James M. Steffen
| Film Studies and Media Librarian Robert W. Woodruff Library Emory University Atlanta, GA 30322 Phone: (404) 727-8107 jsteffe@emory.edu www.jamesmsteffen.net |
Home address available upon request |
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, 2005, Emory University. Certificate in Film Studies.
M.A., Film Studies, 1995, Emory University. Thesis: “Contested Territories: Transcaucasian History and Culture in the Films of Sergei Parajanov.” Director: David Cook.
B.A., 1991, Liberal Arts (English major), University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
DISSERTATION
“A Cardiogram of the Time: Sergei Parajanov and the Politics of Nationality and Aesthetics in the Soviet Union.” Committee: David Cook (Director, Film Studies), Angelika Bammer (Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts), Matthew Payne (History) and Karla Oeler (Film Studies).
The dissertation examines the figure of Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990), one of the leading post-WWII Soviet film directors, in terms of the political implications of nationality and aesthetics in his biography and creative output. The controversies surrounding Parajanov’s reception as a cultural figure in the USSR reflect underlying tensions and contradictions within the multinational Soviet state.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Film Studies and Media Librarian, Woodruff Library, Emory University. 2006 – present. Subject liaison to Film Studies, Theater and Dance.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Film Studies Department, Emory University, 2005-6.
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Currently revising dissertation on Parajanov for submission as a book manuscript.
“The Poetry of Objects: Sergei Parajanov’s Collage Aesthetic” and “Sergei Parajanov: a biographical sketch.” Sergei Parajanov, Off Camera: Collages, Assemblages, and Objects. Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 2003. (Exhibition catalog.)
Guest Editor, special issue on Sergei Parajanov, Armenian Review vols. 47/48, nos. 3-4/1-2 (2001/2).
“From Sayat-Nova to The Color of Pomegranates: notes on the production and censorship of Parajanov’s film” and Appendix of translated documents. Armenian Review vols. 47/48, nos. 3-4/1-2 (2001/2): 105-185.
Book review of Sergei Parajanov, Seven Visions. Film Quarterly vol. 54, no. 1 (Fall 2000): 60-61.
“Parajanov’s Playful Poetics: On the ‘Director’s Cut’ of The Color of Pomegranates.” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 47, no. 4 (Winter 1995-96): 17-33.
CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
Discussant for panel: “Sexuality, Identity, Ideology” at conference: Screened Sexuality:
Desire in Russian, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Cinema. Columbia University, October 10 – 11, 2008.
“The Color of Pomegranates: the film that might have been.” Conference paper delivered at symposium, The Cinema of Sergei Paradjanov, Harvard University, November 2007.
“Video Acquisitions: the state of the art.” Panelist at the American Library Association midwinter convention, Seattle, January 2007.
“Film Style and the mythic past in Soviet poetic cinema.” Conference paper delivered at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Toronto, November 2003. Also organized panel on “Soviet Poetic Cinema” and chaired panel on “Soviet Montage Theory Revisited.”
“Parajanov and the problem of Ukrainian nationalism.” Conference paper delivered at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Pittsburgh, November 2002.
“Kiev Frescoes: Sergei Parajanov’s unrealized film project.” Conference paper delivered at the annual convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association, Toronto, April 2002.
PUBLIC LECTURES
Post-screening lecture and discussion on Alexandria, Why? (dir. Youssef Chahine,1979). Middle East Film Festival, Georgia State University, March 2008. (With Ahmed Abdel Meguid.)
“The Color of Pomegranates: the film that might have been.” (Expanded version of Harvard symposium paper.) Russian and East European Studies (REES), Emory University, November, 2007.
“The Life of Objects: Material Culture in the Films of Sergei Parajanov.” Lecture delivered at Rutgers University, April 2003.
Gallery lecture and panel discussion for exhibit, “Nonconformist Art: Works of the Soviet Republic of Georgia from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection.” St. Mary’s College of Maryland, February 25, 2000.
HONORS & AWARDS
Pedagogy Seminar, Emory Center for Teaching and Curriculum, May 2008. Led by Professor Marshall Gregory, Butler University.
Member, Paradjanov Jury, Tbilisi International Film Festival. Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, October 2006.
Emory Internationalization Fund Dissertation Research Grant, September 2000 – February 2001. Conducted research in Moscow (Russia), Kiev (Ukraine) and Yerevan (Armenia).
Departmental Teaching Fellowship, 1999-2000 academic year.
Research grant, Emory Internationalization Fund, Summer 1998. Conducted pre-dissertation research for eight weeks in Yerevan (Armenia) and Tbilisi (Georgia).
Research grant, Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Summer, 1996. Conducted pre-dissertation research for three weeks in Yerevan (Armenia) and Tbilisi (Georgia).
