Film history, theory or criticism Books
Duke University Press Latterday Screens
Book SynopsisBrenda R. Weber examines how the mediation of Mormonism through film, TV, blogs, YouTube videos, and memoirs functions as a means to understand conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, spirituality, capitalism, justice, and individualism in the United States.Trade Review“Smart, sassy, and full of provocative insight, this book shines a light on Mormonism, not as a religious tradition but as a ubiquitous cultural trope that is uniquely attuned to queerly mediated notions of sexuality and gender.” -- Dana Heller, editor of * Loving The L Word: The Complete Series in Focus *“Latter-day Screens is an amazing encyclopedic survey of the details of the Mormon Church and the place of Mormons in American popular culture. Drawing on cultural theories of mediation, mass culture, and film studies, Brenda R. Weber draws the reader into everything from aromatherapy oils to South Park parodies. Timely and relevant, and teachable for a range of classes, Latter-day Screens is an exceedingly important and interesting book.” -- Matthew Pratt Guterl, author of * Seeing Race in Modern America *"In Latter-day Screens, gender studies professor Brenda R. Weber examines pop culture’s ongoing fascination with Mormons. Mainstream media has given us a largely one-dimensional view of Mormonism: Sister Wives, Big Love, and even storylines on Love After Lockup present polygamy as the sum total of the religion. But Weber has another story to tell, one that’s about how Mormons are using pop culture—including TV shows, books, and YouTube videos—to find and enact their agency and rethink their conservative religion’s understanding of gender, sexuality, race, spirituality, and justice." -- Evette Dionne * Bitch *"A deep, provocative look at mass and social media portrayals of Mormons on the parts of both Mormons and non-Mormons. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- R. L. Saunders * Choice *"With its informative and enriching contextualization of its sources, Latter-day Screens provides a significant critical reading of Mormon media sources while also functioning as an innovative approach to Mormonism." -- Marie-Therese Mäder * Religion *"Weber makes a series of arguments, deeply informed by theories in media studies and gender and sexuality studies, about the interplay among actual Mormons and media characterizations of them. In the burgeoning field of Mormon Studies, this is a fresh approach." -- W. Michael Ashcraft * International Journal of the Study of New Religions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Past as Prologue: Latter-day Screens and History 1 Introduction. "Well, We Are a Curiosity, Ain't We?": Mediated Mormonism 13 1. Mormonism as Meme and Analytic: Spiritual Neoliberalism, Image Management, and Transmediated Salvation 49 2. The Mormon Glow: The Raced and Gendered Implications of Spectacular Visibility 91 3. The Epistemology of the (Televised, Polygamous) Closet: The Cultural Politics of Mediated Mormonism and the Promises of the American Dream 120 4. Polygamy USA: Visability, Charismatic Evil, and Gender Progressivism 162 5. Gender Trouble in Happy Valley: Choice, Affect, and Mormon Feminist Housewives 201 6. "Pray (and Obey) the Gay Away": Conscience and the Queer Politics of Desire 241 Conclusion. Afterthoughts and Latter Days 276 Epilogue. Mormons on My Mind, or, Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Hegemony I Learned in Mesa, Arizona 284 Notes 309 References 329 Media Archive 345 Index 361
£112.20
Duke University Press Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film examine the place and role of race in educational films, home movies, industry and government films, anthropological films, church films, and other forms of noncommercial filmmaking throughout the twentieth century.Trade Review“Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film illuminates what is hidden right in front of us. Like cable or YouTube today, nontheatrical films have left evidence of a broader expression beyond commercial films and examining them through the lens of race gives us a peek into a less homogenous and more realistic world. This collection of essays reminds us to reclaim this space as culturally valuable and, in a sense, take the power back by shifting perspective to explore an overlooked reality, not a marginal one.” -- Shola Lynch, Curator, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library“This collection of essays—with its range of topics and archival discoveries—is essential reading for anyone committed to, or even remotely interested in, the study of cinema. Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film uncovers buried treasures that are part of the long-standing tradition of moving image storytelling—a tradition that did not always aspire to mainstream Hollywood recognition, but succeeded alongside it.” -- Rhea L. Combs, Curator of Photography and Film and Director of the Center for African American Media Arts, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture"Brimming with sharp insights and archival discoveries, this valuable book opens up a world unknown to most and offers a look at American society in the 20th century, far from the artificial gloss of Hollywood cinema." -- W. W. Dixon * Choice *“An informative collection of works, the volume deftly illustrates the breadth, reach, and influence of nontheatrical films that centre race and ethnicity. As a bonus, a rich collection of videos discussed in the book is available for use in classrooms, particularly for instructors of film or race and ethnic studies who desire to use movies to explore specific themes…. Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film serves as a handy reference for scholars, researchers, and students and as a helpful reminder of the hidden gems showcased outside the theatre.” -- Maryann Mamie Erigha * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film not only...opens up a number of exciting avenues for future research, but also provides readers with the concrete steps, tools and materials needed to continue this work. I hope that this volume will serve as a productive starting point for many future studies.” -- Carolyn Condon Jacobs * Screen *Table of ContentsNote on the Companion Website ix Foreword. Giving Voice, Taking Voice: Nonwhite and Nontheatrical / Jacqueline Najuma Stewart xi Acknowledgments xxv Introduction / Allyson Nadia Field and Marsha Gordon 1 1. "A Vanishing Race"? The Native American Films of J. K. Nixon / Caitlin McGrath 29 2. "Regardless of Race, Color, or Creed": Filming the Henry Street Settlement Visiting Nurse Service, 1924–1933 / Tanya Goldman 51 3. "I'll See You in Church": Local Films in African American Communities, 1924–1962 / Martin L. Johnson 71 4. The Politics of Vanishing Celluloid: Fort Rupert (1951) and the Kwakwaka'wakw in American Ethnographic Film / Colin Williamson 92 5. Red Star/Black Star: The Early Career of Film Editor Hortense "Tee" Beveridge, 1948–1968 / Walter Forsberg 112 6. Charles and Ray Eames's Day of the Dead (1957): Mexican Folk Art, Educational Film and Chicana/o Art / Colin Gunkel 136 7. Ever-Widening Horizons? The National Urban League and the Pathologization of Blackness in A Morning for Jimmy (1960) / Michelle Kelley 157 8. "A Touch of the Orient": Negotiating Japanese American Identity in The Challenge (1957) / Todd Kushigemachi and Dino Everett 175 9. "I Have My Choice": Behind Every Good Man (1967) and the Black Queer Subject in American Nontheatrical Film / Noah Tsika 194 10. Televising Watts: Joe Saltzman's Black on Black (1968) on KNXT / Joshua Glick 217 11. "A New Sense of Black Awareness"? Navigating Expectations in The Black Cop (1969) / Travis L. Wagner and Mark Garrett Cooper 236 12. "Don't Be a Segregationist: Program Films for Everyone": The New York Public Library's Film Library and Youth Film Workshops / Elena Rossi-Snook and Lauren Tilton 253 13. Teenage Moviemaking in the Lower East Side: The Rivington Street Film Club, 1966–1974 / Noelle Griffis 271 14. Ro-Revus Talks about Race: South Carolina Malnutrition and Parasite Films, 1968–1975 / Dan Streible 290 15. Government-Sponsored Film and Latinidad: Voice of La Raza (1973) / Laura Isabel Serna 313 16. An Aesthetics of Multiculturalism: Asian American Assimilation and the Learning Corporation of America's Many Americans Series (1970–1982) / Nadine Chan 333 17. "The Right Kind of Family": Memories to Light and the Home Movie as Racialized Technology / Crystal Mun-Hye Baik 353 18. Black Home Movies: Time to Represent / Jasmyn R. Castro 372 Selected Bibliography 392 Contributors 401 Index 403
£27.90
Duke University Press Latterday Screens
Book SynopsisBrenda R. Weber examines how the mediation of Mormonism through film, TV, blogs, YouTube videos, and memoirs functions as a means to understand conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, spirituality, capitalism, justice, and individualism in the United States.Trade Review“Smart, sassy, and full of provocative insight, this book shines a light on Mormonism, not as a religious tradition but as a ubiquitous cultural trope that is uniquely attuned to queerly mediated notions of sexuality and gender.” -- Dana Heller, editor of * Loving The L Word: The Complete Series in Focus *“Latter-day Screens is an amazing encyclopedic survey of the details of the Mormon Church and the place of Mormons in American popular culture. Drawing on cultural theories of mediation, mass culture, and film studies, Brenda R. Weber draws the reader into everything from aromatherapy oils to South Park parodies. Timely and relevant, and teachable for a range of classes, Latter-day Screens is an exceedingly important and interesting book.” -- Matthew Pratt Guterl, author of * Seeing Race in Modern America *"In Latter-day Screens, gender studies professor Brenda R. Weber examines pop culture’s ongoing fascination with Mormons. Mainstream media has given us a largely one-dimensional view of Mormonism: Sister Wives, Big Love, and even storylines on Love After Lockup present polygamy as the sum total of the religion. But Weber has another story to tell, one that’s about how Mormons are using pop culture—including TV shows, books, and YouTube videos—to find and enact their agency and rethink their conservative religion’s understanding of gender, sexuality, race, spirituality, and justice." -- Evette Dionne * Bitch *"A deep, provocative look at mass and social media portrayals of Mormons on the parts of both Mormons and non-Mormons. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- R. L. Saunders * Choice *"With its informative and enriching contextualization of its sources, Latter-day Screens provides a significant critical reading of Mormon media sources while also functioning as an innovative approach to Mormonism." -- Marie-Therese Mäder * Religion *"Weber makes a series of arguments, deeply informed by theories in media studies and gender and sexuality studies, about the interplay among actual Mormons and media characterizations of them. In the burgeoning field of Mormon Studies, this is a fresh approach." -- W. Michael Ashcraft * International Journal of the Study of New Religions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Past as Prologue: Latter-day Screens and History 1 Introduction. "Well, We Are a Curiosity, Ain't We?": Mediated Mormonism 13 1. Mormonism as Meme and Analytic: Spiritual Neoliberalism, Image Management, and Transmediated Salvation 49 2. The Mormon Glow: The Raced and Gendered Implications of Spectacular Visibility 91 3. The Epistemology of the (Televised, Polygamous) Closet: The Cultural Politics of Mediated Mormonism and the Promises of the American Dream 120 4. Polygamy USA: Visability, Charismatic Evil, and Gender Progressivism 162 5. Gender Trouble in Happy Valley: Choice, Affect, and Mormon Feminist Housewives 201 6. "Pray (and Obey) the Gay Away": Conscience and the Queer Politics of Desire 241 Conclusion. Afterthoughts and Latter Days 276 Epilogue. Mormons on My Mind, or, Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Hegemony I Learned in Mesa, Arizona 284 Notes 309 References 329 Media Archive 345 Index 361
£27.90
Duke University Press The Process Genre
