TIRANA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, 2014
Panel on the Albanian Cinema
Saturday, November 8, 13.00-14.30
Nëna Terezë Room
Pallati i Kulturës, Tiranë
Panel Moderator: Lars Kristensen: PhD

This Panel represents a two pronged effort. First, it will contribute to the efforts of its participants to widen and deepen academic research on the Albanian cinema. This joint effort of scholars from several countries represents the acute need to explore and discover the hidden treasures of the Albanian cinema. Difficulties stemming from a half century communist self-isolation and little knowledge of the Albanian language by foreign scholars have left a huge void in efforts to probe, analyze and explain various features of the Albanian cinema. Several efforts by Albanian scholars have helped shed light on this aspect; yet much of that literature remains unknown to the international audience. This project aims at filling these gaps by bringing together an international crew of researchers from several disciplines and sub-disciplines. The final goal would be to publish a special issue of Kinokultura on the Albanian cinema as well as an edited volume published by a major international press.

The second goal of the Panel is to establish an academic tradition within TIFF. Unfortunately, an initial successful effort by Lars Kristensen and Ilir Butka in 2009 did not manage to open way to sequent panels. We hope that the renewed efforts of Lars and Agron Domi, the new director of TIFF, would serve to reignite that tradition.