News

On May 20, Kathleen will give a guest lecture on her book “Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture” at the University of Zurich. Her talk will be part of the Advanced Research Colloquium of the English Department of the university.

Kathleen has published a text on “Reboots and Revivals” in The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia, published in 2024 and edited by Tobias Becker and Dylan Trigg. The book brings together several researchers investigating the phenomenon of nostalgia and the field of nostalgia studies. In addition to disciplinary approaches such as philosophy, history and others, the handbook also offers insights into media-related nostalgia such as revivals and reboots, as outlined by Kathleen. You can find out more about the Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia and get your own copy here.

Kathleen Loock, Alejandra Bulla, Yining Zhang, Stefan Dierkes, and Tina Pahnke of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project are part of the GAAS/DGfA Meeting 2025 taking place June 12-14 in Siegen, Germany. This year will be the 71st annual conference and focuses on Archiving America/American Archives.

The GAAS/DGfA (German Association for American Studies/Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien) is an academic non-profit organization with the goal of promoting cultural and academic relations between the United States and Germany and supporting American Studies in Germany on a scholarly basis.

Alejandra, Yining, Stefan and Tina will participate in the panel “Digital Archives and American Studies” led by Kathleen Loock, Damien Schlarb and Alexander Dunst. Using the video essay as a form, they will discuss “The Video Essay as Digital Archive: Visualizing Cinematic Memories of Disney Classics and Their Live-Action Remakes.”

As part of the collaboration between the Hollywood Memories project and KOKI, the “Original and Remake” film series premieres this April 23, this time featuring two versions of A Star Is Born.

It will begin with the 1976 version, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, followed by its most recent adaptation, released in 2018, with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in the lead roles.

For the opening of the series, Kathleen will offer an introduction to both films, addressing their relevance within remake practices in the film industry. She will also present her latest book, Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture (2024).

The screenings will be at 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm, respectively. Both films will be screened in English. For more information on ticketing and directions, please visit the KOKI website.

This April, Kathleen was part of the SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies) annual conference in Chicago, U.S.A.. The conference took place from April 2 to 6. Kathleen presented on the “Classical Hollywood Cinema Unbound: Adaptations Across Media” panel, giving a talk on “’Memories of the days when Pearl White was America’s Serial Queen’: Remaking The Perils of Pauline.”

As part of the “Remakes and Memory” screening on February 3rd, all essayists had the chance to share their video essays in a roundtable discussion. The screening showcased projects that explore different levels of memory created through the practice of remaking. The resulting essays deal with the many versions of Robin Hood and A Star Is Born and remakes of French classics, among others. You can read more about the various projects here.

In the first panel, Jemma Saunders, Tomer Nechushtan, Kathleen Loock and Ariel Avissar talked about the creative process and challenges of their video essays, in the second panel Philip Jozéf Brubaker, Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco and the Hollywood Memories team including Alejandra Bulla, Stefan Dierkes, Tina Pahnke and Yining Zhang were able to talk about their projects.

You can watch both panel discussions here.

The Hollywood Memories team has published its video essay on Disney films and their remakes. The essay explores how audiences look back on Disney’s animated classics and how their memories influence the live-action remakes. The project draws on the memories of participants from our sub-projects and uses audio clips from interviews from Mexico, Colombia, China and Germany, and combines these with video clips from animated Disney films and their remakes.

You can watch the video essay here.

On February 3rd, the Hollywood Memories project organized the event “Screening Remakes and Hollywood”, which featured special guests such as Jemma Saunders, Tomer Nechushtan, Ariel Avissar, Philip Jozéf Brubaker and Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco, as well as Hollywood Memories team members Alejandra Bulla, Stefan Dierkes, Kathleen Loock, Tina Pahnke and Yining Zhang. (For more information about the guests, we invite you to read our previous publication).

The event, held at the KOKI community cinema, lasted three hours, during which two rounds of video essays were held, which were first presented by each of the authors, followed by the screening of each video essay. At the end of each round, a round table was held in which each of the authors answered questions related to their work.

This event, which brought together people from different parts of the world, also allowed the guests to get to know the city of Hanover a little better. On Monday morning, a tour of the city center was given by Stefan and Alejandra, visiting the most emblematic places, such as the old town, the town hall, the train station and other historical sites. The visit ended with lunch in the city’s covered market, the Markthalle. After this, and with a few hours’ rest, our event took place. To celebrate this event’s success, we enjoyed a local gastronomic experience at the Paulaner am Thielenplatz restaurant.

Below you will find some photos taken during the event. You can also find them on our social media, such as Instagram and Facebook.