Book SynopsisSalomé Aguilera Skvirsky theorizes the process genre—filmic genre characterized by its representation of chronologically ordered steps in which some form of labor results in a finished product.Trade Review“Thank goodness there are still film genres to discover! Covering a broad historical and geographical range, from Japan to Chile and from early cinema to YouTube, Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky's study of the cinematic work of work is both meticulously argued and strikingly original.” -- Jonathan Kahana, editor of * The Documentary Film Reader: History, Theory, Criticism *“After reading Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky's original take on the process genre one wonders why this essential cinematic genre had not been an object of systematic study earlier. The book draws on the genre's connection to modernity, cinema, magic, and technique, and it develops a textured reading of Latin American cinema and its discourses on labor. With examples ranging from slapstick to process manuals and art cinema, the book is impressive in its historical and contextual depth and textual deftness. Skvirsky's vivid readings convey the unavoidable interest in following a sequence of concerted steps toward a predefined end—in the cinema.” -- Ivone Margulies, author of * In Person: Reenactment in Postwar and Contemporary Cinema *"[The appeal of the process genre] is impossible to ignore while reading The Process Genre; even Skvirsky's step-by-step accounts of the texts she cites elicit a distinct sense of gratification." -- Madeline Collier * Film Quarterly *"The Process Cinema is the labour of love of a cinephile and academic pursuing a passion; it proves its own point by showing the great ideas that can sprout when humans engage in intellectual work. In this way, it also shows the ethical and political importance of extending this privilege to everyone, whether in the form of work or play." -- Juan Velasquez * Bright Lights Film Journal *"[An] absorptive and accomplished monograph.… Skvirsky's clear organization and approachable writing when engaging thematically rich areas make the book appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses both as a case study in its entirety and through individual chapters that offer new perspective into the cinematic treatment of topics such as labor, the nation, or affect.… For a book about the appeal of watching a precisely accomplished technique, The Process Genre illuminates the pleasure of reading a well-executed scholarly work." -- Juan Llamas-Rodriguez * Journal of Cinema and Media Studies *"A meticulous, carefully reasoned, and riveting polemic that argues that the process film is really about celebrating the centrality of work to human activity." -- Jonathan Buchsbaum * Discourse *“The Process Genre is clearly a labour of love.... The book’s points are accompanied by small black and white frames throughout, but also through a number of grids.... These beautifully produced and reproduced works in themselves add yet more to the great human pleasure of reading this book.” -- Helen Hughes * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *"The Process Genre is required reading for those working in the domains of useful cinema, visual anthropology, labor and capitalism, and national cinemas. . . . It is rare to find a book that brings together so many academic audiences and fields that tend to work independently in an opportunity to reorient our scholarship along our common interests. We need more books that do the same." -- Kit Hughes * New Review of Film and Television Studies *Table of ContentsA Note on the Art ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: The Process Genre 1 1. The Process Film in Context 51 2. On Being Absorbed in Work 77 3. Aestheticizing Labor 116 4. Nation Building 146 5. The Limits of the Genre 193 Epilogue: The Spoof That Proves the Rule 219 Notes 239 Bibliography 287 Index 305
£98.60
Duke University Press Fidel between the Lines
Book SynopsisLaura-Zoë Humphreys tracks late-socialist Cuba's changing dynamics of social criticism and censorship through Cuban cinema and its cultural politics.Trade Review“By complicating notions of censorship, criticism, and participatory politics in a repressive nation-state such as Cuba, Laura-Zoë Humphreys challenges prevailing interpretations of Cuban films as either supporting or criticizing the Revolution and its leader or as simply negotiating Cuba's political crisis. Drawing on personal interviews with directors and audiences, and textual analysis of films, articles, and reviews, Humphreys shows how allegorical filmmaking and spectators' ‘reading between the lines’ operate through political paranoia where spectators impose a political meaning on cinematic texts forcing filmmakers to defend their artistic creations.” -- Yeidy M. Rivero, author of * Broadcasting Modernity: Cuban Commercial Television, 1950–1960 *“Based on many years of fieldwork, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Cuban cinema and its cultural politics. Laura-Zoë Humphreys addresses canonical texts, both artistic and political, within the context of some of the island's most important cultural and political developments. This impressive accomplishment is both timely and extremely useful to the understanding of contemporary Cuba and to socialist and postsocialist cultures more broadly.” -- Masha Salazkina, author of * In Excess: Sergei Eisenstein’s Mexico *"Cinema has long held a privileged place in the Cuban public sphere, and this creative study represents a major advance in understanding the island’s cultural politics." -- D. West * Choice *“Fidel between the Lines is an examination of cinema and censorship, and it does an excellent job of trying to understand the various paradoxes and complications therein.... This is an energetic, highly readable, well-researched account that makes a valuable contribution to the field.” -- Guy Baron * New West Indian Guide *“Fidel between the Lines is backed by a sharp intellectual curiosity, deep observation, and meticulous research. It is the result of an anthropological effort that encompasses a wide-ranging assemblage of elements that contribute to a complete and well-informed analysis of the Cuban film-making reality during the past decades.” -- Hugo García González * Journal of Anthropological Research *“[Fidel between the Lines] is an energetic, highly readable, well-researched account that makes a valuable contribution to the field.” -- Guy Baron * New West Indian Guide *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Criticism from Within 1 1. Symptomologies of the State 27 2. Paranoid Readings and Ambivalent Allegories 60 3. Faith without Fidel 90 4. Staying and Suspicion 127 5. Montage in the Parenthesis 166 Coda: "Cuba está de moda" 209 Notes 231 References 265 Index 281
£98.60
Duke University Press Paris in the Dark
Book SynopsisEric Smoodin takes readers on a journey through the streets, cinemas, and theaters of Paris to sketch a comprehensive picture of French film culture during the 1930s and 1940s.Trade Review“Eric Smoodin is a delightful guide to Parisian movie theaters as they shaped the filmgoing experience in the decades of the 1930s and 1940s, from the coming of sound to the somber years of the German Occupation to the postwar efforts to rebuild film culture. Paris in the Dark is an outstanding study of the spaces and places of Parisian filmgoing and a major contribution to French film studies.” -- Judith Mayne, author of * Le Corbeau *“This meticulously researched study of French film exhibition charts the shifts in film culture during the early sound period, the German Occupation, and the postwar reconstruction. Eric Smoodin crafts a fascinating, street-level history of film culture through a savvy use of primary sources, industry surveys of spectators, and government studies. Enriched with case studies about stardom, ciné-clubs, and the rise of fascist violence, this book reminds us of the vitality and fragility of French film culture.” -- Kelley Conway, author of * Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film *"Through presenting incredibly meticulous research, which comes as the sum total of a forty-year pursuit of better understanding Paris' film culture, this work fills an essential gap in understanding the history of Parisian film exhibition by tracing the dimensions of moviegoing at the beginning of the sound era on through to the first films of the French New Wave. In addition to presenting a needed bridge between the Classical French Cinema and the New Wave, Paris in the Dark can be seen as an essential case study in the ongoing effort within the film studies discipline to redefine national cinema." -- David Morton * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *"Smoodin has written an immaculately researched tome…. His passion combined with his thorough ressearch present a truly unique and special examination of how people, culture, and space intersect." -- Eileen White * Journal of Popular Culture *"Smoodin has a dazzling grasp of French film history and its political underpinnings, and thus he gives us an astute social and historical analysis of the formation of cultural identity through film and its audiences, and he does it in a disarmingly casual style." -- Sandy Flitterman-Lewis * Cineaste *“Relying primarily on magazines, newspapers, and movie listings, Smoodin offers a different approach to conceptualizing French cinema from the beginning of the spoken era until just after Liberation. . . . [Paris in the Dark] offers an engaging perspective on Parisian filmgoing habits of the era.” -- Alexander Hertich * The French Review *“Smoodin’s work is an inspiring model of historical exhibition study. Future scholarship would do well to return to this trove of newly digitized primary material to continue unspooling these golden threads.” -- Colleen Kennedy-Karpat * History *“[Paris in the Dark] takes the reader on a series of illuminating voyages through Parisian film culture in this eventful period. Despite its modest length, it covers considerable ground in hitherto largely uncharted territory.” -- Michael Witt * French Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. A Walking Tour: 1930–1981 1 1. The Cinemas and the Films: 1931–1933 21 2. The Ciné-Clubs: 1930–1944 41 3. Chevalier and Dietrich: 1929–1935 60 4. Violence at the Cinema: 1930–1944 76 5. Occupied Paris: 1939–1944, 2009 99 6. Liberation Cinema, Postwar Cinema: 1944–1949 122 Conclusion. A Final Stroll, 1948–1954: 1980–2016 147 Notes 157 Bibliography 181 Index 189
£90.10
Duke University Press Fidel between the Lines
Book SynopsisLaura-Zoë Humphreys tracks late-socialist Cuba's changing dynamics of social criticism and censorship through Cuban cinema and its cultural politics.Trade Review“By complicating notions of censorship, criticism, and participatory politics in a repressive nation-state such as Cuba, Laura-Zoë Humphreys challenges prevailing interpretations of Cuban films as either supporting or criticizing the Revolution and its leader or as simply negotiating Cuba's political crisis. Drawing on personal interviews with directors and audiences, and textual analysis of films, articles, and reviews, Humphreys shows how allegorical filmmaking and spectators' ‘reading between the lines’ operate through political paranoia where spectators impose a political meaning on cinematic texts forcing filmmakers to defend their artistic creations.” -- Yeidy M. Rivero, author of * Broadcasting Modernity: Cuban Commercial Television, 1950–1960 *“Based on many years of fieldwork, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Cuban cinema and its cultural politics. Laura-Zoë Humphreys addresses canonical texts, both artistic and political, within the context of some of the island's most important cultural and political developments. This impressive accomplishment is both timely and extremely useful to the understanding of contemporary Cuba and to socialist and postsocialist cultures more broadly.” -- Masha Salazkina, author of * In Excess: Sergei Eisenstein’s Mexico *"Cinema has long held a privileged place in the Cuban public sphere, and this creative study represents a major advance in understanding the island’s cultural politics." -- D. West * Choice *“Fidel between the Lines is an examination of cinema and censorship, and it does an excellent job of trying to understand the various paradoxes and complications therein.... This is an energetic, highly readable, well-researched account that makes a valuable contribution to the field.” -- Guy Baron * New West Indian Guide *“Fidel between the Lines is backed by a sharp intellectual curiosity, deep observation, and meticulous research. It is the result of an anthropological effort that encompasses a wide-ranging assemblage of elements that contribute to a complete and well-informed analysis of the Cuban film-making reality during the past decades.” -- Hugo García González * Journal of Anthropological Research *“[Fidel between the Lines] is an energetic, highly readable, well-researched account that makes a valuable contribution to the field.” -- Guy Baron * New West Indian Guide *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Criticism from Within 1 1. Symptomologies of the State 27 2. Paranoid Readings and Ambivalent Allegories 60 3. Faith without Fidel 90 4. Staying and Suspicion 127 5. Montage in the Parenthesis 166 Coda: "Cuba está de moda" 209 Notes 231 References 265 Index 281
£25.19
Duke University Press Urban Horror
