The life and career of vanguard independent filmmaker Shirley Clarke and the socially conscious films of Charles Burnett will be the topics explored by Laurence Kardish and James O. Naremore, respectively, who have been named 2013 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee, which selected Kardish and Naremore on the basis of their manuscript proposals, will present the first half of the scholars’ $25,000 grant awards at a private luncheon on Monday, March 17.
Kardish is Senior Curator Emeritus at the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film. His project, Shirley Clarke: The Original Chelsea Girl, is the first book-length critical biography of the visionary New York film and video artist whose unconventional subjects and approaches challenged entrenched social mores, and whose creative activism expanded the aesthetic possibilities of filmmaking.
Naremore is Chancellors’ Professor Emeritus in the English department at Indiana University. His project, The Cinema of Charles Burnett, is a two-part book that will place Burnett’s work in the contexts of the Hollywood film industry and the work of other black filmmakers, with special attention to his leading role in the “L.A. Rebellion” of the 1970s. The book also will offer a complete, annotated filmography, with detailed analyses of Burnett’s major works.
Kardish and Naremore join 13 other Academy film scholars who are currently working on projects.
Academy film scholars who have completed projects are Cari Beauchamp; Donald Crafton, University of Notre Dame; Peter Decherney, University of Pennsylvania; Thomas Doherty, Brandeis University; Richard B. Jewell, University of Southern California; Peter Lev, Towson University; Scott MacDonald, Hamilton College; Dana Polan, New York University; David Rodowick, Harvard University; and Steven J. Ross, University of Southern California.
Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to “stimulate and support the creation of new and significant works of film scholarship about aesthetic, cultural, educational, historical, theoretical or scientific aspects of theatrical motion pictures.” The Academy’s cultural and educational wing – the Academy Foundation – annually grants $1 million to film scholars, cultural organizations and film festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. Through the Foundation, the Academy also presents a rich assortment of screenings and other public programs each year.
For grant guidelines and information about the Academy Film Scholars program, contact Grants Coordinator Shawn Guthrie at (310) 247-3000, ext. 3306, or via e-mail at [email protected], or visit www.oscars.org/filmscholars.