On February 3, 2025, the Hollywood Memories Team, in collaboration with the Kommunales Kino (Koki) Hannover, will be showing various video essays on the topic of “Remakes and Memory.” All video essays deal with the various levels of memory that result from the practice of remaking.

Video essays with different themes will be shown, each of which will be briefly introduced by their creators and discussed after the screening. An overview of the video essays can be found below. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

The screening will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. at Koki Hannover, Sophienstr. 2. You can download the full program flyer [PDF] here.

Kathleen was interviewed for the German BR24. Julian Ignatowitsch spoke about the increasing similarity of streaming services to traditional pay-TV, including advertising, reality TV and weekly released episodes of series. Kathleen gave insights into the motivations of streaming services and their motivation to keep their audience engaged with their content. You can read the full german article here.

As part of the Chinese case study, Katlheen and Yining traveled to China. During their visit, they presented the Hollywood Memories project, and invited more people to participate in the main study of the Chinese case study in different institutions in Nanjing, Beijing, and Shanghai. If you want to see the full report, follow this link to our website.

On December 4, Kathleen will be giving a guest lecture at King’s College London, UK. Her lecture “Remaking the Past: Hollywood, Memory, and Movie Generations” is part of the university’s research seminar series.

For more information on the lecture, see the flyer [PDF].

Kathleen was interviewed on the occasion of the remake of Cruel Intentions (1999) as a series on Deutschlandfunk on November 21, 2024. In the segment titled “Eiskalte Engel sind zurück: Der Nostalgie-Trend im Serienmarkt”, Julian Ignatowitsch looked back at the original film and how many films and series today are returning to the past, while Kathleen provided insights and reasons for the connection between nostalgia and new series and remakes.

You can listen to the German interview here: to the radio interview.

On October 26, Kathleen will present at “Rereading Classics and the Frontiers of Literary and Artistic Theory” conference at Nanjing University, Suzhou Campus, China. The topic of her speech is “Rereading ‘Classics’ in the Cinema: The Film Remake as Archive.” The Suzhou Campus of Nanjing University is its newest campus and home to the Institute of Global Humanities, which aims to study the traditions and future directions of world humanities and arts disciplines from an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-regional perspective.

On October 21, Kathleen will give a keynote speech at “Film and Society” workshop at Nanjing University, China. Titled “Film and Memory: Negotiating Past and Present”, the speech will discuss how remaking intersects with concepts of memory, time, and critically examine how films negotiate past and present, stability and change, as well as nostalgia and its political implications.

On October 18, Kathleen will give a public lecture at Nanjing University, China. Titled “From Feuilleton to Forever Franchise: A History of Seriality and Adaptation in Popular Culture”, the draw on numerous examples, to trace the serial dynamic and proliferation of popular narratives and characters since the mid‐nineteenth century and analyze recent trends and developments from a seriality studies perspective.

The talk is part of the academic exchanges between “Hollywood Memories” project and Nanjing University funded by the Nanjing University International Fellowship Initiative.

On 12 October 2024, Kathleen Loock and Yining Zhang from the Hollywood Memories project will travel to China to launch the main study there. They will carry out most of the academic activities planned for the trip at Nanjing University, where Kathleen has been awarded the International Fellowship in the “Distinguished Scholar” category. With the support of Prof. HE Chengzhou, Dean of the School of Arts at Nanjing University, the Hollywood Memories team will conduct workshops to recruit participants for China’s main study. At Nanjing University, Kathleen will give a public lecture, a conference talk, and a class lecture. She will also participate in the “Film and Society” academic workshop, where she will give a keynote lecture on film and memory.

Kathleen and Yining will also visit Beijing and Shanghai, where they will meet associate members of the project, including Prof. Wendy Su from the University of California and Dr. Yafei Lyu from the Capital University of Economics and Business.

Kathleen will be giving a guest lecture at the University of Mannheim on October 2. She will speak on the topic of “Understanding Film Remakes” as part of the seminar “Der Western / The Western”.

In May 2024, Kathleen Loock was awarded the International Fellowship from Nanjing University in the highest category, the “Distinguished Scholar” category. This fellowship will fund Kathleen’s three-week trip to China from 12 October to 2 November, during which she will launch the Chinese main study of the “Hollywood Memories” project together with Yining Zhang, the Ph.D. student who works on the Chinese case study.

Nanjing University International Fellowship Initiative (NJU IFI) aims to promote international academic exchange and research cooperations between Nanjing University and the rest of the world by supporting overseas outstanding scholars to visit NJU on a short-term basis and conduct joint academic activities.