Book SynopsisIn Urban Horror Erin Y. Huang theorizes the economic, cultural, and political conditions of neoliberal post-socialist China. Drawing on Marxist phenomenology, geography, and aesthetics from Engels and Merleau-Ponty to Lefebvre and Rancière, Huang traces the emergence and mediation of what she calls urban horror—a sociopolitical public affect that exceeds comprehension and provides the grounds for possible future revolutionary dissent. She shows how documentaries, blockbuster feature films, and video art from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan made between the 1990s and the present rehearse and communicate urban horror. In these films urban horror circulates through myriad urban spaces characterized by the creation of speculative crises, shifting temporalities, and dystopic environments inhospitable to the human body. The cinematic image and the aesthetics of urban horror in neoliberal post-socialist China lay the groundwork for the future to such an extent, Huang contendsTrade Review“What is ‘horror’ in the contemporary world? With reference to numerous interesting Chinese-language films, Erin Y. Huang argues that horror is a morphing assemblage of sociohistorical forces, one that creates a disjuncture between a perceived external reality and an internal frame of comprehension. An admirably timely statement on the often hypermedial—and horrific—performativity of urban public sentiments, in post-socialist China as in EuroAmerica and beyond.” -- Rey Chow, author of * Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films: Attachment in the Age of Global Visibility *“In this visionary book Erin Y. Huang lays out a new epistemology of the political, cultural, and affective present while gesturing toward desirable futures. This book will galvanize the study of Chinese cinema and interdisciplinary studies of the urban; it will be of unique interest to all those across the humanities who are striving to decipher the logics of the global, neoliberal present. Like no other book, Urban Horror makes the affective, political, and material contours of the contemporary Asian city available to social theory. A vitally innovative work.” -- Arnika Fuhrmann, author of * Ghostly Desires: Queer Sexuality and Vernacular Buddhism in Contemporary Thai Cinema *“What makes Urban Horror particularly valuable is Huang’s attention to historical and cultural specificity in her application of Western theories. For example, in her discussion of Li Shaohong’s films, she avoids taking feminism as a transhistorical and universal category. Rather, she excavates the nuanced and complex meanings of Chinese femininity to theorize postsocialist feminism within the context of modern and socialist Chinese history…. Huang’s theoretical approach is an excellent model for contextualizing Western theories and philosophies for Asian studies.” -- Li Zeng * Film Quarterly *“Huang’s close reading of films and theoretical texts is lucid and persuasive.... Urban Horror is suitable not only for readers who are interested in understanding the post-socialist condition in China but also those who are generally drawn to the long-standing academic tradition of theorizing the relationship between aesthetics and politics....” -- Ziwei Chen * Asiascape *“Few books can be timelier than Erin Y. Huang’s erudite and insightful Urban Horror.... Huang could not have foreseen the emergence of COVID-19 when writing, but it has certainly amplified the resonance of her work.” -- Chris Berry * The China Journal *“Huang’s study is impressive in her sophisticated theoretical analysis and innovative textual readings. I highly recommend [Urban Horror] to scholars and students in the fields of contemporary Chinese or Sinophone studies, film and media studies, urban studies, as well as studies of affect and sensuality.” -- Yu Zhang * Journal of Asian Studies *“Urban Horror is a sprawling, complex, and challenging book, full of acute theoretical insights and detailed close readings of narrative and documentary films. . . . [It] is a powerful and timely piece of speculative theory and film criticism, a pressing read for scholars of modern and contemporary China, film and media studies, and the study of postsocialist culture.” -- Hongwei Thorn Chen * MCLC Resource Center *“Urban Horror provides a fascinating read especially for those interested in bringing together economic and cultural histories of the recent past. . . . Urban Horror is an indispensable read for any historian trying to get a grasp of the relation between popular culture and public sentiment in the neoliberal era.” -- Dennis Koelling * European Review of History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Urban Horror: Speculative Futures of Chinese Cinemas 1 1. Cartographies of Socialism and Post-Socialism: The Factory Gate and the Threshold of the Visible World 33 2. Intimate Dystopias: Post-Socialist Femininity and the Marxist-Feminist Interior 69 3. The Post- as Media Time: Documentary Experiments and the Rhetoric of Ruin Gazing 101 4. Post-Socialism in Hong Kong: Zone Urbanism and Marxist Phenomenology 146 5. The Ethics of Representing Precarity: Film in the Era of Global Complicity 184 Epilogue 218 Notes 223 Bibliography 245 Index 259
£98.60
Duke University Press Reattachment Theory
Book SynopsisIn Reattachment Theory Lee Wallace argues that homosexuality—far from being the threat to “traditional” marriage that same-sex marriage opponents have asserted—is so integral to its reimagining that all marriage is gay marriage. Drawing on the history of marriage, Stanley Cavell''s analysis of Hollywood comedies of remarriage, and readings of recent gay and lesbian films, Wallace shows that queer experiments in domesticity have reshaped the affective and erotic horizons of heterosexual marriage and its defining principles: fidelity, exclusivity, and endurance. Wallace analyzes a series of films—Dorothy Arzner''s Craig''s Wife (1936); Tom Ford''s A Single Man (2009); Lisa Cholodenko''s High Art (1998), Laurel Canyon (2002), and The Kids Are All Right (2010); and Andrew Haigh''s Weekend (2011) and 45 Years (2015)—that, she contends, do not simply reflect social and legal changes; they fundamentallTrade Review“Gay marriage: heteronormative capture or homophobia's social cure? If Lee Wallace gets her way, we will be liberated from thinking about gay marriage in these reductive terms forever. Insightful, nervy, and unapologetic, Reattachment Theory makes a case for gay marriage as central to the history of sexual modernity.” -- Robyn Wiegman, Professor of Literature, Duke University“Reattachment Theory is a pointed engagement with contemporary queer theory and politics, making the fresh and compelling argument that homosexuality rescripted the marriage plot long before the legalization of same-sex marriage. Lee Wallace is an extraordinarily gifted close reader who sets new terms for queer marriage debates and film theory alike.” -- Patricia White, author of * Women’s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms *"This well-researched, clearly argued, beautifully written, and brave book has few flaws." -- Elizabeth Freeman * Critical Inquiry *
£98.60
Duke University Press Paris in the Dark
Book SynopsisIn Paris in the Dark Eric Smoodin takes readers on a journey through the streets, cinemas, and theaters of Paris to sketch a comprehensive picture of French film culture during the 1930s and 1940s. Drawing on a wealth of journalistic sources, Smoodin recounts the ways films moved through the city, the favored stars, and what it was like to go to the movies in a city with hundreds of cinemas. In a single week in the early 1930s, moviegoers might see Hollywood features like King Kong and Frankenstein, the new Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier movies, and any number of films from Italy, Germany, and Russia. Or they could frequent the city's cine-clubs, which were hosts to the cinephile subcultures of Paris. At other times, a night at the movies might result in an evening of fascist violence, even before the German Occupation of Paris, while after the war the city's cinemas formed the space for reconsolidating French film culture. In mapping the cinematic geography of Paris, Smoodin expands understandings of local film exhibition and the relationships of movies to urban space.Trade Review“Eric Smoodin is a delightful guide to Parisian movie theaters as they shaped the filmgoing experience in the decades of the 1930s and 1940s, from the coming of sound to the somber years of the German Occupation to the postwar efforts to rebuild film culture. Paris in the Dark is an outstanding study of the spaces and places of Parisian filmgoing and a major contribution to French film studies.” -- Judith Mayne, author of * Le Corbeau *“This meticulously researched study of French film exhibition charts the shifts in film culture during the early sound period, the German Occupation, and the postwar reconstruction. Eric Smoodin crafts a fascinating, street-level history of film culture through a savvy use of primary sources, industry surveys of spectators, and government studies. Enriched with case studies about stardom, ciné-clubs, and the rise of fascist violence, this book reminds us of the vitality and fragility of French film culture.” -- Kelley Conway, author of * Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film *"Through presenting incredibly meticulous research, which comes as the sum total of a forty-year pursuit of better understanding Paris' film culture, this work fills an essential gap in understanding the history of Parisian film exhibition by tracing the dimensions of moviegoing at the beginning of the sound era on through to the first films of the French New Wave. In addition to presenting a needed bridge between the Classical French Cinema and the New Wave, Paris in the Dark can be seen as an essential case study in the ongoing effort within the film studies discipline to redefine national cinema." -- David Morton * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *"Smoodin has written an immaculately researched tome…. His passion combined with his thorough ressearch present a truly unique and special examination of how people, culture, and space intersect." -- Eileen White * Journal of Popular Culture *"Smoodin has a dazzling grasp of French film history and its political underpinnings, and thus he gives us an astute social and historical analysis of the formation of cultural identity through film and its audiences, and he does it in a disarmingly casual style." -- Sandy Flitterman-Lewis * Cineaste *“Relying primarily on magazines, newspapers, and movie listings, Smoodin offers a different approach to conceptualizing French cinema from the beginning of the spoken era until just after Liberation. . . . [Paris in the Dark] offers an engaging perspective on Parisian filmgoing habits of the era.” -- Alexander Hertich * The French Review *“Smoodin’s work is an inspiring model of historical exhibition study. Future scholarship would do well to return to this trove of newly digitized primary material to continue unspooling these golden threads.” -- Colleen Kennedy-Karpat * History *“[Paris in the Dark] takes the reader on a series of illuminating voyages through Parisian film culture in this eventful period. Despite its modest length, it covers considerable ground in hitherto largely uncharted territory.” -- Michael Witt * French Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. A Walking Tour: 1930–1981 1 1. The Cinemas and the Films: 1931–1933 21 2. The Ciné-Clubs: 1930–1944 41 3. Chevalier and Dietrich: 1929–1935 60 4. Violence at the Cinema: 1930–1944 76 5. Occupied Paris: 1939–1944, 2009 99 6. Liberation Cinema, Postwar Cinema: 1944–1949 122 Conclusion. A Final Stroll, 1948–1954: 1980–2016 147 Notes 157 Bibliography 181 Index 189
£22.49
Duke University Press Underglobalization
Book SynopsisFocusing on a wide range of media technologies and practices in Beijing, Joshua Neves examines the cultural politics of the fake and how frictions between legality and legitimacy propel dominant models of economic development and political life in contemporary China.Trade Review“Through a meticulous and multivalent study of the many discourses and practices around the fake, Joshua Neves provides us a kaleidoscopic and fascinating view of the sociality and media culture of contemporary Beijing, China, Asia, and the world. This truly interdisciplinary work draws resources from many fields and many cultures, and it demonstrates vividly how the logic of development densely infiltrates our mentality and ways of living.” -- Laikwan Pang, author of * Creativity and Its Discontents: China’s Creative Industries and Intellectual Property Rights Offense *“Joshua Neves treats the transformations of Beijing's cityscape as an experienced physical reality, an imagined construct in popular culture and art, and representative of what is happening in China. By disclosing what is distinctive and elusive about China's seemingly triumphant developmental nation-building project, Neves makes a provocative intervention at the nexus of several interdisciplinary subfields, from urban media studies and Asian developmental studies to postsocialism studies and global subaltern studies.” -- Dilip P. Gaonkar, Professor in Rhetoric and Public Culture, Northwestern University"Neves has written a meticulously sourced analysis of the cultural transformation of societies, focusing on the appearance of fakes and forgeries in China. . . . Recommended. Graduate students and faculty researchers." -- S. C. Hart * Choice *"The experience of reading Joshua Neves's Underglobalization is a bit like watching an experimental film.… Bringing an innovative approach to media that focuses on forms, technologies, practices, and infrastructures, Neves has produced a captivating account that challenges the methodological complacencies of much scholarship at the intersection of China, media, and globalization." -- Fan Yang * Film Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. After Legitimacy 1 1. Rendering the City: Between Ruins and Blueprints 33 2. Digital Urbanism: Piratical Citizenship and the Infrastructure of Dissensus 61 3. Bricks and Media: Cinema's Technologized Spatiality 94 4. Beijing en Abyme: Television and the Unhomely Social 120 5. Videation: Technological Intimacy and the Politics of Global Connection 150 6. People as Media Infrastructure: Illicit Culture and the Pornographics of Globalization 169 Notes 169 Bibliography 227 Index 245
