Dear friends of the Hollywood Memories research project,

 

Welcome to our third newsletter! Hollywood Memories explores whether Hollywood remakes, sequels, and franchises create a shared film repertoire that shapes viewers’ memories, lived experiences, and generational identities in a globalized world. Hollywood Memories is based at Leibniz University Hannover (Germany) and we are the research team: Kathleen Loock, Stefan Dierkes, Alejandra Bulla, and – very, very soon – Yining Zhang.

Today, we want to inform you about our case studies, announce events that are coming up in the next few months, and share some of the past highlights with you. Keep reading to learn about all our latest news!

 

What’s new in the case studies?

 

German Case Study
In the German case study, we established a cooperation with the Historical Museum in Hannover. We especially want to thank Dr. Jan Willem Huntebrinker, the museum’s head of education and communication, for initiating the cooperation. The museum is currently showing the exhibition “Premierenfieber: Kinokultur im Hannover der 1950er Jahre” (“Premiere Fever: Cinema Culture in Hannover in the 1950s”), which is still running until October 31. Make sure to give this fantastic exhibition a visit!

We also still need older participants for this case study and are currently looking for people aged 50 years and older. Stefan will do the questionnaire with them in person and make time for in-person group interviews as well. If you happen to know people who want to share their memories, please forward them our contact information or contact us directly via email: hollywood@uni-hannover.de.

 

Mexican Case Study
After conducting the main study in April and May, we still need to recruit enough participants for our Mexican case study. Alejandra will travel to Mexico again in October and November – to Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey – to work with students and try some face-to-face strategies for the questionnaire and group interviews. We are also looking into more substantive possibilities of cooperating with professors and student assistants at Mexican universities. If you know people who are interested in sharing their memories with us, please tell them about the Hollywood Memories project and share the link to our website: https://hollywood-memories.com/en/.

 

Chinese Case Study
We are thrilled to announce the upcoming arrival of our third doctoral candidate, Yining Zhang. Yining just received her visa and will be joining our group at the end of October. Huānyíng!

 

What are our plans for the coming months?

 

Keynote Lecture on Videographic Criticism at International Symposium, October 18-20
Kathleen will give the keynote lecture entitled “Videographic Memory Work” at the “International Symposium on Searching for the New Form and Methodologies in Academic Studies/Publishing” that will be held at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMU) in Turkey from October 18-20, 2023. Find out more about the symposium here.

 

Lecture at the Historical Museum Hannover, October 24
Kathleen and Stefan will present the Hollywood Memories project at the Historical Museum, Hannover, on October 24, 2023, at 7 p.m. In their lecture “Star Wars, Rocky, Indiana Jones: Memories of Hollywood Movies,” they will present first results from the German case study. The talk inaugurates the cooperation between the Hollywood Memories project and the Historical Museum in Hannover and is linked to their current “Premierenfieber” exhibition.

We would like to invite everyone who participated in the German case study and lives in or around Hannover to join us at this event. The lecture is free and open to the public.

 

Workshop on Christmas Movies at Fernuniversität Hagen, November 10-11
Kathleen will give a talk on “Netflix’s Neverending Christmas Catalog” at the workshop “Reading Christmas Movies 3: Genres and Formats.” The workshop will be held at Fernuniversität Hagen on November 10 and 11. It is the third year that this workshop unites scholars who examine the cultural work of Christmas movies. Kathleen’s talk will highlight the role of Netflix and the impact the streaming platform has had on Christmas movie content.

 

Guest Lecture on Film Remakes, Reboots, and Sequels at the University of Bonn, November 28
On November 28, Kathleen will give a guest lecture at the University of Bonn, entitled “Hollywood’s Usable Past, or, The Politics of Film Remakes, Reboots, and Sequels.” Her lecture in Bonn is part of the lecture series “Current Issues in North American and Cultural Studies.”

 

What has happened since our last newsletter in May?

 

Visit from Nanjing
Our new team member Yining Zhang came all the way from Nanjing (China) to visit us in May. We showed her around Hannover and the university and to started making all the necessary arrangements for her arrival in late October. We are very excited that she will be here with us soon and work on the Chinese case study.

 

Publication of Video Essay “Memories of It”
In June, Kathleen’s video essay “Memories of It” was published in Tecmerin: Journal of Audiovisual Essays. This video essay creatively explores the interplay between individual and collective memory, combining personal recollections with social and historical analysis. It reflects on the haunting power of the 1990 film adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel It and how it resonates with Kathleen’s memories of the German Reunification, which she comes to recognize as a shared historical experience of her generation. You can watch the video essay and read her theoretical reflections here.

 

Hollywood Memories at the HoMER Conference in Mataró (Spain), July 4-7
We had the pleasure of presenting the work we do in the Hollywood Memories project at this year’s HoMER conference. We had our own panel, “Hollywood Memories: Film Consumption and Reception Practices in Germany and Mexico,” with three presentations: Kathleen on “Hollywood Memories and Movie Generations: A Cross-cultural, Comparative Approach,” Alejandra on “The Dominance of Hollywood Movies in Mexico: Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises as Cultural Reference Points,” and Stefan’s topic was “Curiosity, Comfort, and Commerce: Hollywood Remaking and the Reception of German Audiences.” HoMER (History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception) is an international research network that explores international phenomena of moviegoing, the screening of films in cinemas, and the reception of films.

 

Workshop “Global Hollywood, Global Audiences,” July 14
On July 14, we held our annual Hollywood Memories workshop. This year we focused on the topic “Global Hollywood, Global Audiences.” Our speakers included Ana Rosas Mantecón (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, Mexico), Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp), and Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich/University of Hamburg), as well as our Hollywood Memories team with Kathleen, Stefan and Alejandra. In the morning, each of the participants presented their research, and in the afternoon, we worked in small groups to analyze parts of the empirical data we gathered so far. A detailed overview of the workshop and the presentations can be found here.

 

Thank you for supporting our project thus far. To stay up-to-date with our progress and events, please visit our website, where you can find more information. Additionally, you can connect with us on social media by following our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

 

Greetings from Hannover!

Your Hollywood Memories Team,
Kathleen, Alejandra & Stefan