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We are delighted to announce that an international conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of Desperately Seeking Susan (Dir. Seidelman, 1985) celebrating female friendship on film will be held on 10th and 11th April 2025 at the University of Wales – Trinity Saint Davids, Swansea, Wales, UK.

Tasker (2012) recognises that although ‘the elaborate description of sentimental, homoerotic relationships between men is commonplace in popular cinema, yet texts that focus on female friendships have traditionally been relatively unusual’.  Whilst the bromance exists as a common narrative trope, female friendship is still a rarely cinematically celebrated occurrence. 

Female friendship is a central focus of Desperately Seeking Susan. This conference celebrates the 40th anniversary of the film’s release through an exploration of the film and female friendship in female-centred films.

Desperately Seeking Papers

We are interested in receiving abstracts about the following:

• Historical or contemporary explorations of female friendships on film/TV
• Unexplored or obscure female directed film/TV centring on female friendships
• Female friendships in specific filmic or TV case studies
• Susan Seidelman’s films/TV work
• New ideological and feminist/intersectional/queer approaches to analysing Desperately Seeking Susan 
• The relationship between genre, audiences and female friendship
• Critical reception and spectatorship of Desperately Seeking Susan
• Production histories of Desperately Seeking Susan
• The relationship between Desperately Seeking Susan and other genres (rom com/doppelganger genre)
• Madonna’s star image and/or the soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan