University of Hertfordshire

Faculty Member, Humanities

Other Affiliations: Royal Holloway, University of London, Media Arts

Film Education Coordinator / Visiting Lecturer in Film

Hertfordshire Film Consortium / Humanities / Creative Arts

About

Currently completing PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, thesis title: Queer Horror Film and the Erotic Male Spectacle. Charting the emergence of the sub-genre of the Horror genre from 1990-present. Taking specific interest in queer spectator theory, notions of gay shame, psychoanalysis, taking an historiographic approach to the subject matter while performing close textual analysis on film texts. Due to the recent emergence of the queer horror filmography, much of the thesis involves interviewing filmmakers and producers in the field of study.

Research interests include:
Film and Cultural Studies, Queer Film Theory, Horror Film, Psychoanalysis and Cinema, Cult and Alternative Film, Gender and Representation in film and TV, Adaptation and Appropriation, US TV Serials, US Underground Cinema, Avant Garde and the Experimental in Video Art, Melodrama, Film parody, pastiche and performing arts, New Queer Cinema. 

Currently co-organising 2 day symposium:
www.kisskisskillkill.co.uk/kkkk

Kiss Kiss Kill Kill: The Graphic Art and Forgotten Spy Films of Cold Ward Europe.
University of Hertfordshire, September 18-19 2010
Coinciding with the Kiss Kiss Kill Kill Exhibition, this 2-day, parallel strand symposium aims to bring together international scholars, critics, collectors, graphic artists and cinephiles to  explore the issues surrounding the European poster art and the European spy film between 1950-1985. The conference will explore the relationship between poster art, graphic design and espionage cinema during the Cold War, while providing an interdisciplinary forum for the development and appreciation of cult film, literature and the visual arts. The analysis of graphic art, poster design and rare film will consider ideas around, film archiving, marketing, European aesthetics, international audience reception, genre and state politics.
The symposium will also play host to rare film screenings with special guest appearances. Films secured for screening will include (TBC):
Danger Diabolik (Fr/IT, Bava 1968)
Danger Route (GB Holt 1968) – This screening of a rare 16mm print of Seth Holt’s magnificent low budget spy thriller made by Amicus will also include Q & A with leading actor, Richard Johnson.
The Ear aka Ucho (Kachyna CZ 1970) – A rare screening of the Czech masterpiece of state surveillance and paranoia, shelved for twenty years.
Se tutte le donne del mondo aka Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (Levin & Maiuri IT 1966). We are proud to present this Holy Grail classic Italian Eurospy title from a Tarantino-sought-after, super-rare 16mm print from the US.
Konec agenta W4C prostrednictvà m psa pana Foustky aka The End of Agent W4C (Vorlà cek CZ 1967) – This Czech fun spy spoof was made just prior to the austere Soviet Normalisation cultural programme initiated in1968 and has been buried ever since.
Keynote speakers include: Matt Blake (author, The Eurospy Guide 2004) Xavier Mendik (director, The Cult Film Archive, Brunel University) TBC
Genre motifs in European Spy Fiilms
European regional “difference” as visualized in the spy film
Espionage storiies as state propaganda
The handpainted traadition in film poster design
Jet-setting aand exotica an historical appraisal
EurEurospy Auteurs
Graphic Design and the Spy Fiilm Poster
The power of co-production in Euurope
Mainstream vs. Indie Spy film
Literature to Film Adaptation and Eurospy
The Kitsch and the Bombastic in Cold War Film and Poster Design
Utopian Imagery in Eastern Blocc filmmaking and posters
Lithography, off set litho and the art of printing in cinema advvertising
The European-ness of Eurospy
Identity, Gender and Sexuality in Eurospy
Supermen and Superwoman archetypes in the he Spy genre.
Trash Aesthetics of the Spy Fillm
The Lo tech/lo brow aesthetic in East European Poster Design
Abstracts (200–300 words) for twenty-minute papers as well as proposals for one and a half hour panels should be submitted as an email attachment to:  d.elliott (AT) herts.ac.uk by June 1st 2010.

Employed as film programmer and education officer for the University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire Film Consortium. 

Contact Information