Elizabeth Czach
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Contact
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts - English & Film Studies Dept
- czach@ualberta.ca
- Address
-
3-75 Humanities Centre
11121 Saskatchewan Drive NWEdmonton ABT6G 2H5
Overview
About
Before coming to the University of Alberta I was a programmer of Canadian film at the Toronto International Film Festival (1995-2005). I'm past president of the Film Studies Association of Canada and current co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Film Studies.
Research
My research can be roughly divided into three areas: film festivals, Canadian film, and amateur films and home movies. I have published widely in all three areas including a co-edited volume with André Loiselle, Cinema of Pain: On Quebec's Nostalgic Screen (2020), and a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Film Studies on 16mm in Canada (31.2, Fall 2022), co-edited with Haidee Wasson.
My interest in amateur film has led me to a long-term, archive intense, research project on women travel lecture filmmakers in North America, who were active from roughly the 1930-1980s. Tentatively titled, Your Ticket to Adventure, this project recovers the professional filmmaking careers of women working as directors of 16mm films.
I am also working on a short monograph on Quebec auteur Lea Pool's lesbian coming of age classic Emporte Moi.
Teaching
My undergraduate teaching includes introductory courses in film analysis and film history. Upper level offerings span courses on animation, the horror film, Quebec cinema, and English-Canadian cinema. I have taught fourth-year seminars on film criticism, film festivals, women and the silent screen, and the films of Wes Anderson, among others. Some of the graduate-level directed reading courses I have taught include feminist television, ethnographic film, arctic cinema, and the Canadian B movie.
Courses
FS 201 - Introduction to Film History I
A survey of world cinema from 1890 to 1950, with emphasis on major historical developments and important individual films. Prerequisite or corequisite: FS 100. Not to be taken by students with credit in FS 200.
FS 321 - Animation
An overview of the development of the animated film in a global context. Production practices may include pin screen, cell, clay, collage, stop-motion, and computer animation. Prerequisite: FS 100.
FS 412 - Topics in Film Studies
A seminar-based examination of specialized topics in film. Prerequisite: FS 100.
Featured Publications
'Instruire tout en divertissant': les film d’expédition et les conferences de voyage de la National Geographic Society
Liz Czach
Le cinéma d’éxpedition: une zone de contact cinématographique. 2022 September; Sous la direction de Caroline Damiens (Paris: Association Française de Recherche sur l’histoire de cinema):285-305
Searching as Researching: Refusing the Archival Lacunae
Liz Czach
Feminist Media Histories. 2022 April; 8 (2):213-223
Travelling the World with a Smile: James Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalk.
Liz Czach
New York: AFI/Routledge. 2020 December; In Cinema of Exploration: Essays on Adventurous Film Practice, edited by James Leo Cahill and Luca Caminati
Liz Czach and André Loiselle (editors)
Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press. 2020 July;
The Quebec Heritage Film
Liz Czach
Cinema of Pain: On Quebec’s Nostalgic Screen. Edited by Liz Czach and André Loiselle. 2020 July;
Now, For Greater Enjoyment…The Home Movie Soundtrack Album
Liz Czach
The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media edited by Laurel Westrup and Paul Reinsch.. 2020 February;
Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère and Québec’s New Cinema of mise-en-scène
Liz Czach
In ReFocus: The Films of Xavier Dolan, edited by Andrée Lafontaine. 2019 August;
The Sound of Amateur Film
Liz Czach
Film History . 2018 September; Volume 30 (Issue 3):71-102
Bon Cop, Bad Cop: A Tale of Two Star Systems
Liz Czach
Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press. 2016 June; Celebrity Cultures in Canada. Edited by Katja Lee and Lorraine York.
Czach, Liz
Film Festivals: Theory, History, Method, Practice.. 2016 January; Eds. Brendan Kredell, Skadi Loist, Marijke de Valck (New York and London: Routledge):196-208
Home Movies and Amateur Film as National Cinema
Liz Czach
London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2014 February; Amateur Filmmaking: The Home Movie, the Archive, the Web. Edited by Laura Rascaroli, Gwenda Young with Barry Monahan
Czach, Liz
Cinephemera: Archives, Ephemeral Cinema, and New Screen Histories in Canada. 2014 January; Eds. Gerda Cammaer and Zoe Druick (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press):73-93
The Transnational Career of Geneviève Bujold
Liz Czach
New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2013 February; Transnational Stardom: International Celebrity in Film and Popular Culture. Edited by Russell Meeuf and Raphael Raphael.
Theorizing Film Acting
Ed. Aaron Taylor. 2012 January; New York: Routledge
Czach, Liz
Canadian Television: Text and Context. 2011 January; Eds. Marian Bredin, Scott Henderson and Sarah A. Matheson (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press):59-72
Cinephilia, Stars, and Film Festivals
Liz Czach
Cinema Journal. 2010 August; 49 (2):139-45
Cómo 'mejorar' las películas. El discurso de perfeccionamiento y la interpretación en el cine doméstico
Liz Czach
Madrid: Ocho y medio. 2010 June; El cine domestico y sus reciclajes contemporaneos edited by Efren Cuevas
Michel Regnier's 'Films-Outil'
Liz Czach
Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. 2010 February; Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada edited by Ezra Winton, Michael Baker and Tom Waugh
Czach, Liz
The Moving Image. 2004 January; 4 (1):76-88
Polavision Instant Movies: Edwin Land’s Quest for a New Medium
Liz Czach
The Moving Image. 2002 June; 2 (2):1-24