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
American Library Association
RESEARCH LANGUAGES
Written and spoken proficiency: Russian.
Reading knowledge: French, Ukrainian and Georgian.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
“Historiography of Film and Television” (Graduate seminar) Department of Film Studies, Spring 2008.
“Contemporary Film Theory” (Film Studies Program) Spring 2006.
“Introduction to Film” (Film Studies Program) Spring 2006, Fall 2005, Spring 2005 and Fall 1998.
“French New Wave” (Film Studies Program), Fall 2005.
“Visual Culture” (Interdisciplinary Studies Program), Spring 2002 and Spring 1998.
“The Politics of Identity” (Interdisciplinary Studies Program), Fall 2001, Spring 2000, and Fall 1999.
“Hollywood Cinema of the 1970s” (Film Studies Program), Teaching Assistant for Prof. David Cook, Fall 1997.
Pedagogical training at Emory included an intensive, week-long University course in summer of 1997 and a departmental seminar on pedagogy in the fall of 1997.
SERVICE AND OTHER EXPERIENCE
Produced subtitled DVDs of Hungarian films for use in Film Studies and REES undergraduate and graduate courses taught by Visiting Professor Gyula Kodolányi at Emory, Spring 2007 – present. Created unique, subtitled DVDs of important films not distributed commercially and not held elsewhere in WorldCat. Worked with Prof. Kodolányi to revise existing English subtitle scripts. Video transfers and subtitle scripts acquired previously by Film Studies Department from Hungarian Film Archive. Depositing finished copies in Music and Media Library: Ten Thousand Suns (dir. Ferenc Kósa, 1967), The Falcons (dir. István Gaál).
Russian and East European Studies Program (REES) Faculty Committee, 2005-present academic year. Duties include: representing the library and the Film Studies Department at meetings; organizing the REES film series.
Freelance writer, Turner Classic Movies website. Over 140 articles and DVD reviews, including article on the restoration of The Battleship Potemkin (1925).
Film Studies Departmental Liaison, Woodruff Library, Emory University. July 2003 – 2006. Duties include: ordering books and videos to support teaching and research for the Film Studies department; reference assistance and classroom instruction on library resources; coordinating A/V preservation projects.
Curator, Emory Film Studies Department 35mm campus film series, 2006-2007 academic year.
Library job search committees: A/V Conservator (Fall 2006), Copyright Specialist (Spring 2007), E-Learning and E-Reserves Coordinator (Spring 2007).
Emory College Online workshop, June 2004. Aided Prof. Juliette Apkarian with designing Web-based content for her course on 20th century Russian literature. Created streaming video clips and helped scan and organize slide library.
Interim Circulation and Reserves Manager, Heilbrun Music and Media Library, Emory University. November 2002 – May 2003. Duties included: hiring and supervising student assistants, coordinating course reserves, assisting patrons with music-related reference.
Research assistant for Prof. David Cook on The History of Narrative Film, 3rd Edition, 1996. Helped compile the bibliography and selected laserdisc clips keyed to the textbook for Norton Presentation Maker, a computer application that organizes classroom presentations.
Organized film series and individual film screenings on campus, including a series on New Taiwanese Cinema and a 35mm screening of Emir Kusturica’s Underground.
Hi – I’ve just read your Parajanov issue of the Armenian Review.(I discovered its existence at the recent festival about him at the NFT in London. Can you tell me when your book is likely to appear? The more I learn about “Colour of Pomegranate/Pomegrataes/Sayat Nova/etc, the more confused I become! I’m not clear, for example, about the extra bits on the DVD by Levon Grigorian, which I was lucky enough to find in the NFT shop. Some bits look as if they might be early versions (with different actors) of some scenes, other bits look more like excised parts of the final film. And so on…. To say nothing of the rest of his career. I look forward very much to reading your book when it’s published.
All the best
Richard Leigh
Thanks for your note! It’s been a challenge juggling the huge amount of material I have to work with, but I think I’ve found a solution. At this point I see it as two books – a shorter monograph on his films and a full biography. I’m doing the “films of” book first. I’d like to hold off on the biography until I can access some more archives, including hopefully his KGB file.
There were a number of scenes that Parajanov shot which didn’t make it into the final cut of the film, including those Grigorian included in his documentary. Some may have been cut due to censorship, but probably most were cut because they didn’t turn out the way Parajanov wanted or because they didn’t fit into the film as it was taking shape. However, the footage is uniformly striking and deserves to be more widely seen. It would be great to include the footage as a supplement to a DVD special edition of the film. I describe the outtakes in more detail in my book chapter on “Pomegranates.” Remarkably, about 4 hours worth of outtakes from the film were shown on Italian TV a few years back. The Parajanov Museum in Yerevan also beautiful color production stills of most, if not all of the discarded scenes.