Student Moderator: Gail Walker
Faculty Respondent: Michelle Handelman
(M.F.A., Bard College, B.F.A., San Francisco Art Institute)
Ms. Handelman is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and media artist dealing with the political consequences of radical sexuality. Her work ranges from the irreverant short story, Sugar Baby, to the insightful feature documentary on the lesbian s/m community, BloodSisters. Her writing has been published in Herotica 3 (Plume Books), Coming Up (Richard Kasak Books), and Apocalypse Culture (Feral Houe Press), along with publications in Filmmaker Magazine, Art Forum, and Art Issues. She has taught at The San Francisco Art Institute, University of California, Berkeley, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. Ms. Handelman is currently represented by Cristinerose Gallery, NY, and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.

PANEL:

Alpa Patel
The Erotic in Bollywood Cinema: Soft-Core Fantasyland

Abstract: With a personal introduction to Bombay cinema, this essay will utilize issues stemming from the author's own identity as an Indian- American who embodies both the 'other' and the privileged self. How then does the "Exotic Other" - found in early American cinema - view its/their/her/his own sexuality? Whether as part of a deliberate formation of persona (as Alla Nazimova emphasized herself as ethereal and foreign in such films as Salome), or as an underlying theme of racial difference and superiority (as in Princess TamTam), or as the fabric of a film (as in the sexploitation films of the 1960s such as Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! or 'art' films like Flaming Creatures), these images either appropriate or exploit the Oriental/Eastern fantasy. This essay will explore answers to this question by analyzing Bollywood films, a genre replete with its own special qualities that has also been heavily influenced by the West.

Kelly R. Ryan
Click on Me: Identity as Commodity in the Digital Age
(Click here to download paper)

Abstract: It seems that we have assimilated the culture of commercialism so completely that we see our own identities as product. When we create screen names, personal Web sites or Web logs, or participate in online communities, much of what we are doing is marketing ourselves, presenting ourselves as a commodity available for public consumption. Multiple online identities are in some ways akin to product lines marketed by a particular company. Each separate identity one creates may allow him or her to cash in on a different market, even though the medium of exchange may be social rather than monetary. This paper will consider how the current cultural emphasis on flexibility and access, combined with the position of the Internet within the larger context of capitalistic modes of production, has brought us to a place where we have become increasingly comfortable with the commodification of our own identities.

Charity Thomas
Postmodern Adolescence: Black Loving Relations in Contemporary American Films
(Click here to download paper)

Abstract: The notion of romantic love has taken quite a beating in postmodern intellectual studies. The notion of romantic love in terms of Black sexual politics has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. The Black female protagonists in contemporary American films have moved into an "owning" of their sexuality, yet in this "owning," it still appears that they are stuck in a adolescent stage of their sexual development. Some of the Black women born after the civil rights and feminist movement have been fed a sexist ideal that to support Black men in a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy - despite their acquired feminist teachings - they must somehow fit into a patriarchal model. Using examples from contemporary American films, this paper discusses the attempt to move away from the traditional paradigm by rejecting the model that created the same image. As modern culture moves toward improved media literacy, it is hoped that young Black women will look through the slickness of these images and see that in a postmodern world their sexuality is still being dressed sheep's clothing.