£98.60
Duke University Press Underglobalization
Book SynopsisDespite China's recent emergence as a major global economic and geopolitical power, its association with counterfeit goods and intellectual property piracy has led many in the West to dismiss its urbanization and globalization as suspect or inauthentic. In Underglobalization Joshua Neves examines the cultural politics of the fake and how frictions between legality and legitimacy propel dominant models of economic development and political life in contemporary China. Focusing on a wide range of media technologies and practices in Beijing, Neves shows how piracy and fakes are manifestations of what he calls underglobalization-the ways social actors undermine and refuse to implement the specific procedures and protocols required by globalization at different scales. By tracking the rise of fake politics and transformations in political society, in China and globally, Neves demonstrates that they are alternate outcomes of globalizing processes rather than anathema to them.Trade Review“Through a meticulous and multivalent study of the many discourses and practices around the fake, Joshua Neves provides us a kaleidoscopic and fascinating view of the sociality and media culture of contemporary Beijing, China, Asia, and the world. This truly interdisciplinary work draws resources from many fields and many cultures, and it demonstrates vividly how the logic of development densely infiltrates our mentality and ways of living.” -- Laikwan Pang, author of * Creativity and Its Discontents: China’s Creative Industries and Intellectual Property Rights Offense *“Joshua Neves treats the transformations of Beijing's cityscape as an experienced physical reality, an imagined construct in popular culture and art, and representative of what is happening in China. By disclosing what is distinctive and elusive about China's seemingly triumphant developmental nation-building project, Neves makes a provocative intervention at the nexus of several interdisciplinary subfields, from urban media studies and Asian developmental studies to postsocialism studies and global subaltern studies.” -- Dilip P. Gaonkar, Professor in Rhetoric and Public Culture, Northwestern University"Neves has written a meticulously sourced analysis of the cultural transformation of societies, focusing on the appearance of fakes and forgeries in China. . . . Recommended. Graduate students and faculty researchers." -- S. C. Hart * Choice *"The experience of reading Joshua Neves's Underglobalization is a bit like watching an experimental film.… Bringing an innovative approach to media that focuses on forms, technologies, practices, and infrastructures, Neves has produced a captivating account that challenges the methodological complacencies of much scholarship at the intersection of China, media, and globalization." -- Fan Yang * Film Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. After Legitimacy 1 1. Rendering the City: Between Ruins and Blueprints 33 2. Digital Urbanism: Piratical Citizenship and the Infrastructure of Dissensus 61 3. Bricks and Media: Cinema's Technologized Spatiality 94 4. Beijing en Abyme: Television and the Unhomely Social 120 5. Videation: Technological Intimacy and the Politics of Global Connection 150 6. People as Media Infrastructure: Illicit Culture and the Pornographics of Globalization 169 Notes 169 Bibliography 227 Index 245
£25.19
Duke University Press Urban Horror
Book SynopsisIn Urban Horror Erin Y. Huang theorizes the economic, cultural, and political conditions of neoliberal post-socialist China. Drawing on Marxist phenomenology, geography, and aesthetics from Engels and Merleau-Ponty to Lefebvre and RanciÈre, Huang traces the emergence and mediation of what she calls urban horror-a sociopolitical public affect that exceeds comprehension and provides the grounds for possible future revolutionary dissent. She shows how documentaries, blockbuster feature films, and video art from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan made between the 1990s and the present rehearse and communicate urban horror. In these films urban horror circulates through myriad urban spaces characterized by the creation of speculative crises, shifting temporalities, and dystopic environments inhospitable to the human body. The cinematic image and the aesthetics of urban horror in neoliberal post-socialist China lay the groundwork for the future to such an extent, Huang contends, that the seeds of dissent at the heart of urban horror make it possible to imagine new forms of resistance.Trade Review“What is ‘horror’ in the contemporary world? With reference to numerous interesting Chinese-language films, Erin Y. Huang argues that horror is a morphing assemblage of sociohistorical forces, one that creates a disjuncture between a perceived external reality and an internal frame of comprehension. An admirably timely statement on the often hypermedial—and horrific—performativity of urban public sentiments, in post-socialist China as in EuroAmerica and beyond.” -- Rey Chow, author of * Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films: Attachment in the Age of Global Visibility *“In this visionary book Erin Y. Huang lays out a new epistemology of the political, cultural, and affective present while gesturing toward desirable futures. This book will galvanize the study of Chinese cinema and interdisciplinary studies of the urban; it will be of unique interest to all those across the humanities who are striving to decipher the logics of the global, neoliberal present. Like no other book, Urban Horror makes the affective, political, and material contours of the contemporary Asian city available to social theory. A vitally innovative work.” -- Arnika Fuhrmann, author of * Ghostly Desires: Queer Sexuality and Vernacular Buddhism in Contemporary Thai Cinema *“What makes Urban Horror particularly valuable is Huang’s attention to historical and cultural specificity in her application of Western theories. For example, in her discussion of Li Shaohong’s films, she avoids taking feminism as a transhistorical and universal category. Rather, she excavates the nuanced and complex meanings of Chinese femininity to theorize postsocialist feminism within the context of modern and socialist Chinese history…. Huang’s theoretical approach is an excellent model for contextualizing Western theories and philosophies for Asian studies.” -- Li Zeng * Film Quarterly *“Huang’s close reading of films and theoretical texts is lucid and persuasive.... Urban Horror is suitable not only for readers who are interested in understanding the post-socialist condition in China but also those who are generally drawn to the long-standing academic tradition of theorizing the relationship between aesthetics and politics....” -- Ziwei Chen * Asiascape *“Few books can be timelier than Erin Y. Huang’s erudite and insightful Urban Horror.... Huang could not have foreseen the emergence of COVID-19 when writing, but it has certainly amplified the resonance of her work.” -- Chris Berry * The China Journal *“Huang’s study is impressive in her sophisticated theoretical analysis and innovative textual readings. I highly recommend [Urban Horror] to scholars and students in the fields of contemporary Chinese or Sinophone studies, film and media studies, urban studies, as well as studies of affect and sensuality.” -- Yu Zhang * Journal of Asian Studies *“Urban Horror is a sprawling, complex, and challenging book, full of acute theoretical insights and detailed close readings of narrative and documentary films. . . . [It] is a powerful and timely piece of speculative theory and film criticism, a pressing read for scholars of modern and contemporary China, film and media studies, and the study of postsocialist culture.” -- Hongwei Thorn Chen * MCLC Resource Center *“Urban Horror provides a fascinating read especially for those interested in bringing together economic and cultural histories of the recent past. . . . Urban Horror is an indispensable read for any historian trying to get a grasp of the relation between popular culture and public sentiment in the neoliberal era.” -- Dennis Koelling * European Review of History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Urban Horror: Speculative Futures of Chinese Cinemas 1 1. Cartographies of Socialism and Post-Socialism: The Factory Gate and the Threshold of the Visible World 33 2. Intimate Dystopias: Post-Socialist Femininity and the Marxist-Feminist Interior 69 3. The Post- as Media Time: Documentary Experiments and the Rhetoric of Ruin Gazing 101 4. Post-Socialism in Hong Kong: Zone Urbanism and Marxist Phenomenology 146 5. The Ethics of Representing Precarity: Film in the Era of Global Complicity 184 Epilogue 218 Notes 223 Bibliography 245 Index 259
£25.19
Duke University Press Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema
Book SynopsisDaisuke Miyao reveals the undetected influence that Japanese art and aesthetics had on early cinema and the pioneering films of the Lumiére brothers.Trade Review“A major scholar of the cinema of Japan, Daisuke Miyao is especially adept at discerning the connections between Japanese and other film cultures. His new book, which explores the cultural relationship between Japan and France, brings many aspects of cinema's earliest years to light. He uncovers a tremendous amount of new material in Japanese and French that specialists in Japanese cinema and the invention of cinema will find fascinating.” -- Tom Gunning, coauthor of * Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema *“In this remarkably ambitious study Daisuke Miyao complicates our understanding of Orientalism in early cinema: instead of being something that the West does to a passive East, Orientalism becomes a multipronged adaptation of artistic techniques that originated in Japan and were exported to France. Along the way we learn a great deal about the emergence of female film actors in Japan and the interrelationship between image composition in painting and cinema. An excellent and important book.” -- Michael Bourdaghs, author of * Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop *"This fascinating study examines the relationship between the birth of Japanese cinema and the Lumière brothers' company in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. . . . The author is careful and succinct in making his point, and he provides myriad citations. This well-documented book will be valuable for art historians and Asia specialists as well as for those studying film. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, professionals." -- G. R. Butters Jr * Choice *"The book does not waste a single word.… This is an important book upon which scholarship will rely in the future. It opens the door to new avenues of research." -- Sonia Coman * Journal of Japonisme *"This is both a focused and wide-ranging book which will beguile scholars of cinema, art historians, and anyone interested in east-west relations and in the part played by contingency in the history of cultural exchange." -- Akane Kawakami * French Studies *"This is a fascinating book, well researched and well illustrated, which sheds light on an important two-way intersection between Japanese and Western artistic cultures and on how that intersection shaped the technique, imagery and narrative strategies of an emerging artistic medium." -- Alexander Jacoby * Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film *"A very timely and provocative attempt to decipher the entangled relationships among Orientalism, early cinema, and Japanese modernization." -- Naoki Yamamoto * The Journal of Japanese Studies *"The book is written in accessible prose for both a specialist and wider audience, while the main arguments are clear and coherent, and easy to follow. . . . Miyao examines the transnational flows of cinema between Japan and France, and the crosscultural exchanges between fine arts, photography and cinema in the early period, and provides a fertile reading of the development of early cinema at the time of imperialist projects, and charts new avenues for future research on the relationship between cinema and visual cultural studies. This book would certainly appeal to scholars working in areas of early cinema, cultural history, art history, Japanese cinema, French cinema, and transnational cinema." -- Ana Grgic * Early Popular Visual Culture *"Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema fills a gap between film history, Japonisme, and the Orientalist discourse and brings a new perspective into these fields. Backed up by a close examination of a large number of primary sources, including the 1428 Lumière films and plenty of photographs and paintings, Miyao not only presents a solid statement about the correlation between Japonisme and the birth of cinema and the two-way communication between Japanese culture and the Western world but also provides a unique approach to the discussion of Eurocentrism and the West/East opposition." -- Ruoyi Bian * Film Criticism *"Miyao’s account of the birth of cinema is remarkable in a number of respects. Not only does it open new dimensions for aesthetic analysis of early cinema but it also does so through a serious engagement with its transnational formation and local specificity, without losing sight of the ways in which the aesthetic potential of cinematic expression lent itself to different kinds of capture. Perhaps most remarkably, Miyao makes the history of early cinema feel newly relevant to how we understand the global culture of contemporary Japan. Looking at cinema when it was new allows him to discover something about it that was never old." -- Thomas Lamarre * Art Journal *
