Martin Walsh Memorial Lecture

FMSAC-ACÉCM was founded in 1976 by a group of university professors dedicated to “foster and advance the study of the history and art of film and related fields” in Canada. Among them was Martin Walsh, in whose honour the annual Martin Walsh Memorial Lecture is named. A British expatriate who taught film studies at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Walsh was a scholar of avant-garde practices who wrote The Brechtian Aspect of Radical Cinema, published posthumously under the editorship of Keith M. Griffiths (London: BFI, 1981). He was also the first President of the Film Studies Association of Ontario (FMSAC-ACÉCM’s precursor), and an enthusiastic contributor to the original Take One magazine. Like his friend, the artist Greg Curnoe, he was a member of the London Centennial Wheelers, and in 1977 he died tragically in a road accident. In 1978 the Martin Walsh Memorial Lecture was inaugurated by Walsh’s colleagues and friends to commemorate his life and work. Each year an internationally recognized film scholar is invited to the Annual Conference of FMSAC-ACÉCM to speak about their current research.

2024 Marion Froger (Université de Montréal)
“Formes de l’expérience imaginaire d’accompagnement”
Presented at the FMSAC/ACÉCM Annual Conference, Concordia University, 2024.

2023 Paula Amad (University of Iowa)
‘Pictures that move and ship[s] that fly’: ‘Professor’ F.W. Brinton and the kinship between early aviation and early cinema”
Presented at the FMSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, York University, 2023

2022 Sylvia D. Hamilton (University of King’s College)
“Field Notes from the Black Atlantic”
Presented online at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2022

2021 Sylvia D. Hamilton Dialogues
At the request of Sylvia D. Hamilton, who had been slated to deliver the Walsh Lecture in 2020, the 2021 FMSAC Conference featured the Sylvia D. Hamilton Dialogues, an event that highlighted the critical, scholarly, and creative work of a panel of emerging Black filmmakers, curators, critics, and scholars. The event included an introduction by Sylvia D. Hamilton and a moderated Q&A.

The featured speakers included Dr. Ayanna Dozier (Fordham University and Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art), Courtney Small (Founder of Cinema Axis blog, host Changing Reels podcast, and co-host of the Frameline radio show), and Sarah-Tai Black (Artistic Director of Saskatoon’s PAVED Arts, co-host of Netflix Film Club’s online video series Black Film School) and was moderated by May Chew (Concordia University).

2020 Congress Cancelled due to Covid-19

2020 Sylvia D. Hamilton (University of King’s College)

“Documenting the Black Atlantic”
(Congress Cancelled due to COVID-19)

2019 Mary Ann Doane (University of California, Berkeley)

“Scale, the Cinematic Image and the Negotiation of Space”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, June 2019

2018 Will Straw (McGill University)

“Figuring the Social: Cinematic Crowds, Scenes and Circles”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Regina, 2018

2017 Jesse Wente (Anishinaabe broadcaster, curator and activist)

“Alanis to Taika: The Seven Generations of Indigenous Cinema”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Ryerson University, 2017

2016 Loretta Todd (Cree Writer and Filmmaker)

“Can I know Canada by its stories?”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Calgary, 2016

2015 Janine Marchessault (York University)

“The INCREDIBLE Shrinking Archive”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, 2015

2014 Barry Keith Grant (Brock University)

“Beyond the Time Barrier: Science Fiction Cinema and the Boundaries of Classic Narration”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Brock University, 2014

2013 Silvestra Mariniello (l’Université de Montréal)

“Exemplarity and Film”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/ Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Victoria, June 2013

2012 Tom Gunning (University of Chicago)

“Let’s Start Over: Why Cinema Hasn’t Yet Been Invented”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, May 2012

2011 Charlotte Brunsdon (University of Warwick)

“Sites and Spaces of British Film and Television”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New Brunswick, June 2011

2010 André Gaudreault (Université de Montréal)

“Home cinema et agora-télé: deux oxymores de notre modernité médiatique”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Concordia University, June 2010

2009 Annette Kuhn (University of London)

“Cinematic Experience, Film Space, and the Child’s World”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Carleton University, May 2009

Published in Canadian Journal of Film Studies 19.2 (Fall 2010)

2008 Catherine Russell (Concordia University)

“Cinephilia as Cultural Anthropology: (More) Notes on Mikio Naruse”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, May 2008

2007 William Wees (McGill University)

“From Compilation to Collage: The Found Footage Films of Arthur Lipsett”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, May 2007.