On July 27, the New Books Podcast published an interview with Kathleen about her book “Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture”. She talks to Pete Kunze about the relevance of remakes, why they are often wrongly perceived as negative and why she initially had to justify her research on “the lowest of the low”.

The New Books Podcast is a community of podcast channels where authors can present their work to a wide audience. You can listen to the episode with Kathleen here: to the episode.

To order your copy of Hollywood Remaking, click here.

Kathleen Loock, Alejandra Bulla, Yining Zhang, and Stefan Dierkes of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project are part of the panel “Hollywood Memories: Film Consumption and Reception Practices in China, Mexico, and Germany” at the 2024 HoMER conference in Rio de Janeiro.

HoMER (History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception) is an international research network founded in 2004, so this year marks the 20-year celebration. The goal of the network is to advance understanding of the international phenomena of moviegoing, exhibition in movie theaters, and the reception of films.

Kathleen Loock will give a talk on “Global Hollywood, Global Movie Generations?” Yining Zhang’s talk is on “Negotiating National Identity and Hollywood Narratives: Cinematic Remaking and Chinese Generational Audiences,” Alejandra Bulla’s talk is on “Mexican Cinema Between Iconicity and Monopolization, or, Infante vs. Derbez,” and Stefan Dierkes’ talk is on “Multigenerational Childhood Memories of Hollywood in Germany.”

Kathleen Loock, Alejandra Bulla, Yining Zhang, and Stefan Dierkes of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project are part of the 2024 NECS conference in Izmir, Turkey, from June 27-29.

NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies) is a non-profit organization aiming to foster high-level and innovative research in film and media theory, history and practice, to provide a forum for communication, exchange and scholarly debate, to support young and early-career researchers, and to establish film and media studies as a dynamic and important part of the arts and humanities research in Europe, but also increasingly world-wide.

For this year’s conference topic of “Emergencies”, Kathleen Loock and Yining Zhang will give a talk on “Emerging Audiences: Generational Receptions of Hollywood Movies in China.” Alejandra Bulla’s talk is on “Living on the Margins of Hollywood: Negotiations of Belonging among Mexican Audiences,” and Stefan Dierkes’ talk is on “Seniorenkinos as Form of Resistance? A German Case Study of an Emerging Exhibition Format.” They are joined in the panel by a presentation from Daylenis Blanco Lobaina and Associated Member Philippe Meers. Their talk is called “Hollywood and the Cuban Oriente: The Curious Case of American films in the Cinema Culture of Santiago de Cuba 1950s-1960s”. The panel is hosted by Vinzenz Hediger, professor of Film studies from Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.

From June 20-21, 2024, the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group will host an in-person workshop on “Global Hollywood: Histories, Markets, and Audiences.” It will take place at Leibniz University Hannover (Schlosswender Str. 1, Room 307, 3rd floor). The workshop will be organized around different thematic sessions, each followed by a roundtable discussion with the respective speakers. It will end with a video essay screening. You can download an overview of the video essay screening [PDF] here.

“Global Hollywood” is a productive term to enter debates about the cultural, political, and economic dominance of Hollywood cinema around the world. This workshop brings together international scholars and practitioners to examine global audiences and markets from distinct national, historical, and industrial perspectives.

The line-up of speakers includes Joseph Garncarz (University of Cologne), Maya Nedyalkova (Oxford Brookes University), Meg Thomson (Globalgate Entertainment), Christopher Meir (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), José Carlos Lozano (Texas A&M International University), Ana Rosas Mantecón (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana), Yongchun Fu (Zhejiang University), Yafei Lyu (Capital University of Economics and Business), Wendy Su (UC Riverside), Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich & University of Göttingen), Peter Krämer (De Montfort University) as well as the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research team members, Kathleen Loock, along with the PhD students, Stefan Dierkes, Alejandra Bulla, Yining Zhang.

The workshop is open to the public. You can sign up for it at: hollywood@uni-hannover.de.

You can download the full program here.

On the occasion of George Lucas’ 80th birthday on May 14, the newspaper Tagesspiegel dedicated its daily column “Was kommt” to the future of the franchise. The column asked three experts about their predictions for the future and their opinions on why the franchise has existed for so long. Alongside Claudia Reinhard and Andreas Busche, Kathleen gave her view on the prospects for STAR WARS. The enduring popularity, she writes, stems amongst other things from the nostalgia for old heroes and familiar places, which is also reflected in the STAR WARS universe. The German article can be read here (€): to the article.

The “Forgotten Hollywood” podcast recently published an interview with Kathleen about her new book Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture. Doug Hess, the host of the podcast, talks with Kathleen about the importance and history of remakes, why they are often dismissed in film discussions, and what is often the real motivation behind the practice.

