Next month, Yale University is hosting a film conference devoted to European filmmaking after the financial market crash of the late 1920s.and ensuing global economic depression of the 1930s.

The conference does not appear to have a website so I am reproducing the conference announcement, which I received via email, for anyone who might be interested.

After the Crash: European Film ca. 1929-1930

September 14-15, 2012

Auditorium, Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street, New Haven, CT

All featured films screened on restored or archival 35mm prints (unless noted) with English subtitles.

In the history of Europe, 1930 was particularly marked by the impact of the Depression in the aftermath of the American stock market crash of 1929. This impact could be seen, for example, when Miguel Primo de Rivera, prime minister of Spain and head of a military dictatorship, was obliged to resign due to a financial crisis and by 1931 the king was forced to flee as republican and socialist parties won a big majority in local elections. In 1930 Germany also saw increased polarization in its political world as the communists, socialists and Nazis emerged as rivals in a struggle for power that culminated in the Nazi take-over of 1933. The Soviet Union, which was less directly affected by the Depression, saw a brutal collectivization campaign in this year and ominous show trials. The period around 1930 was also fateful for European film as sound film began to replace silent film at an accelerating pace. The conference will address the implications of this ongoing shift both in terms of its impact on filmmaking, production and distribution, and in terms of how the introduction of the talkies exacerbated the language barrier between and within European countries and became a severe problem in helping different cultures relate through film

Friday, September 14th

3:00 PM Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) (Kurt Siodmak, Germany, 74 mins. Blu-ray)
Preceded by Regen (Rain) (Mannus Franken and Joris Ivens, the Netherlands, 14 mins. DVD)

5:00 PM Komsomol (Patron of Electrification) (Michael Chanan Esfir Shub, USSR, 55 mins. DVD)

6:00 PM PANEL

8:15 PM Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquith, United Kingdom, 88 mins. 35 mm)

Saturday, September 15th

9:00 AM Die Drei von der Tankstelle (Three from the Gas Station)(Wilhelm Theile, Germany, 99 mins. 35 mm)

11:00 AM PANEL

1:00 PM Prix de Beauté (The Price of Beauty)

2:45 PM L’Age d’Or (The Golden Age) (Luis Buñuel, France, 60 mins. 35 mm)

4:15 PM David Golder (Julien Duvivier, France, 88 mins. 35 mm)

6:00 PM PANEL

8:30 PM Ze soboty na nĕdeli (From Saturday to Sunday) (Gustav Machatỳ, Czechoslovakia, 69 min. 35 mm)
Preceded by Bezúčelná procházka (Aimless Walk) (Alexander Hammid, Czechoslovakia, 9 mins. 35 mm)