Faces on Screen

Whether we consider the digitally created and manipulated faces of Hollywood cinema or the social media filters, face apps, and surveillance software of everyday life, reading face language has become the seemingly endless task of humans and machines alike. Recent facial controversies - from politicians in blackface to "deep fakes," casting debates, and facial data collection-- have made clear the need for a broader understanding of the face on screen and its varied techniques and effects. Faces on Screen: New Approaches will consider the screen face from a variety of perspectives, across time periods and media, bringing together essays on topics ranging from early cinema to contemporary digital media - from photogénie to facial recognition, celebrity culture to digital creatures. It explores how screen culture builds on and complicates our urge to search the face for answers to our most intractable questions. Edited by Dr Alice Maurice is Associate Professor of English and Cinema Studies at University of Toronto. She is the author of The Cinema and Its Shadow: Race and Technology in Early Cinema (2013). Her work has appeared in journals including Camera Obscura, JCMS, and The New Review of Film and Television Studies, among others, as well as in a number of anthologies. She was the Associate Producer for both A Healthy Baby Girl (1996) which won the Peabody Award, and Defending Our Lives (1993) which won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.