The “Forgotten Hollywood” podcast is dedicated to the history of Hollywood and lesser known aspects of its past. You can listen to the episode with Kathleen here.

Hollywood Remaking is availabe here.

Kathleen Loock’s new book, Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture, was displayed at the SCMS Book Exhibit, March 14-17, 2024.

From the inception of cinema to today’s franchise era, remaking has always been a motor of ongoing film production. Hollywood Remaking challenges the categorical dismissal in film criticism of remakes, sequels, and franchises by probing what these formats really do when they revisit familiar stories. Kathleen Loock argues that movies from Hollywood’s large-scale system of remaking use serial repetition and variation to constantly negotiate past and present, explore stability and change, and actively shape how the film industry, cinema, and audiences imagine themselves. Far from a simple profit-making exercise, remaking is an inherently dynamic practice situated between the film industry’s economic logic and the cultural imagination. Although remaking developed as a business practice in the United States, this book shows that it also shapes cinematic aesthetics and cultural debates, fosters film-historical knowledge, and promotes feelings of generational belonging among audiences.

You can order Hollywood Remaking here.

In a recent Q&A published on UC Press Blog, Kathleen Loock, Professor of American Studies and Media Studies at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, delves into the depths of her latest book, Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture.

Hollywood Remaking challenges the categorical dismissal in film criticism of remakes, sequels, and franchises by probing what these formats really do when they revisit familiar stories. Kathleen Loock argues that movies from Hollywood’s large-scale system of remaking use serial repetition and variation to constantly negotiate past and present, explore stability and change, and actively shape how the film industry, cinema, and audiences imagine themselves. Although remaking developed as a business practice in the United States, this book shows that it also shapes cinematic aesthetics and cultural debates, fosters film-historical knowledge, and promotes feelings of generational belonging among audiences.

The Q&A illuminates on Loock’s motivation in writing on cinematic remaking and the significance in this topic, with examples films used in the book and her personal experience and memories regarding film remakes, sequels and franchises. Ultimately, Loock emphasizes the dynamic, historically evolving practice that thrives on serial patterns of repetition and variation and has always puzzled the industry and audiences. She invites audiences to embark on a journey of discovering the industry and cultural evolution within the frames of Hollywood remaking.

You can read the full Q&A here.

Film remakes seem to invite an engagement with memory. They rely on repetition with a difference as they place familiar characters and plots in new technological, aesthetic, cultural, and political contexts. Remakes foreground change through updates and revisions, but they are also always intricately linked to the past and thus to the realm of memory.

The “Hollywood Memories” research project invites video essays that explore the multifaceted layers of memory that emerge from the practice of remaking. Selected video essays will be submitted for consideration as an edited collection in the new Videographic Books series at Lever Press. In addition, the video essayists chosen for the collection will also be invited to present their work at an online event in the fall of 2024. Video essays may also be shown at a “Hollywood Memories” workshop (20-21 June 2024) and may be paired with relevant movies as part of a movie series at a local cinema in Hannover.

For more information on the requirements, see our website: click here.

Send your written statement, abstract, biographical note, and a link to your unpublished video essay to Kathleen.Loock@engsem.uni-hannover.de by 15 June 2024.

Click here to download the Call for Papers [PDF].

We are now starting with our Chinese case study! Currently, we are in the phase of pilot study, which will be followed by the main study in October 2024. If you are interested in participating, please register here on our website. If you know someone who might be interested in participating, don’t hesitate to share the link to our website.

On February 27th our associate member Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco, from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “Kill your Darlings: nostalgia autofágica en multiplicidades fílmicas y televisivas contemporáneas,” directed by Dr. Glòria Salvadó Corretger. Kathleen has been appointed as a standing member of the examining board that evaluated the dissertation with an excellent cum laude. From the “Hollywood Memories” project we congratulate Brunella for this great achievement in her career and wish her all the best for her future.

Starting now, the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES website is also available in Chinese. In 2024 we are starting into the next sub-project, this time focusing on Chinese film audiences and their memories.

After Kathleen published her video essay “Memories of It” in the 11th issue of Tecmerin. Journal of Audovisual Essays (you can watch it here), it has received multiple mentions on Sight & Sound’s Best Video Essays of 2023 list. The complete list of nominees can be read here.

On X and Instagram, we present well-known remakes and their originals from various genres on a weekly basis. You can read them on our X profile and on our Instagram page.

On November 28, Kathleen Loock gives a guest lecture at the University of Bonn called “Hollywood’s Usable Past, or, The Politics of Film Remakes, Reboots, and Sequels.” Her lecture in Bonn is part of the lecture series “Current Issues in North American and Cultural Studies.”

