upcoming centennial conference “Sergei Parajanov at One Hundred: Chimeras of Nation, Form, and Being” to take place from February 22 to 24 at USC.
This first of its kind conference will bring together scholars from around the world with the aim to examine the myriad border crossings and hybridities that characterize Parajanov’s life and oeuvre. The program will also feature screenings of Parajanov’s films with expert introductions and discussions.
This conference is co-sponsored by USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC Levan Institute for the Humanities, USC Department of Art History, USC Dornsife Divisional Dean for Humanities, USC Dornsife Divisional Dean for Social Sciences, USC Department of Political Science and International Relations, USC Center for International Studies, USC Cinema and Media Studies, USC Department of Comparative Literature, National Association for Armenian Studies Research, and Armenian Film Society.
Preliminary Program details:
Thursday, February 22:
- 5 p.m. – Reception, USC School of Cinematic Arts Lobby
- 7 p.m. – Introduction, Screening, and Discussion of “The Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme” and “Hakob Hovnatanyan,” Ray Stark Theater
Friday, February 23:
- Location: USC School of Cinematic Arts, SCI 108
- 11 to 11:15 a.m. – Welcome remarks
- Harsha Ram (UC Berkeley), “Between National and Social Liberation: The Legend of Surami Fortress from Daniel Chonkadze to Sergei Parajanov”
- Jacob Plagmann (Princeton), “A Matter of Life and Death: Transcending the Productivist Frame of Soviet Cinema in Parajanov’s ‘The Color of Pomegranates and The Legend of Suram Fortress’”
- Tigran Simyan (Yerevan State University), “Sergei Parajanov as a Man of the Georgian ‘Frontier’: the World of Things, the City, and Cinema”
- 1 to 2 p.m. – Lunch for participants
- Location: USC Ray Stark Theater
- 2 to 3:15 p.m. – Panel 2: Presence and Absence
- Daniel Bird (The Hamo Bek-Nazarov Project), “Towards a Cinemadaran: The Preservation and Restoration of Parajanov’s Filmography”
- James Steffen (Emory), “Another Water, a Different Script: The Outtakes for Sergei Parajanov’s ‘The Color of Pomegranates’”
- 3:15 to 3:30 p.m. – Coffee break
- 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. – Panel 3: Sensory Engagement
- Marie-Aude Baronian (University of Amsterdam), “A World of Cinemas: on Parajanov’s Language of Objects”
- Armand Tufenkian (UC San Diego), “Ornament and Repair in ‘Color of Pomegranates’”
- 4:45 to 5 p.m. – Coffee break
- 5 to 6 p.m. – Keynote
- Leah Feldman (University of Chicago), “Parajanov in Queer Times”
- 6 to 7:30 p.m. – Dinner for participants
- Location: USC Ray Stark Theater
- 7:30 to 8 p.m. – Introductory lecture
- Levon Abrahamian (National Academy of Sciences of Armenia), “Toward the Poetics of ‘The Color of Pomegranates’”
- 8 pm – Screening and Discussion of “Color of Pomegranates”
Saturday, February 24:
- Location: USC Ray Stark Theater
- 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. – Panel 4: Politics and Violence
- Anahit Mikayelyan (Sergei Parajanov Museum), “Ethnography of Prison According to Parajanov”
- Simon Garibyan (USC), “The Time to Live, the Time to Die: Necropoetics in the Early Cinema of Sergei Parajanov”
- Tetyana Dzyadevych (Grinnell College), “’Kyivan Frescos’: Bridging Past and Future. A Film Not Meant to Be”
- 2:15 to 2:30 p.m. – Coffee break
- 2:30 4:15 p.m. – Panel 5: Performance and Performativity
- Jānis Ozoliņš (Institute of Literature, Folklore, and Art of the University of Latvia), “Queer Genealogy of Archaic Modernism and Camp: Sergei Parajanov, Gunars Piesis, and Pier Paolo Pasolini”
- Aram Bajakian (University of British Columbia), “A Multitude of Soundtracks: Consent and the Aural Landscape of ‘The Color of Pomegranates’”
- Arpi Movsesian (University of Notre Dame), “Parajanov and the Sacred: The Sensual Play of a ‘Simple Buffoon’”
- 4:15 to 4:30 p.m. – Coffee break
- 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. – Keynote
- Olga Kim (Williams College), “Cinema on the Edge: Sergei Parajanov’s Collage and Tableau Aesthetics as Forms of History”
- 5:30 to 7 p.m. – Dinner for participants
- Location: USC Ray Stark Theater
- 7 p.m. – Introduction, Screening, and Discussion of “Ashik Kerib”
Please note this is a preliminary program and is subject to change. For questions, please email armenian@usc.edu
