MCP Archive Director to speak at Wim Wenders Conference

AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WIM WENDERS, University of Richmond, VA, February 24th-25th 2017

Change is Possible and Necessary:

New Perspectives on Wim Wenders as Filmmaker and Visual Critic

Selected for Conference Presentation:

“Melinda Camber Porter In Conversation With Wim Wenders

(on the film set of Paris, Texas 1983)

[Newly published book, Blake Press 2016]”

Presentation Abstract: The conversation between Wim Wenders and Melinda Camber Porter (1953-2008) took place on location in December 1983, while Mr. Wenders was shooting his first American Feature Film, Paris, Texas. America was a place of European immigrants, German immigrants, and a vast land stretching to California. Men and women were becoming disillusioned and seeking ‘that something’ just out of reach. Melinda Camber Porter asked Wim Wenders: “When you say men have certain expectations of women, what exactly do you mean? Wim Wenders explains, “We still have to find out what we mean by that, because ‘the character’ hasn’t really understood that yet [in shooting his film, Paris, Texas]. The character is getting ready to confront the issue. I do not work so a film is laid out and people can spell it out. I work much more on intuition … Sometimes film making is very much based on very subconscious choices or intuitions.” Paris, Texas directed by Wim Wenders and written by Sam Shepard with adaptation by L.M. Kit Carson, and starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, and Hunter Carson among others. 

The conference will take place on Friday, February 24 and Saturday, February 25, on the campus of the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia. It is organized by Drs. Olivier Delers and Martin Sulzer-Reichel and hosted by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Funding for the conference comes from the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Richmond and the Tucker-Boatwright Festival for the Arts. For more information, click here.