In November 2023, Yining joined the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research project, where she will work on her PhD. Yining holds a Master’s degree in English Language and Literature  and a Bachelor’s degree in English Nanjing University, China. Within the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project, Yining is responsible for the sub-project that studies the movie memories of audiences living in China.

Kathleen Loock will give a talk titled “Netflix’s Neverending Christmas Catalog” at a workshop at Fernuniversität Hagen. The workshop is titled “Reading Christmas movies 3: Genres and Formats.” It is the third rendition of this workshop, dealing with the role of Christmas movies. Kathleen’s talk will highlight the role of Netflix and the development that the streaming platform has had on Christmas movie content.

Kathleen Loock and Stefan Dierkes will give a lecture at the Historical Museum, Hannover, on October 24, 2023, at 7 p.m. In their lecture “Star Wars, Rocky, Indiana Jones: Memories of Hollywood Movies,” they will present first results from the German case study. The talk is part of a cooperation between the Hollywood Memories project and the Historical Museum in Hannover.

We especially invite everyone who participated in the German case study. The lecture is open to the public and admission to the event is free.

Kathleen Loock will give the keynote lecture entitled “Videographic Memory Work” for a symposium at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMU) in Turkey. The “International Symposium on Searching for the New Form and Methodologies in Academic Studies/Publishing” takes place on October 18-20, 2023. Find more about the symposium here.

On Friday, July 14, 2023, the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES Research Group will host an in-person workshop on “Global Hollywood, Global Audiences.” The workshop is designed to discuss the global impact of Hollywood cinema and its importance to global audiences. It will bring together scholars of historical and contemporary audiences, memories of moviegoing, and home movies in local, national, and global contexts. A central goal is to think critically about how we can examine the global influence of Hollywood cinema in the study of global audiences. We would also like to look at recent thinking on cultural imperialism, as well as issues of representation and national identities. Another goal of the workshop is to reflect on audience research methods and critically discuss the work of data analysis and the presentation of research results.

Speakers at the workshop include Ana Rosas Mantecón (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa), Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp), Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich/University of Hamburg) and Fabiola Alcalá Anguiano (Universidad de Guadalajara), as well as members of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group Kathleen Loock, Stefan Dierkes and Alejandra Bulla (Leibniz Universität Hannover). In addition to the presentations and discussions, the workshop will also feature Maya Nedyalkova’s (Oxford Brookes University) research project on film consumption by Bulgarian cinema audiences.

The morning sessions of this workshop are open to the public. The workshop takes place in room 112 (Conti campus, bulding 1501).

Sign up for the workshop at Leibniz University Hannover under: hollywood@uni-hannover.de

The full program for the workshop “Global Hollywood, Global Audiences” is now available on our website.

Kathleen Loock, Alejandra Bulla, and Stefan Dierkes of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project are part of the panel “Hollywood Memories: Film Consumption and Reception Practices in Germany and Mexico” at this year’s HoMER conference in Barcelona.

HoMER (History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception) is an international research network founded in 2004. The goal of the network is to advance understanding of the international phenomena of moviegoing, exhibition in movie theaters, and the reception of films.

Kathleen Loock will give a talk on “Hollywood memories and movie generations: A cross-cultural, comparative approach.” Alejandra Bulla’s talk is on “The dominance of Hollywood movies in Mexico: remakes, sequels, and franchises as cultural reference points,” and Stefan Dierkes’ talk is on “Curiosity, comfort, and commerce: Hollywood remaking and the reception of German audiences.”

Kathleen Loocks’s video essay on different movie adaptation of Stephen King’s It has been published in issue 11 of Tecmerin. Journal of Audovisual Essays. This videographic work deals with remaking practices and their entanglement with personal and generational memories. The videographic work hereby combines the scholarly with the personal as Kathleen explores her own childhood memories of watching the 1990 adaptation and connects them to the Reunification of Germany.

You can watch the video essay and read about her process here.

From May 19th to 26th we had the visit of Yining Zhang, our future Hollywood Memories team member. On this occasion we had the opportunity to talk in more detail about the project, what we are doing at the moment and what is to come. It also took place largely on administrative issues and everything related to preparing for her joining the university in what we hope will be this year for the winter semester.

We look forward with great anticipation to her joining the team.

On May 11, Kathleen will give the talk “Movies: Memories for a Lifetime” as part of the Citizen Science Lecture Series at Leibniz University Hannover (Bielefeldsaal B305). The lecture series aims to showcase various examples of Citizen Science, inform attendees about the different forms of this kind of research, and encourage participation by bringing together citizens, researchers, and students. For more information about the lecture, please click here (only in German).