£90.10
Duke University Press American Blockbuster
Book SynopsisBen-Hur (1959), Jaws (1975), Avatar (2009), Wonder Woman (2017): the blockbuster movie has held a dominant position in American popular culture for decades. In American Blockbuster Charles R. Acland charts the origins, impact, and dynamics of this most visible, entertaining, and disparaged cultural form. Acland narrates how blockbusters emerged from Hollywood''s turn to a hit-driven focus during the industry''s business crisis in the 1950s. Movies became bigger, louder, and more spectacular. They also became prototypes for ideas and commodities associated with the future of technology and culture, accelerating the prominence of technological innovation in modern American life. Acland shows that blockbusters continue to be more than just movies; they are industrial strategies and complex cultural machines designed to normalize the ideologies of our technological age.Trade Review“Charles R. Acland has written an astute, masterful genealogy of the film critic's kryptonite: the blockbuster. Bringing clarity to the massive films that hide from scholars in plain view, Acland shows just how complex and unstable ostensibly self-evident genre and trade terms can be. Beyond a film history, this wide-ranging book offers a prototype for multi-modal historiographic method and incisive film analysis in an era of big data and digital humanities. Far more than an origin story, Acland's reverse engineering lays bare the struggles behind the management of Hollywood's blockbuster category, the fabrication of overdone artlessness. A must-read in film and media studies.” -- John Thornton Caldwell, author of * Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television *“No other book traces the emergence of the stabilization of Hollywood's blockbuster strategy as deftly as American Blockbuster. Charles R. Acland's powerful synthesis of historical analysis and cultural theory, along with his assessment of Hollywood's blockbuster economy—and of the studios’ prevailing blockbuster aesthetic—will have a significant impact.” -- Thomas Schatz, author of * The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era *“This is a stunningly insightful and comprehensive study of the blockbuster that contributes new historical, cultural, and critical perspectives on a definitive phenomenon in American cinema. Through impeccable research and lucid writing, Charles R. Acland ultimately shows us how movie blockbusters have functioned to drive and to legitimate the ‘technological exhibitionism’ that lies at the heart not only of the film industry but also of society more broadly, offering a rich assessment of why these films are among the most consequential popular art forms in modern times.” -- Barbara Klinger, Indiana University"A crucial addition to the burgeoning scholarship on contemporary Hollywood cinema, this deeply researched, densely reasoned book explodes a number of well-worn myths about the blockbuster film while advancing a provocative new thesis about its role in modern society. Drawing on a wealth of historical data, Acland demonstrates conclusively that the origins of blockbuster cinema lie not in the 1970s—as critics pointing to the mammoth success of movies like Jaws have often argued—but in the 1950s with the creation of such Hollywood super-productions as Ben-Hur. . . . [T]his landmark book illuminates much about US cinema and culture. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- I. Olney * Choice *"Acland’s intelligent and unexpectedly absorbing book is the origin story of a World War II weapon that became synonymous with a postwar Hollywood economic strategy. . . ." -- Carrie Rickey * Film Quarterly *“American Blockbuster is an important study.... Acland successfully links midcentury Hollywood production history to today’s big budget spectacles and convincingly demonstrates their related appeal to audiences.” -- Richard Ravalli * Business History *"Acland's examination of the blockbuster film reveals much about not only the genre itself, but about the culture that produces and consumes this form of entertainment. For these reasons, and since the blockbuster has long-remained such a vital part of popular culture, Acland's American Blockbuster makes an important contribution to an ongoing dialog about the film category and its cultural impacts." -- Heather Duerre Humann * Journal of Popular Film and Television *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Part I. The Spectacle Industry 1. Blockbuster Ballyhoo 3 2. Industrial Regimes of Entertainment 35 Part II. The Rise of the Blockbuster 3. Delivering Blockbusters 87 4. The Business of Big 124 5. Hollywood's Return 160 6. Cosmopolitan Artlessness 191 Part III. The Technological Sublime of Entertainment Everywhere 7. The End of James Cameron's Quiet Years 233 8. The Technological Heart of Movie Culture 266 Epilogue. Exhausted Entertainment 296 Notes 305 Filmography 337 Bibliography 347 Index
£85.50
Duke University Press Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema
Book SynopsisDaisuke Miyao reveals the undetected influence that Japanese art and aesthetics had on early cinema and the pioneering films of the Lumiére brothers.Trade Review“A major scholar of the cinema of Japan, Daisuke Miyao is especially adept at discerning the connections between Japanese and other film cultures. His new book, which explores the cultural relationship between Japan and France, brings many aspects of cinema's earliest years to light. He uncovers a tremendous amount of new material in Japanese and French that specialists in Japanese cinema and the invention of cinema will find fascinating.” -- Tom Gunning, coauthor of * Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema *“In this remarkably ambitious study Daisuke Miyao complicates our understanding of Orientalism in early cinema: instead of being something that the West does to a passive East, Orientalism becomes a multipronged adaptation of artistic techniques that originated in Japan and were exported to France. Along the way we learn a great deal about the emergence of female film actors in Japan and the interrelationship between image composition in painting and cinema. An excellent and important book.” -- Michael Bourdaghs, author of * Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop *"This fascinating study examines the relationship between the birth of Japanese cinema and the Lumière brothers' company in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. . . . The author is careful and succinct in making his point, and he provides myriad citations. This well-documented book will be valuable for art historians and Asia specialists as well as for those studying film. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, professionals." -- G. R. Butters Jr * Choice *"The book does not waste a single word.… This is an important book upon which scholarship will rely in the future. It opens the door to new avenues of research." -- Sonia Coman * Journal of Japonisme *"This is both a focused and wide-ranging book which will beguile scholars of cinema, art historians, and anyone interested in east-west relations and in the part played by contingency in the history of cultural exchange." -- Akane Kawakami * French Studies *"This is a fascinating book, well researched and well illustrated, which sheds light on an important two-way intersection between Japanese and Western artistic cultures and on how that intersection shaped the technique, imagery and narrative strategies of an emerging artistic medium." -- Alexander Jacoby * Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film *"A very timely and provocative attempt to decipher the entangled relationships among Orientalism, early cinema, and Japanese modernization." -- Naoki Yamamoto * The Journal of Japanese Studies *"The book is written in accessible prose for both a specialist and wider audience, while the main arguments are clear and coherent, and easy to follow. . . . Miyao examines the transnational flows of cinema between Japan and France, and the crosscultural exchanges between fine arts, photography and cinema in the early period, and provides a fertile reading of the development of early cinema at the time of imperialist projects, and charts new avenues for future research on the relationship between cinema and visual cultural studies. This book would certainly appeal to scholars working in areas of early cinema, cultural history, art history, Japanese cinema, French cinema, and transnational cinema." -- Ana Grgic * Early Popular Visual Culture *"Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema fills a gap between film history, Japonisme, and the Orientalist discourse and brings a new perspective into these fields. Backed up by a close examination of a large number of primary sources, including the 1428 Lumière films and plenty of photographs and paintings, Miyao not only presents a solid statement about the correlation between Japonisme and the birth of cinema and the two-way communication between Japanese culture and the Western world but also provides a unique approach to the discussion of Eurocentrism and the West/East opposition." -- Ruoyi Bian * Film Criticism *"Miyao’s account of the birth of cinema is remarkable in a number of respects. Not only does it open new dimensions for aesthetic analysis of early cinema but it also does so through a serious engagement with its transnational formation and local specificity, without losing sight of the ways in which the aesthetic potential of cinematic expression lent itself to different kinds of capture. Perhaps most remarkably, Miyao makes the history of early cinema feel newly relevant to how we understand the global culture of contemporary Japan. Looking at cinema when it was new allows him to discover something about it that was never old." -- Thomas Lamarre * Art Journal *
£22.49
Duke University Press Revisiting Womens Cinema
Book SynopsisIn Revisiting Women’s Cinema, Lingzhen Wang ponders the roots of contemporary feminist stagnation and the limits of both commercial mainstream and elite minor cultures by turning to socialist women filmmakers in modern China. She foregrounds their sociopolitical engagements, critical interventions, and popular artistic experiments, offering a new conception of socialist and postsocialist feminisms, mainstream culture, and women’s cinema. Wang highlights the films of Wang Ping and Dong Kena in the 1950s and 1960s and Zhang Nuanxin and Huang Shuqin in the 1980s and 1990s to unveil how they have been profoundly misread through extant research paradigms entrenched in Western Cold War ideology, post-second-wave cultural feminism, and post-Mao intellectual discourses. Challenging received interpretations, she elucidates how socialist feminism and culture were conceptualized and practiced in relation to China’s search not only for national independence and economic deTrade Review“Insisting we hear, listen, and see the voices and actions of women filmmakers in China, Lingzhen Wang provides a nuanced examination of women's cinema and feminism that attends to national and transnational trajectories. She develops theoretically sophisticated and politically incisive critiques of how dominant frameworks in socialist China and throughout the world configured the realms of possibility for making, seeing, and recognizing socialist and Chinese women's mainstream film. An exciting, innovative, and theoretically rich project.” -- Tina Mai Chen, coeditor of * Film, History, and Cultural Citizenship: Sites of Production *“Lingzhen Wang is the first Chinese scholar writing in English to point out the eerie parallels between post-Mao feminism and post-second-wave Anglo-European feminism as she negotiates the political legacies of two cultures, illuminating the traditions of the one for the other. Revisiting Women's Cinema is likely to rock the history of world cinema and inspire a resurgence of interest in the project of globalizing feminist film and media theory. I can think of no other book on feminism and motion picture film history that is more important to the field than this one.” -- Jane Gaines, Professor of Film, Columbia University"Revisiting Women’s Cinema is a rich and thought-provoking revisionist account of Chinese women’s cinema. . . . In addition to reinvigorating feminist theory, the book opens up new avenues for exploring the interaction of the political and the aesthetic, the mainstream and the experimental in Chinese cinema." -- Xiaoning Lu * The China Quarterly *
