Halaloween Roundtable: Muslim Horror in the 21st Century

Halaloween Roundtable: Muslim Horror in the 21st Century

Dr. Ali Olomi, Dr. Ekky Imanjaya, Dr. Rubina Ramji, and Dr. Karla Mallette

Join us on Thursday, October 27th, from 6-8 PM ET as we wrap up Halaloween with a panel discussion on Muslim horror, the use (and misuse) of Islam and the Quran in the horror genre, feminist politics in horror, and how each region differs in its creation of horror films. RSVP: http://bit.ly/halaloween22

This panel will feature experts and scholars: Dr. Ali A. Olomi, Dr. Ekky Imanjaya, Dr. Rubina Ramji, and Dr. Karla Mallette.

The panelists will offer some insight on Muslim horror, the Islamic theological and mythological figure of the jinn, women, gender, and sexuality in Muslim horror films, and a scholarly approach to understanding horror and genre films in the Muslim world.

Dr. Ali A Olomi is an assistant professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California and an affiliated scholar with the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights. He is a historian of the Middle East and Islam researching, writing, and publishing on medieval and modern Muslim thought. He studies how Muslims imagined the “Islamic world” at the intersection of religion, science, and empire. Dr. Olomi's research examines the Muslim imagination of the monstrous through the djinn/jinn, the early history of astronomy and its role in empire-building, and Islamic apocalypticism and cosmology.

Dr. Ekky Imanjaya is a faculty member of Film Department, Bina Nusantara (Binus) University, in Jakarta. In 2018, He finished his doctoral studies in Film Studies at University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Previously, Ekky got his masters degree majoring Philosophy at Universitas Indonesia (2003) as well as in Film Studies at Universiteit van Amsterdam (2008). Ekky is also a film critic specializing in Indonesian cinema, and a board member of the Madani Film Festival and Jakarta Film Week. He is also a film critic and has published his articles in many popular magazines and newspapers as well as academic journals, including Cinemaya, Colloquy, Plaridel and Asian Cinema. He published some books regarding Indonesian films, pop culture, and Islamic culture issues, including _Mencari Film Madani: Sinema dan Dunia Islam_ (2019) and _Mujahid Film: USmar Ismail_ (2021), "99 Film Madani" (2022, with Hikmat Darmawan) and the Indonesian translation of his doctoral thesis. Ekky is currently the chairperson of Film Committee at Jakarta Arts Council (2021-2023).

Dr. Karla Mallette is a Professor of Italian in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and a Professor of Mediterranean Studies in the Department of Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author, most recently, of Lives of the Great Languages: Latin and Arabic in the Medieval Mediterranean, and numerous articles on medieval literature and Mediterranean Studies. She is the former director of GISC and is currently Chair of the Department of Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Rubina (Ruby) Ramji is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Humanities at Cape Breton University. Her research focuses on images of Islam in various media discourses, including film and television. She also works on issues of gender, ethnicity, diversity and multiculturalism. Ramji is co-editor, with Alison Marhsall, of the Bloomsbury Handbook on Religion and Migration (Bloomsbury 2022) and with Peter Beyer, of the book Growing Up Canadian: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists (MQUP 2013) and is the author of a variety of articles and chapters in books including “Examining the Critical Role American Popular Film Plays in Maintaining the Muslim Terrorist Image, Post 9/11” in the Journal of Religion and Film (2016), “Maintaining and Nurturing an Islamic Identity in Canada – Online and Offline” in Religion in the Public Sphere: Canadian Case Studies(Eds., S. Lefebvre, & L. Beaman, University of Toronto Press 2014), “Muslims in the Movies” in The Bloomsbury Companion to Religion and Film (Ed., W. Blizek, Bloomsbury 2013); \ and, “Representations of Islam in American News and Film: Becoming the ‘Other’” in Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture (Eds., J. Mitchell & S. Marriage, T&T Clark 2003). Ramji is the Film Editor of the Journal of Religion and Film and served as Senior Editor of Golem: Journal of Religion and Monsters for four years. She was a Chair of the Religion, Film and Visual Culture Group in the American Academy of Religion for six years and the President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion (2012-16).

This event is free and open to everyone. This event is a part of Halaloween: A Muslim Horror Film Festival, brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center. To watch the remaining Halaloween films, visit http://watch.eventive.org/halaloween. For more events from the Global Islamic Studies Center at the University of Michigan, please visit http://ii.umich.edu/islamicstudies.

Love Horror Films? Shudder streams the best in new independent and international horror. Try Shudder free for 14 days with promo code HALALOWEEN2022 when you sign up at Shudder.com.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact islamicstudies@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

Co-sponsors:

Halaloween is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center and cosponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Department, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum, the African Studies Center, Department of Communication and Media, The Department of Film, Television, and Media, American Culture, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the Center for South Asian Studies, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Arab and Muslim American Studies, Asian Languages and Cultures, the Center for Arab American Studies at UM-Dearborn, the Arab American National Museum and Shudder. 

Buku “The Real Guilty Pleasures”: Diskon 25% hingga akhir Oktober

 Suka nonton film-film Suzanna atau Barry Prima? Atau ngulik film seperti “Jaka Sembung” atau “Pembalasan Rambu”?

Baru terbit: “The Real Guilty Pleasures”: Menimbangulang Sinema Ekploitasi Transnational Orde Baru” (Ekky Imanjaya, Binus Publishing, 2022). Terjemahan dari tesis doktoral: “The Cultural Traffic of Classic Indonesian Exploitation Cinema” (University of East Anglia, 2018). Diskon 25% hingga 31 Oktober, menjadi Rp 161,250,- Pre-order: Pre-order: https://bit.ly/TRGPekky1

 

Endorsement Dengan mengedepankan konteks sirkulasi transnasional, penelitian Ekky Imanjaya merespon secara kritis wacana 'film nasional” yang menjadi aspirasi pembuat film selama beberapa dekade sekaligus mendominasi penulisan sejarah film Indonesia. Fokusnya pada film-film eksploitasi mengajak kita kembali masuk ke dalam debat perihal politik selera --siapa yang menentukan standar, penghargaan, dan kanon— serta letak agensi penonton dalam sirkuit produksi dan konsumsi budaya. (Dr. Intan Paramaditha, dosen Kajian Media dan Film, Macquarie University , Sydney). Over the years there have been a number of academic studies of Indonesian film. Most of them stop short of taking seriously the huge upsurge in popular cinema that occurred there from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.Ekky Imanjaya ventures where others have feared to tread in his exploration of this largely ignored area of film making. His book is an immensely valuable and thoroughly researched study, packed with fascinating details about the films and the society that produced them. An essential work. (Pete Tombs, co-founder of Mondo Macabro DVD). This book should be essential reading to anyone working in the area cult movies or Indonesian cinema. Its analysis of the production, distribution and reception of Indonesian cult movies provides a crucial corrective to appropriation of these films by international cult fandoms while also providing a fascinating glimpse of Indonesian film cultures too often ignored by those focused the history of “film art”, histories that have tended to privilege “highbrow” or “official” Indonesia cinemas. (Prof. March Jancovich, Cult and Horor experts, University of East Anglia)

“This is a significant and groundbreaking study of Indonesian exploitation cinema that provides fascinating insights into the global circulation of cult cinema. To date, scholarship on cult and exploitation cinema has primarily focused on the Anglo-American context, but Ekky Imanjaya demonstrates that Indonesian popular cinema is essential to an understanding of the transnational circuits of cult. I thoroughly recommend it.” (Dr Iain Robert Smith, King’s College London) Buku tentang film kelas B Indonesia buat kami harusnya jadi sesuatu yang lumrah di Indonsia, mengingat yang bikin bioskop hidup dan merakyat di era-era tertentu film indonesia ya film-film yang dicap buruk dan nirmoral. Tidak perlu pikir panjang untuk kami merekomendasikan buku ini karena kami merasa tulisan Mas Ekky seperti inilah yang akan membuat para filmmaker, calon-calon filmmaker, dan calon penonton film-film kelas B bisa melihat secara utuh film kelas B dan film-film (yang dianggap) setingkat lebih tinggi itu setara, serta patut untuk mendapat kajian lebih dalam. Selain membuat para pembacanya mengerti bagaimana perkembangan film kelas B dan pengaruh sosial-budaya Indonesia –khususnya di era Orba—rasanya kami pun sebagai filmmaker yang senang mengulik dan menggarap film kelas B semakin bersemangat untuk meramaikan khazanah perfilman kelas B Indonesia. (Azzam Fi Rullah & Putra Merdeka, Kolong Sinema).

Dua Buku Baru Saya Diluncurkan di TIM!

 Besok, Sabtu (15 Oktober), saya akan meluncurkan dua buku baru, di lokasi yang sama dan dia dua film festival yang berbeda.

(1) 99 Film Madani, menulis bersama Hikmat Darmawan.

Pukul 11.00 WIB di Galeri Cipta 1 (Lantai 3, Gedung Planetarium), Taman Ismail Marzuki. Madani International Film Festival.

Bukunya akan dibagikan gratis.

(2)  The Real Guilty Pleasures. Ini terjemahan tesis S3 saya dari jurusan Kajian Film, University of East Anglia.

Pukul 14.45 WIB, di Kineforum (lantai 4 Gedung Planetarium), Taman Ismail Marzuki. Jakarta Film Week.

Akan dijual terbatas di hari H, dan dibuka pre-order.

Silahkan hadir langsung. 

Mari merapat.

Alhamdulillah.