We share with you our impressions and experiences during our visit to Mexico, where Kathleen Loock and Alejandra Bulla were from February 15 to 24 presenting the Hollywood Memories project, and inviting more people to participate in the main study of the Mexico case study in different institutions in Guadalajara and Mexico City. Find the trip report on our website.

After a grand preamble that took us all the way to Mexico, we are finally launching Mexico’s main study. Our research platform will be open from March 27^th until May 15^th. If you haven’t registered yet, there is still time to do so. Register on our website under the Participate tab. And if you have already registered, thank you so much for being part of our study.

On February 23, Kathleen Loocks’s presentation at El Colegio de México was live streamed on the university’s YouTube channel, fortunately for us and for those who missed it that day, the video was saved on their channel and here we share the link for you to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=371byLMkFgU

We have returned to Germany with excellent experiences from Mexico and ready to work on what lies ahead. All presentations went according to plan, which allowed us to share project information and get a significant number of participants for our main study that will start in the last week of March.

However, we are interested in having even more participants than those who are currently registered. To this end, we are calling on all those who are interested in participating in our Mexican case study to register here on our website by following the Participate tab where you will find the form to fill out. If you have any questions about the project and your possible participation in it, please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

We will close our visit to Mexico with one last event at the Center for Literary Studies of the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). Kathleen Loock will give the guest lecture “Del reciclaje cultural a la memoria generacional: efectos duraderos de los remakes, secuelas y franquicias de Hollywood.” This event will take place on February 24 at 12:00 and was organized with the help of our associated member Nicolas Licata and Carlos Alberto Rubio Pacho, who are both researchers at the Center for Literary Studies at the UNAM.

During our visit to Mexico City, we will have the opportunity to talk about our project at the Centro de Estudios Históricos of the Colegio de México. On 23 February at 12 p.m., Kathleen Loock will give a guest lecture there entitled “Recuerdos de Hollywood: Remakes, secuelas, franquicias y la construcción de identidades generacionales.” The event was organised by Bernd Hausberger (Centro de Estudios Históricos, ColMex).

On Wednesday, 22 February 2023, the Hollywood Memories project will head to the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México. There, Kathleen Loock will give a guest lecture on “Memories made in Hollywood: Del repertorio cinematográfico compartido a la identidad generacional” at 5 pm. The event is organized by Rubén Rebolledo as part of the course “Cine del mundo”.

The Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) opens its doors to the Hollywood Memories research project. Kathleen Loock will give a guest lecture entitled “Cuando Hollywood se repite: reflexiones sobre medios, memoria y generación.” This event will be moderated by Rocío Romero Aguirre and Álvaro Vázquez Mantecón. It takes place on February 21 at 11:30 a.m., and is the first in a series of guest lectures in Mexico City.

Under the title “Hollywood Memories: Recuerdos, experiencias y actitudes,” we present our work in Guadalajara (Mexico) at an REDIC event (Red de Investigadores de Cine). We have been cordially invited by REDIC’s coordinator and associate member of Hollywood Memories, Fabiola Alcalá Anguiano. This event will take place on Friday, February 17 at 10:30 a.m. at Casa Guadalupe Zuno. Kathleen Loock will present the project, including the research design, central concepts, and first results. There will be time for discussion after the presentation in which both Fabiola Alcalá Anguiano and Alejandra Bulla will provide their thoughts on the Mexico case study.

Kathleen Loock and Alejandra Bulla travel to Mexico from February 14-26 to present the Hollywood Memories project in Guadalajara and Mexico City. The purpose of this trip is to give talks in different institutions, but our main interest is to make more people aware of the project and to encourage them to participate in our main study that we are launching in March 2023. We start in Guadalajara with a presentation organized by Fabiola Alcalá Anguiano and the REDIC (Red de investigadores de cine) and continue in Mexico City with presentations at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, the TEC CDMX (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México), El Colegio de México, and the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). We owe our thanks to Fabiola Alcalá Anguiano, Nicolas Licata, and Rubén Rebolledo who have helped us in the organization of the talks. We are very excited about this trip and about sharing our project with all those who wish to attend any of our talks.

Hollywood Memory just started its own Newsletter. We sent out the first issue in February 2023. From now on, the newsletter will provide regular updates on our activities and news about our research.

If you want sign up for our study (using the form at the bottom of this page), you will automatically receive the newsletter. Or you can subscribe to the newsletters, by sending an e-mail to hollywood@uni-hannover.de.

On Friday, 10 February 2023, Kathleen Loock will present the Hollywood Memories project at the DASI Shoptalk (2-5 p.m.). The event will feature current digital research projects in the field of American Studies.