£75.65
Duke University Press Experts in Action
Book SynopsisLauren Steimer examines how Hong Kong-influenced action movie aesthetics and stunt techniques have been taken up, imitated, and reinvented in other locations and production contexts around the globe.Trade Review“Experts in Action is a rich, painstakingly researched work on the evolutions of global stunt acting as a mode of performance. It beautifully shifts conversations about expertise into the realms of fandom, without relinquishing the rigor of its mixed methods engaging production history, performance studies, and transnational media theory. There's nothing at all like it in other accounts of Hong Kong cinema, and its consideration of the craft of stunt techniques is matched by the craft and meticulousness of Lauren Steimer's prose.” -- Karen Tongson, author of * Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries *“With high ambition and conceptual creativity, Experts in Action is the first book on stunt work that takes its topic from the specialist margins of cinema and media studies and lobs it right at the heart of broad critical debate about transnationalism in culture. A breakthrough achievement.” -- Meaghan Morris, author of * Identity Anecdotes: Translation and Media Culture *"Students and scholars of Hong Kong cinema, global media, performance, and industry studies will find much of value in Experts in Action. As a behind-the-scenes look into the specialized labor of contemporary stunts and physical performance, Steimer’s book offers a fascinating glimpse into how the human spectacle of modern action cinema straddles both cutting-edge motion capture technologies and low-tech paraphernalia such as cardboard boxes to break falls." -- Karen Fang * Journal of Cinema and Media Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Experts in Action 1 1. Risky Business: Financial and Physical Risk in the Action Stardom of Jackie Chan 23 2. Hong Kong Action Cinema as a Mode in Thai Action Stardom: Tony Jaa and the New Stunting Star Model 56 3. A Hong Kong Reservoir for Xena: Communicative Translation and the Bodily Disposition of Stunting Star Zoë Bell 86 4. Hong Kong Action in Transit: The Postmillennial Stunt Craftwork of Chad Stahelski and Dayna Grant 121 Conclusion. Novice and Expert Performance—a Call to Action 162 Notes 175 Bibliography 199 Index 215
£72.25
Duke University Press City of Screens
Book SynopsisJasmine Nadua Trice examines the politics of cinema circulation in early-2000s Manila, showing how the rising independent Philippine cinema movement has been a site of contestation between filmmakers and the state, each constructing different notions of a prospective, national public film audience.Trade Review“From the pirate video stalls of the old city center to the shopping mall multiplexes of Manila, Jasmine Nadua Trice examines the fragmented and multifaceted assemblage of alternative Philippine cinema. Her passionate attention to detail and wide-ranging engagement with critical theory provide a compelling model for the study of cinema cultures in the global South.” -- Michael Curtin, Distinguished Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara“Jasmine Nadua Trice persuasively argues that film circulation both envisions and occasionally actualizes the dream of a national film audience for counterdominant cinema in the Philippines. She confronts head-on one of the thorniest problems of politically or aesthetically progressive Philippine film: filmmakers’ attempts to reach the alienated domestic moviegoer. Her fresh, syncretic approach and elegant thinking make City of Screens a groundbreaking, must-read book not only for readers not only interested in Philippine cinema but also for those attuned to the dynamics of distribution, exhibition, and circulation beyond Hollywood. Representing a wholly original and highly generative departure from previous scholarship, City of Screens is a major intervention.” -- Bliss Cua Lim, author of * Translating Time: Cinema, the Fantastic, and Temporal Critique *"Overall, there are a number of themes to appreciate in City of Screens, especially if one is not familiar with local independent cinema and its circuits of distribution. The book’s contribution also lies in its use of interdisciplinarity, applying rhetoric, urban studies, geography, and anthropology to explain why alternative cinema remains limited in its circulation. . . . The book’s most poignant yet most grounded point may be Trice’s assertion that the formation of alternative film culture and speculative publics will remain an asymptotic process—never being fully finished but always within reach." -- Cherish Aileen A Brillon * Philippine Studies *"Trice displays a generosity to her marginalized objects of study by offering possible questions and connections instead of forcing predetermined approaches and interpretations. Her book is distinguished by its careful selection of less obvious examples, which are described and analyzed in rich language that yields compelling insights with every reading. . . . With its innovative methods and unexpected ideas, which distill the lost vibrancy of a transitional historical moment, this monograph will reverberate with readers yet to come." -- Elmo Gonzaga * Journal of Cinema and Media Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Revanchist Cinemas and Bad Audiences, Multiplex Fiestas and Ideal Publics 39 2. The Quiapo Cinematheque and Urban-Cinematic Authenticity 79 3. Alternative Exhibition and the Rhythms of the City 113 4. "Not for Public Exhibition": Cinema Regulation, Alternative Cinema, and a Rational Body Politic 153 5. "Hollywood Is Not Us": National Circulation and the Speculative State 189 Epilogue 230 Notes 241 Bibliography 281 Index 299
£75.65
Duke University Press Media Crossroads
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Media Crossroads examine space and place in media as they intersect with sexuality, race, ethnicity, age, class, and ability.Trade Review“Media Crossroads offers a remarkable set of essays that demonstrate the new insights that can emerge when we apply a purposeful intersectional lens in media studies. As we move through screen spaces of different types (past, present, public, private) in different media (television, cinema, video games, social media), we feel the exhilaration of this volume's collective experimental project to identify and interrogate spatialized structures of power across the media landscape.” -- Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, author of * Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity *“Media Crossroads invites scholars to rethink space and intersectionality, including and going beyond the confines of cities, lands, and architectures. Its analysis of commercial, mainstream, and avant-garde film and media as well as its focus on intersectionality makes it an innovative and important contribution to film and media studies.” -- Yeidy M. Rivero, author of * Broadcasting Modernity: Cuban Commercial Television, 1950–1960 *"The intersectional lens developed in [Media Crossroads] is original, vigorous, and reflective enough to alter the readers' perspectives towards media texts that they have seen before and the ones they will experience in the future. Its lasting influence will make the readers rethink, reconfigure, and reimagine the potential of intersectional space and identities on and offscreen." -- Da Ye Kim * E3W Review of Books *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Intersections and/in Space / Paula J. Massood, Angel Daniel Matos, and Pamela Robertson Wojcik 1 I. Digital Intersections 1. "Where Do Aliens Pee?": Bathroom Selfies, Trans Activism, and Reimagining Spaces / Nicole Erin Morse 21 2. The Queerness of Space and the Body in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda Series / Angel Daniel Matos 34 3. The Digital Flâneuse: Exploring Intersectional Identities and Spaces through Walking Simulators / Matthew Thomas Payne and John Vanderhoef 50 II. Cinematic Urban Intersections 4. Blurring Boundaries, Exploring Intersections: Form, Genre, and Space in Shirley Clarke's The Connection / Paula J. Massood 67 5. Intersections in Madrid's Periphery: Cinematic Cruising in Eloy de la Iglesia's La semana del asesino (1972) / Jacqueline Sheean 82 6. Encounters and Embeddedness: The Urban Cinema of Ramin Bahrani / Amy Corbin 96 7. Perpetual Motion: Mobility, Precarity, and Slow Death Cinema / Pamela Robertson Wojcik 111 III. Urbanism and Gentrification 8. Senior Citizens under Siege: Number Our Days (1976) and Gray Power Activism in Venice / Joshua Glick 127 9. Music City Makeover: The Televisual Tourism of Nashville / Noelle Griffis 141 10. Portland at the Intersection: Gentrification and the Whitening of the City in Portlandia's Hipster Wonderland / Elizabeth A. Patton 155 11. Criminal Properties: Real Estate and the Upwardly Mobile Gangster / Erica Stein 167 IV. Race, Place, and Space 12. Dressing the Part: Black Maids, White Stars in the Dressing Room / Desirée J. Garcia 183 13. "I Do Not Know That I Find Myself Anywhere": The British Heritage Film and Spaces of Intersectionality in Amma Asante's Belle (2013) / Sara Louise Smyth 195 14. Queerness, Race, and Class in the Midcentury Suburb Film Crime of Passion (1956) / Merrill Schleier 206 15. Fair Play: Race, Space, and Recreation n Black Media Culture / Peter C. Kunze 221 V. Style and/as Intersectionality 16. The Toxic Intertwining of Small Town Lives in Happy Valley / Ina Rae Hark 237 17. Tattooed Light and Embodied Design: Intersectional Surfaces in Moana / Kirsten Moana Thompson 250 18. Vaguely Visible: Intersectional Politics in Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama (2016) / Malini Guha 262 Notes 275 Bibliography 303 Contributors 329 Index 335
£75.65
Duke University Press Revisiting Womens Cinema
Book SynopsisIn Revisiting Women’s Cinema, Lingzhen Wang ponders the roots of contemporary feminist stagnation and the limits of both commercial mainstream and elite minor cultures by turning to socialist women filmmakers in modern China. She foregrounds their sociopolitical engagements, critical interventions, and popular artistic experiments, offering a new conception of socialist and postsocialist feminisms, mainstream culture, and women’s cinema. Wang highlights the films of Wang Ping and Dong Kena in the 1950s and 1960s and Zhang Nuanxin and Huang Shuqin in the 1980s and 1990s to unveil how they have been profoundly misread through extant research paradigms entrenched in Western Cold War ideology, post-second-wave cultural feminism, and post-Mao intellectual discourses. Challenging received interpretations, she elucidates how socialist feminism and culture were conceptualized and practiced in relation to China’s search not only for national independence and economic deTrade Review“Insisting we hear, listen, and see the voices and actions of women filmmakers in China, Lingzhen Wang provides a nuanced examination of women's cinema and feminism that attends to national and transnational trajectories. She develops theoretically sophisticated and politically incisive critiques of how dominant frameworks in socialist China and throughout the world configured the realms of possibility for making, seeing, and recognizing socialist and Chinese women's mainstream film. An exciting, innovative, and theoretically rich project.” -- Tina Mai Chen, coeditor of * Film, History, and Cultural Citizenship: Sites of Production *“Lingzhen Wang is the first Chinese scholar writing in English to point out the eerie parallels between post-Mao feminism and post-second-wave Anglo-European feminism as she negotiates the political legacies of two cultures, illuminating the traditions of the one for the other. Revisiting Women's Cinema is likely to rock the history of world cinema and inspire a resurgence of interest in the project of globalizing feminist film and media theory. I can think of no other book on feminism and motion picture film history that is more important to the field than this one.” -- Jane Gaines, Professor of Film, Columbia University"Revisiting Women’s Cinema is a rich and thought-provoking revisionist account of Chinese women’s cinema. . . . In addition to reinvigorating feminist theory, the book opens up new avenues for exploring the interaction of the political and the aesthetic, the mainstream and the experimental in Chinese cinema." -- Xiaoning Lu * The China Quarterly *
