The theme and dates for the 10th Domitor conference have been anounced. The Regional Dimension in Early Cinema will take place 17-21 June 2008 at Perpignan, France and Girona, Spain (they say Catalonia). The notice on the Domitor site reads like a draft, but what they are looking for is described thus:

Possible contributions could deal with production modes, studies concerning distribution and exploitation in a micro-historical context, as well as studies on the representation of regional aspects in film. However, the regional dimension should be the major theme, and not a mere pretext.

The official languages will be English, French and Catalan. There’s a rough outline of the conference, which will be in Girona for the first three days before hopping across the border to Perpignan for the rest, but no call for papers as yet.

Domitor is an international organisation dedicated to the study of early cinema, defined as cinema in all its aspects to 1915. ‘Domitor’ was the name suggested to the Lumière brothers by their father Antoine to give to their invention, before they decided that Cinématographe sounded a little classier. Hard to imagine that we all might have ended up going to see the movies at the local domitor…

Also, Domitor has a yearly graduate student writing award (see link to Word document at the bottom of their page), for any subject on cinema before 1915, with a prize of $500. Fascinatingly, you don’t have to be a member of Domitor to submit an essay, but you do need to be a member if you want to collect your prize. The deadline is 1 August 2007.