The goal of DASI (Digital American Studies Initiative) is to provide a forum for digital research in German American Studies and to advance the discussion of digital methods and approaches for American Studies.

On 12 December 2022, Kathleen Loock will give a guest lecture at the University of Giessen entitled “Streaming Christmas: Netflix’s Holiday Programming.”

On 6 December 2022, Kathleen Loock will give an online lecture as part of the “Audience Projects Seminar Series”, a collaboration between Oxford Brookes University (England) and Örebro University (Sweden). She will present the project “Hollywood Memories: Cinematic Remaking and the Construction of Global Movie Generations.”

On 1 December 2022, Kathleen Loock will give a guest lecture at the University of Freiburg. The title of the talk is “Endlessly Repetitive Futures: Climate Change, Reproduction Logics, and Linear Time in Blade Runner 2049.”

From the 10th until the 12th November the DGfA (German Association for American Studies) will host their post graduate forum in Regensburg. Alejandra Bulla and Stefan Dierkes will hold a talk about “Beyond Hollywood Borders: Politics, Identities, and Memories" there.

Kathleen Loock and Stefan Dierkes from the Hollywood Memories project present their paper “Rethinking Time: Media, Memory, and Generation in the Age of Streaming Platforms” at the ECREA 2022: 9th European Communication Conference in Aarhus (Denmark). They are part of the panel “The more things change…: SVOD platforms and recycled content strategies” which explores on streaming platforms like Netflix and their focus on remaking series and films. 

Kathleen Loock was asked about the use of artificially generated voices and images in films for the radio contribution “KI-Stimmen in Filmen: Darth Vader lebt für immer” (AI Voices in Films: Darth Vader Lives Forever) which aired on October 2, 2022, as part of the program “Breitband” on the German public radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur. She answered questions about whether the use of AI voices is a new trend in the entertainment industry. The actor James Earl Jones, who gave Darth Vader his low, monotone voice in the Star Wars films, sold the rights to his Darth Vader voice. Now an artificial intelligence can clone his voice for the use in future Star Wars films. The whole conversation (in German) is available here.

On September 28, 2022, Laura Mee launched her book Reanimated: The Contemporary American Horror Remake and presented it in a zoom event. Kathleen Loock, Bruna Foletto Lucas (Kingston University) and Kendall Phillips (Syracuse University) talked to Mee about her ideas, in a discussion round chaired by Iain Robert Smith (King’s College London). The main argument of Reanimated is that the remaking of horror films shows the genre’s capacity for creative recycling, adaptation and evolution.

The German audience survey on HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES is now closed. New registrations for participation in the study are now no longer possible. Over 100 people from many parts of Germany have been active on our digital research platform, sharing their memories, experiences, and attitudes towards Hollywood movies. We are very pleased about the great interest in our project and sincerely thank all the participants for their support for our research.

While it is now time for us to analyze the data for the German case study, the Mexican audience survey is now beginning. If you want to receive updates about the development of our HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research project, you can sign up for our newsletter below.

We are now starting with our Mexican case study! Currently, we are in the pre-test phase, which will be followed by our pilot study in November 2022. If you are interested in participating, please register here on our website. If you know someone who might be interested in participating, don’t hesitate to share the link to our website. The main study will be conducted in March 2023. Registration is open after the end of the pilot study.

You can find more information about the project on our website.

On Monday, 11 July 2022, from 2-4 p.m., Jonathan Gray (University of Wisconsin-Madison), who is an associate member of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group,  will give a guest lecture at Leibniz University Hannover. His talk is entitled “Fallen from Grace, or, When Sequels Attack” and is part of the “Film Remakes and Franchises” course that Kathleen Loock is teaching this summer term.

On Friday, 8 July 2022, the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group is holding the in-person workshop “Audience Research: Methods and Approaches” at Leibniz University Hannover. The workshop brings together scholars who study historical and contemporary audiences, cinemagoing and home viewing contexts, national identifications and the global impact of film, memories and experiences as well as attitudes and tastes. One central aim is to critically reflect on the process of doing audience research – including choices and challenges as well as thoughts on working with the data, the presentation of research results (beyond the traditional modes) and opportunities for public engagement.

Among the speakers at the workshop are Annette Kuhn (Queen Mary University of London), Jonathan Gray (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Christine Hämmerling (University of Zurich), Eduard Cuelenaere (University of Ghent) as well as the members of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group Kathleen Loock, Stefan Dierkes, and Alejandra Bulla (Leibniz University Hannover). In addition to the presentations and discussions, the workshop will also feature the audience research done by Kate Egan (Northumbria University) and Peter Turner (Oxford Brookes University) and screen video essays by Catherine Grant, Ariel Avissar, Evelyn Kreutzer, Cormac Donnelly, and Kathleen Loock.