£20.69
Duke University Press Discorrelated Images
Book SynopsisShane Denson examines the ways in which computer-generated digital images displace and transform the traditional spatial and temporal relationships that viewers had with conventional analog forms of cinema.Trade Review“Addressing some of the most important issues faced by film and media scholars today, Shane Denson gives a surprising and highly cogent account of the changes that make for our current experience of ‘postcinematic’ audiovisual media. He powerfully shows how broad socio-technological forces work in the realm of visual media and suggests ways that such media can help us to grasp the scale and effects of those forces. An important book, Discorrelated Images offers major new contributions to film and media studies.” -- Steven Shaviro, author of * The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism *“Theoretically brilliant in its phenomenological conceptualization of discorrelation, Shane Denson's book reveals the perceptual and aesthetic discontinuities and continuities between film-based and digitally rendered cinema. Most significantly, Denson argues that understanding the effects of discorrelation and its expansion of our ways of seeing and being may provoke greater awareness of our existential precarity. A groundbreaking work.” -- Vivian Sobchack, author of * The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience *"The true strength of Discorrelated Images lies in Denson’s ability to make such dramatic claims about the role of technology in reshaping human subjectivity without ever veering into crude techno-determinism, or media-effects style moral panic... [It] is highly recommended to any reader with an interest in contemporary social and media theory.” -- Marcus Maloney * Thesis Eleven *“For anyone concerned with digital media in particular and media theory in general, Discorrelated Images is essential reading.” -- Christian de Mouilpied Sancto * Film-Philosophy *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Discorrelation and Post-cinema 1 Part I. Theorizing Discorrelation 1. Crazy Cameras 21 2. Dividuated Images 51 3. Screen Time 73 Part II. Making Sense of Discorrelation 4. Life to Those Pixels! 113 5. The Horrors of Discorrelation 153 6. Post-cinema after Extinction 193 Notes 237 Bibliography 277 Index 293
£21.59
Duke University Press Media Crossroads
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Media Crossroads examine space and place in media as they intersect with sexuality, race, ethnicity, age, class, and ability.Trade Review“Media Crossroads offers a remarkable set of essays that demonstrate the new insights that can emerge when we apply a purposeful intersectional lens in media studies. As we move through screen spaces of different types (past, present, public, private) in different media (television, cinema, video games, social media), we feel the exhilaration of this volume's collective experimental project to identify and interrogate spatialized structures of power across the media landscape.” -- Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, author of * Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity *“Media Crossroads invites scholars to rethink space and intersectionality, including and going beyond the confines of cities, lands, and architectures. Its analysis of commercial, mainstream, and avant-garde film and media as well as its focus on intersectionality makes it an innovative and important contribution to film and media studies.” -- Yeidy M. Rivero, author of * Broadcasting Modernity: Cuban Commercial Television, 1950–1960 *"The intersectional lens developed in [Media Crossroads] is original, vigorous, and reflective enough to alter the readers' perspectives towards media texts that they have seen before and the ones they will experience in the future. Its lasting influence will make the readers rethink, reconfigure, and reimagine the potential of intersectional space and identities on and offscreen." -- Da Ye Kim * E3W Review of Books *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Intersections and/in Space / Paula J. Massood, Angel Daniel Matos, and Pamela Robertson Wojcik 1 I. Digital Intersections 1. "Where Do Aliens Pee?": Bathroom Selfies, Trans Activism, and Reimagining Spaces / Nicole Erin Morse 21 2. The Queerness of Space and the Body in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda Series / Angel Daniel Matos 34 3. The Digital Flâneuse: Exploring Intersectional Identities and Spaces through Walking Simulators / Matthew Thomas Payne and John Vanderhoef 50 II. Cinematic Urban Intersections 4. Blurring Boundaries, Exploring Intersections: Form, Genre, and Space in Shirley Clarke's The Connection / Paula J. Massood 67 5. Intersections in Madrid's Periphery: Cinematic Cruising in Eloy de la Iglesia's La semana del asesino (1972) / Jacqueline Sheean 82 6. Encounters and Embeddedness: The Urban Cinema of Ramin Bahrani / Amy Corbin 96 7. Perpetual Motion: Mobility, Precarity, and Slow Death Cinema / Pamela Robertson Wojcik 111 III. Urbanism and Gentrification 8. Senior Citizens under Siege: Number Our Days (1976) and Gray Power Activism in Venice / Joshua Glick 127 9. Music City Makeover: The Televisual Tourism of Nashville / Noelle Griffis 141 10. Portland at the Intersection: Gentrification and the Whitening of the City in Portlandia's Hipster Wonderland / Elizabeth A. Patton 155 11. Criminal Properties: Real Estate and the Upwardly Mobile Gangster / Erica Stein 167 IV. Race, Place, and Space 12. Dressing the Part: Black Maids, White Stars in the Dressing Room / Desirée J. Garcia 183 13. "I Do Not Know That I Find Myself Anywhere": The British Heritage Film and Spaces of Intersectionality in Amma Asante's Belle (2013) / Sara Louise Smyth 195 14. Queerness, Race, and Class in the Midcentury Suburb Film Crime of Passion (1956) / Merrill Schleier 206 15. Fair Play: Race, Space, and Recreation n Black Media Culture / Peter C. Kunze 221 V. Style and/as Intersectionality 16. The Toxic Intertwining of Small Town Lives in Happy Valley / Ina Rae Hark 237 17. Tattooed Light and Embodied Design: Intersectional Surfaces in Moana / Kirsten Moana Thompson 250 18. Vaguely Visible: Intersectional Politics in Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama (2016) / Malini Guha 262 Notes 275 Bibliography 303 Contributors 329 Index 335
£21.59
Duke University Press LifeDestroying Diagrams
Book SynopsisThrough readings of works of film, literature, and philosophy, Eugenie Brinkema shifts understandings of the horror genre away from bodily gore and the spectator's shudder and toward how the genre's sequencing, order, diagrams, and treatment of bodies forces readers to confront ethical questions of the limits of thinking and being.Trade Review“Eugenie Brinkema's unbounded erudition is matched only by her creativity, startling capacity for thought, and her inimitable writing. In Life-Destroying Diagrams she mobilizes the history of philosophy while providing breathtaking and entirely unanticipated readings of individual films. Her virtuosity is on full display, resulting in a book that is itself as literary as it is scholarly. Standing to reshape the possibilities of film studies as a field and suggest new and thrilling ways in which one can practice it, Life-Destroying Diagrams is an event.” -- Akira Mizuta Lippit, author of * Cinema without Reflection: Jacques Derrida’s Echopoiesis and Narcissism Adrift *“Though it mentions Kubrick only once, Life-Destroying Diagrams is the 2001 of critical theory: a dazzling, erudite, and trippy ride across millennia of human culture that leads us into a formalist space, beyond allegorical interpretation, to an encounter—horrifying and thrilling at once—with what, in human experience, remains ‘nonaffective, nonsignifying, and impersonal.’ Eugenie Brinkema, in this breathtaking escape from the gravitational pull of the ‘already-known,’ takes us, unflinchingly, beyond ourselves.” -- Lee Edelman, author of * No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive *"Life-Destroying Diagrams is spectacularly original and entirely unique . . . very much its own totalizing system, a diagram of how to think cinematic form." -- Rosalind Galt * Film Quarterly *"Life-Destroying Diagrams is a model of close reading as process, subject to the same contingency and sensitivity to difference as its objects. The book’s configuration and design approach the formal problems of staying faithful to what is most fragile, of losing inheritance, of provisional thinking without a guaranteed outcome. The fidelity of a close reading is sustained by the promise that there is no such thing as too close. That there is no exhausting a reading whose ground is uncertain, unsteady, and new. A close reading is never finished, only abandoned — so consider this a beginning." -- Jorge Cotte * Los Angeles Review of Books *"As Life-Destroying Diagrams proceeds, the furious interconnectedness of plots, forms, scene descriptions, and etymologies makes for riveting but exhausting reading, leaving one to wonder who or what is really meant to be put to the test. As tests go, Brinkema bracingly refuses to spare the reader as much if not more than the films under discussion do." -- Alexandra Kingston-Reese * Los Angeles Review of Books *“Life-Destroying Diagrams probes deep into the viscera of what form means . . . to an extent that no-one quite has before.” -- Caroline Bem * Screen *“Life-Destroying Diagrams demonstrates that the language of form can reinvigorate the act of close reading and attend to the possibilities that are produced through the cinematic object itself.” -- Jacob Carter * InVisible Culture *“This book is not about horror, but about reading affect from form. . . . What results in Life-Destroying Diagrams is a provocative and commanding intervention into aesthetic theory that can enliven what has already been preconceived within scholarship on horror and within the larger fields of Visual Culture Studies, Literary Studies, Cinema Studies, and Continental Philosophy.” -- Marissa C de Baca * Journal of Visual Culture *"Life-Destroying Diagrams is a beautiful book. . . . Although the book’s content is intricately structured, its physical form extends an invitation to leaf through it, browse for something that catches the eye, dip in and see where it takes you. And if one does so, there is at least one striking claim on every single page." -- Dominic Lash * Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *"Brinkema’s latest book, Life-Destroying Diagrams, offers a groundbreaking and distinctive conversation between cinema, film theory and Continental philosophy. Another way of describing the book is as a radically innovative approach to academic writing about film in general, where there is as much possibility for interpreting the book’s very form as there is for interpreting the substance of its arguments. ... [A] fascinating, distinctive and challenging intervention." -- Archie Wolfman * Film Philosophy *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Exordia xv 1. Horrēre Or 1 2. The Ordinal (Death by Design) 36 Interlude I. Abecedarium 81 Interlude II. Rhythm & Feel 101 Lapsus 119 Interlude III. Objects, Relations, Shape 125 3. Grid, Table, Failure, Line 145 Two Violences 193 4. Middle-Term Notations: Letter, Number, Diagram 202 Postscript. ars formularia: Radical Formalism and the Speculative Task 251 Love and Measurement 289 Acknowledgments (On the Erotics of the Colleague) 371 Notes 379 Bibliography 421 Index 443
£84.15
Duke University Press Bigger Than Life