Published in: “From Compilation to Collage: The Found-Footage Films of Arthur Lipsett” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 16:2 (Fall 2007)

2006 Phillip Rosen (Brown University)

“Border Times and Geopolitical Frames”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, York University, May 2006.

Published in Canadian Journal of Film Studies 15:2 (Fall 2006).

2005 Berenice Reynaud (California Institute For the Arts)

“Female Authorship as Performance Art”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Western Ontario, June 2005.

2004 Graham Petrie (McMaster University)

“Bertolt Brecht and Bela Balazs: Paradoxes of Exile”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Manitoba, June 2004.

Published in Canadian Journal of Film Studies 13:2 (Fall 2004).

2003 Miriam Hansen (University of Chicago)

“Room-for-Play: Walter Benjamin’s Gamble with the Cinema”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalhousie University, May 2003.

Published: “Room-for-Play: Walter Benjamin’s Gamble with the Cinema.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 13:1 (Spring 2003): 2-27.

2002 Jim Leach (Brock University)

“The Reel Nation: Image and Reality in Contemporary Canadian Cinema”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Toronto, May, 2002.
Published: “The Reel Nation: Image and Reality in Contemporary Canadian Cinema.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 11:2 (Fall 2002): 2-18.

2001 Martin Walsh Memorial Plenary Panel

“Film Studies Association of Canada at 25!”
Seth Feldman (York University)
Peter Harcourt (Carleton University, Retired)
Peter Morris (York University)
Graham Petrie (McMaster University, Retired)
Zuzana Pick (Carleton University)
William Wees (McGill University, Retired)
FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Laval University, May 2001.

2000 Zuzana Pick (Carleton University)

“A Romance with Mexico: The Epic Spectacle of the Revolution”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Alberta, May 2000.
Published: “A Romance with Mexico: The Epic Spectacle of the Revolution.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 9:2 (Fall 2000): 2-22

1999 Patrice Petro (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

“Of Thrills, Shock, Repetition and Boredom: New Women and Girl Culture, Yesterday and Today”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, University of Sherbrooke, May 1999.
Published: “Film Feminism and Nostalgia for the Seventies.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 8:2 (Fall 1999): 3-20.

1998 Thomas Waugh (Concordia University)

“Cinemas, Nations, Masculinities”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, Carleton University, May 1998.
Published: “Cinemas, Nations, Masculinities.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 8:1 (Spring 1999): 8-44.

1997 Janet Staiger (University of Texas at Austin)

“The Romances of the Blonde Venus: Movie Censors Versus Movie Fans”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, University of Ottawa, June 1997.
Published: “The Romances of the Blonde Venus: Movie Censors Versus Movie Fans.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 6:2 (Fall 1997): 5-20.

1996 Seth Feldman (York University)

“What Was Cinema?”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, Brock University, May 1996.
Published: “What Was Cinema?” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 5:1 (Spring 1996): 3-22.

1995 John Belton

Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, Université de Québec à Montréal, June 1995.

1994 Chris Faulkner (Carleton University)

“Affective Identities: French National Cinema and the 1930s”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, University of Calgary, June 1994.
Published: “Affective Identities: French National Cinema and the 1930s.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 3:2 (Fall 1994): 3-23.

1993 Lucy Fischer (University of Pittsburgh)

“The Reproduction of Mothering: Documentary and the Female/Filial Spectator”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, Carleton University, June 1993.

1992 Peter Harcourt (Carleton University)

“The Canadian Nation: An Unfinished Text?”
Presented at the FSAC Annual Conference/Learneds Conference, University of Prince Edward Island, June 1992.
Published: “The Canadian Nation: An Unfinished Text.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 2:2-3 (1993): 5-26.

1991 Alanis Obomsawin

1990 Trinh T. Minh-Ha

1989 Gaile McGregor

1988 Ron Burnett

1987 Kaja Silverman

1986 Peter Morris

1985 Arthur Kroker

1984 Josef Svorecky

1983 Michael Snow

1982 Al Razutis

1981 Jacques Leduc

1980 Allan King