The workshop will be held in the Niedersachsensaal (Conti Campus, Königsworther Str. 1) at Leibniz University Hannover. It is free and open to the public.

Register for the in-person event at Leibniz University Hannover: hollywood@uni-hannover.de

Find more information on the program and the speakers on our website.

On Tuesday, 21 June 2022, Kathleen Loock will give a guest lecture in the research colloquium “‘How to tell stories digitally (fast)’: Digitale Perspektiven auf Literatur” which belongs to the master program “Neuere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft” at LUH. Her talk will focus on “Memories, Temporality and Strategies of Retelling and Continuation on Streaming Platforms.” Please note that the talk will be held in German.

On Monday, 20 June 2022, from 2-4 p.m., Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco (Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain), who is an associate member of the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research group,  will give a guest lecture at Leibniz University Hannover. Her talk is entitled “Shaken, not stirred: Character Re-construction and the Role of Time in the James Bond Reboot” and is part of the “Film Remakes and Franchises” course that Kathleen Loock is teaching this summer term.

Starting now, the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES website is also available in Spanish. In autumn 2022 we are starting into the next sub-project, this time focusing on Mexican film audiences and their memories.

Whether in the cinema, at home, or on the road — Hollywood movies can be watched almost everywhere. Nowadays, the program is often dominated by remakes and sequels. We are interested in your memories, experiences and attitudes concerning Hollywood movies. Are there any special moments, favorite movies, or collections you would like to tell us about?

You can find more information about the project and on how to participate on our website.

On 21 April 2022 at 6 p.m., Kathleen Loock will give an online lecture as part of the Atlantic Academy’s TV Thursday discussion series.

Register here to attend the lecture (in German).

Event description (from the Atlantic Academy):

Fuller House, One Day at a Time, or Twin Peaks: The Return – in recent years, several beloved American television series have celebrated their return to American television and streaming platforms with brand new episodes and old cast members. The so-called reboots and revivals deliberately draw on past TV experiences to create something new in the crowded contemporary media landscape, deliberately invoking past successes. In this talk, Kathleen Loock from Leibniz Universität Hannover discusses how series revivals attempt to represent the legacy of the original series, evoke feelings and emotions of generational belonging, and negotiate notions of past, present, and future in meaningful ways.

In our discussion series, we look at the cultural export of the United States: TV series! On selected Thursdays, we will take a look at the multifaceted television landscape of the U.S.

In April 2022, Alejandra Bulla joins the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research project, where she will work on her PhD. Alejandra holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Erlangen and a Bachelor’s degree as an English teacher from the Universidad Francisco José de Caldas in Bogota, Colombia. Within the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project, Alejandra is responsible for the sub-project that studies the movie memories of audiences living in Mexico.

We invite applications for a PhD position in the DFG-funded Emmy Noether Research Group “Hollywood Memories: Cinematic Remaking and the Construction of Global Movie Generations.” This 3.5 year position (salary scale 13 TV-L, 65 %) is to be filled by April 1, 2022. The sub-project, which the successful candidate will work on, involves quantitative and qualitative research with audiences in Mexico that focuses on the intersections between memory and Hollywood movies (questionnaires and interviews). Excellent language skills in English and Spanish are required. You can apply until January 31, 2022.

The full call for applications can be found here: Job Exchange Leibniz University

More information on the “Hollywood Memories” Research Group is available
here: Project Website

Under the Twitter handle @HollyMemories, the DFG-funded Emmy Noether Research Group “Hollywood Memories” is now present on social media. You can follow the Twitter account for regular updates the research of the group as well as polls, video essays, reviews, production news, and insights on memories, remakes, sequels, and Hollywood franchises.

Film critic and professor of media and film studies at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota (USA) Greg Carlson interviewed Kathleen Loock for his "Collecting Movies" series. They talked about her growing up in East Germany, how she became interested in movies, her research on remakes, sequels, and franchises, and her collection of DVD box sets – from Psycho I-IV to Alien to Jurassic Park.

The full interview is available here: Collecting Movies with Kathleen Loock

In October 2021, Stefan Dierkes joined the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES research project, where he will work on his PhD for the next 3.5 years. Stefan holds a Master’s degree in Literature and Media Practice and Anglophone Studies from the University of Essen and a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Literature and Cultural Studies, Political Science, and Journalism from the TU Dortmund University. Within the HOLLYWOOD MEMORIES project, Stefan is responsible for the sub-project that studies the movie memories of audiences living in Germany.