CFP: Call for Chapter Proposals – Refocus: The Films of Agnès Varda

Call for Chapter Proposals – Refocus: The Films of Agnès Varda
Edited by Melissa Oliver-Powell and Natasha Farrell

• Deadline for proposals: November 29, 2024
• Notification of acceptance: December 17, 2024
• Deadline for chapters: September 20, 2025

Renowned for her innovation, independence, and uniquely eclectic style, it is hard to overstate the importance of Agnès Varda's place in film history, which spans multiple genres, forms and movements. The rich legacy of her work continues to be felt in recent exhibitions, retrospectives, and across university film curricula worldwide. However, for many of her 65 years as a filmmaker she was treated as a footnote, regulated to the shadows of her male New Wave counterparts. In the early 1980s, she spoke about being omitted from the history books and special issues of Cahiers du Cinéma. These omissions began to be redressed in the late 20th century with the publication of seminal monographs on Varda’s work in the ’90s. Later volumes have continued to cement her significance as a unique and vital artist, often focusing on particular aspects of her style, and interweaving her work as a photographer and plasticienne in her later career. 

The proposed Refocus volume will contribute to the growing body of scholarship on Varda with a holistic overview of her film work, bringing together new critical perspectives throughout the diverse stages of her career in cinema. Across the board, we are interested in prioritizing approaches and frameworks that are relevant to but have been underserved within work on Varda. This proposed volume will seek to contextualize, problematise, and theorise her entire canon to further spotlight how Varda’s films are not a cinema of the obvious. They do not fit neatly into boxes, including a feminist one, even while unmistakably feminist. We welcome proposals for chapters offering fresh perspectives on all aspects of Varda’s cinema and its legacy, whether on specific films or periods of her filmmaking, themes across her work, or the influence of Varda on other filmmakers. We are particularly keen to see – but are not limited to – proposals on the following topics:

• Revisiting the early New Wave and Left Bank films in France
• Varda abroad: films from California, Cuba, Iran, and elsewhere
• New perspectives on the digital documentaries
• Varda’s influence on and intertexts with later filmmakers
• Varda’s collaborations with other artists (directors, actors, musicians, etc.)
• Varda’s collaborations with non-artist participants
• Varda the poet: her oeuvre’s relationship to photography, literature, music, etc.
• Filmmaking and or as political activism
• New or underserved theoretical approaches, including:
  • Queer theory
  • Ecocriticism
  • Animal studies
  • Linguistics
  • Medical humanities
  • Intermediality
• Care and empathy in Varda’s filmmaking
• Family and friendship in practice and representation
• Cultural events, retrospectives and film restoration

Please send chapter proposals of 250-400 words and a 100-word bio to both editors of the volume, Melissa Oliver-Powell (melissa.oliver-powell@york.ac.uk) and Natasha Farrell
(f39nf@mun.ca) by 29th November. Acceptances will be sent out by 17th December. Final chapters will be expected to be around 6000-8000 words, in English, and referenced in Chicago endnote style. We are expecting final chapters to be delivered in September 2025.

Please direct any questions to:
Melissa Oliver-Powell (melissa.oliver-powell@york.ac.uk)
Natasha Farrell (f39nf@mun.ca)