Book SynopsisMary Ann Doane examines how the scalar operations of cinema, especially those of the close-up, disturb and reconfigure the spectator's sense of place, space, and orientation.Trade Review“Matching her earlier, masterful treatment of cinematic time, Mary Ann Doane here offers a brilliant probing of cinematic space. She explores cinema’s dynamic use of scale, from the magnification of the face in close-up to new screen technologies ranging from the iPhone to IMAX. Drawing on a range of film styles and practices, including early cinema, avant-garde experiments, and Shanghai cinema of the 1930s, Doane reveals how cinema has shaped a modern abstract and even dematerialized world.” -- Tom Gunning, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago“Mary Ann Doane’s highly innovative, theoretically brilliant, and eloquently incisive consideration of the history of the filmic close-up and its relation to scale will undoubtedly make Bigger Than Life a field-changing work.” -- Maggie Hennefeld, author of * Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes *"Bigger Than Life opens with a unique and crucial examination of the history and historiography of the close-up, its conclusion offers a look at cinema in its biggest and most impactful forms, even cinema beyond cinema itself – this is where Doane’s work becomes truly colossal." -- Harrison Whitaker * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *"Bigger Than Life’s wide-ranging interrogation of its subject makes for a thrilling and rewarding read. [It] is altogether awe-inspiring and overwhelming in ways appropriate to its subject, constituting an important meditation on the dialogue between new and old media." -- Alicia Byrnes * Film-Philosophy *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Scale, the Cinematic Image, and the Negotiation of Space 1 Part I. Close-Up/Face 1. The Delirium of a Minimal Unit 29 2. The Cinematic Manufacture of Scale, or Historical Vicissitudes of the Close-Up 53 3. At Face Value 89 Part II. Scale/Screen 4. Screens, Female Faces, and Modernities 135 5. The Location of the Image: Projection, Perspective, and Scale 189 6. The Concept of Immersion: Mediated Space, Media Space, and the Location of the Subject 239 Notes 283 Bibliography 325 Index 343
£75.65
Duke University Press How Do We Look
Book SynopsisIn How Do We Look? Fatimah Tobing Rony draws on transnational images of Indonesian women as a way to theorize what she calls visual biopolitics—the ways visual representation determines which lives are made to matter more than others. Rony outlines the mechanisms of visual biopolitics by examining Paul Gauguin’s 1893 portrait of Annah la Javanaise—a trafficked thirteen-year-old girl found wandering the streets of Paris—as well as US ethnographic and documentary films. In each instance, the figure of the Indonesian woman is inextricably tied to discourses of primitivism, savagery, colonialism, exoticism, and genocide. Rony also focuses on acts of resistance to visual biopolitics in film, writing, and photography. These works, such as Rachmi Diyah Larasati’s The Dance that Makes You Vanish, Vincent Monnikendam’s Mother Dao (1995), and the collaborative films of Nia Dinata, challenge the naturalized methods of seeing that justify exTrade Review“Fatimah Tobing Rony's passionate appeal for a different kind of filmmaking that might interrupt the representational violence of what she calls visual biopolitics animates every page of this innovative and important book. Building a powerful argument about how habitual ways of seeing and not seeing are produced, reproduced, and resisted via visual media, Rony makes a welcome and original contribution to both film studies and Southeast Asian studies.” -- Karen Strassler, author of * Demanding Images: Democracy, Mediation, and the Image-Event in Indonesia *“Fatimah Tobing Rony traces a fascinating visual archive across time, media, and sites of power, drawing out chilling resonances among primary media texts with great erudition, critical force, and lyricism. No other author is a sophisticated art historian, critical ethnographer, postcolonial feminist theorist, and filmmaker all in one. This powerful and remarkable book positions Rony as a brilliant and essential cultural voice.” -- Patricia White, author of * Women’s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ixTongue 1 Introduction. How Do We Look? 3The Peonies 24 1. Annah la Javanaise 27Under the Tree 70 2. The Still Dancer 72The Dressing Down 108 3. Mother Dao 110Flight 147 4. Nia Dinata 148 Conclusion. The Fourth Eye 187 Notes 191 Bibliography 213 Index 225
£72.25
Duke University Press Anthropology Film Industries Modularity
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Anthropology, Film Industries, Modularity take an anthropological and comparative approach to capturing the diversity and growth of global film industries, bringing into relief common film production practices as well as the local contingencies and deeper cultural realities at work in every film industry.Trade Review“This field-framing book features eight exemplary case studies involving sophisticated fieldwork, comparative analysis, and provocative theorizing. It counters film studies' standard schemes, theorizing ‘modularity’ to explain production as simultaneously local and integral to ‘industries.’ Faulting media industries studies’ coherence and production studies for understating its anthropological debt, the book underscores the need for an interfield reckoning. Adding crucial Asian and African perspectives to the literature, this disciplinary boundary--making project pushes production studies to better explore its common ground with anthropology.” -- John T. Caldwell, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles“Ramyar D. Rossoukh and Steven C. Caton have put together an exciting collection of essays with a uniformly high level of excellence. Located at a variety of sites around the world, each is ethnographically rich, analytically insightful, and well written. This will be a go-to book for courses in the anthropology of media, visual anthropology, and production studies.” -- Sherry B. Ortner, Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles"This volume shows us that film worlds are not constituted only by the film itself, the viewing experience, and the audience’s engagement with and interpretation of the content. Film creators work under complex conditions of creativity and constraint, local cultural expectations and understandings, and as part of teams, crews, and industries. Each chapter holds up a magnifying glass to different phases of filmmaking processes, analyzing their particular meanings, practices, and contributions to the actual film that audiences eventually watch." -- Reighan Gillam * American Anthropologist *“[Anthropology, Film Industries, Modularity] provides new and comparative insight on these industries’ differences as well as their similarities by being part of global cinema. This text will no doubt be a useful tool for researchers studying cinema and the ethnography and anthropology of film industries throughout the world.” -- Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi * Exertions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction / Ramyar D. Rossoukh and Steven C. Caton 1 1. “English is So Precise and Hindi Can be So Heavy!”: Language Ideologies and Audience Imaginaries in a Dubbing Studio in Mumbai / Tejaswani Ganti 41 2. The Digital Devine: Postproduction of Majid Majidi's The Willow Tree (2005) / Ramyar D. Rossoukh 63 3. Journalists as Cultural Vectors: Film as the Building Blocks of News Narratives in India / Amrita Ibrahim 89 4. “This is Not a Film”: Industrial Expectations and Film Criticism as Censorship at the Bangladesh Film Censor Board / Lotte Hoek 109 5. “This Most Reluctant of Romantic Cities”: Dis-location Film Shooting in the Old City of Sana’a / Steven C. Caton 129 6. Stealing Shots: The Ethics and Edgework of Industrial Filmmaking / Sylvia J. Martin 163 7. Making Virtual Reality Film: An Untimely View of Film Futures from (South) Africa / Jessica Dickson 181 8. The Moroccan Film Industry: Á Contre-Jour: The Unpredictable Odyssey of a Small National Cinema / Kevin Dwyer 213 References 243 Contributors 267 Index 269
£72.25
Duke University Press Indirect Subjects
Book SynopsisMatthew H. Brown explores the connections between Nigeria's booming film industry, state television, and colonial legacies that together involve spectators in global capitalism while denying them its privileges.Trade Review“Indirect Subjects is an ambitious work providing an overview of film in Nigeria from its earliest days, through the height of state television to the rise of Nollywood. It also offers a rethinking of this history by examining the political, economic, and aesthetic logics that tie this history together. This is an insightful work for both scholars and students analyzing iconic films and television series in a new way. Doing so, it offers a new understanding of political aesthetics in Nigeria.” -- Brian Larkin, author of * Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria *“Matthew H. Brown's Indirect Subjects applies acuity and sophistication to Nollywood in ways that push the terms of debate beyond anything currently conceived. This is at once theoretically nuanced and historically informed, attentive to the dynamics of the industry as well as to the specific subject matter of the movies. In a word, a real gift offering to a field already dotted with sparkling scholarly gems.” -- Ato Quayson, author of * Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism *"[Indirect Subjects] provides a valuable and generative contribution to African media studies. ... Brown’s access to rare archival materials allows him to offer what is, perhaps, the most sustained investigation of the links between state television and video films to date." -- Connor Ryan * African Studies Review *"[Indirect Subjects] adeptly explores the conjunctures and ruptures in the modalities of addressing the audience through different times and spaces in screen media history. ... This book makes a rich contribution to studies of the political economy of culture broadly and, more specifically, to the study of screen media in Nigeria by exposing the rifts and shifts in the neoliberal matrix that undergird it." -- Rosemary Oyinlola Popoola * Canadian Journal of African Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Indirect Subjectivities and Periliberalism 1 Part I. 1. Subjects of Indirect Rule: Nigeria, Cinema, and Liberal Empire 33 2. Emergency of the State: Television, Pedagogical Imperatives, and The Village Headmaster 66 Part II. 3. "No Romance without Finance": Feminine Melodrama, Soap Opera, and the Male Breadwinner Ideal 99 4. Breadlosers: Masculine Melodrama, Money Magic, and the Moral Occult Economy 150 5. Specters of Sovereignty: Epic, Gothic, and the Ruins of a Past That Never Was 185 6. "What's Wrong with 419"?: Comedy, Corruption, and Conspiratorial Mirrors 221 Conclusion: Fantasies of Integration or Fantasies of Sovereignty 263 Notes 271 Filmography 285 Bibliography 289 Index 303
£21.84
Duke University Press Anthropology Film Industries Modularity
Book SynopsisThe contributors to Anthropology, Film Industries, Modularity take an anthropological and comparative approach to capturing the diversity and growth of global film industries, bringing into relief common film production practices as well as the local contingencies and deeper cultural realities at work in every film industry.Trade Review“This field-framing book features eight exemplary case studies involving sophisticated fieldwork, comparative analysis, and provocative theorizing. It counters film studies' standard schemes, theorizing ‘modularity’ to explain production as simultaneously local and integral to ‘industries.’ Faulting media industries studies’ coherence and production studies for understating its anthropological debt, the book underscores the need for an interfield reckoning. Adding crucial Asian and African perspectives to the literature, this disciplinary boundary--making project pushes production studies to better explore its common ground with anthropology.” -- John T. Caldwell, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles“Ramyar D. Rossoukh and Steven C. Caton have put together an exciting collection of essays with a uniformly high level of excellence. Located at a variety of sites around the world, each is ethnographically rich, analytically insightful, and well written. This will be a go-to book for courses in the anthropology of media, visual anthropology, and production studies.” -- Sherry B. Ortner, Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles"This volume shows us that film worlds are not constituted only by the film itself, the viewing experience, and the audience’s engagement with and interpretation of the content. Film creators work under complex conditions of creativity and constraint, local cultural expectations and understandings, and as part of teams, crews, and industries. Each chapter holds up a magnifying glass to different phases of filmmaking processes, analyzing their particular meanings, practices, and contributions to the actual film that audiences eventually watch." -- Reighan Gillam * American Anthropologist *“[Anthropology, Film Industries, Modularity] provides new and comparative insight on these industries’ differences as well as their similarities by being part of global cinema. This text will no doubt be a useful tool for researchers studying cinema and the ethnography and anthropology of film industries throughout the world.” -- Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi * Exertions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction / Ramyar D. Rossoukh and Steven C. Caton 1 1. “English is So Precise and Hindi Can be So Heavy!”: Language Ideologies and Audience Imaginaries in a Dubbing Studio in Mumbai / Tejaswani Ganti 41 2. The Digital Devine: Postproduction of Majid Majidi's The Willow Tree (2005) / Ramyar D. Rossoukh 63 3. Journalists as Cultural Vectors: Film as the Building Blocks of News Narratives in India / Amrita Ibrahim 89 4. “This is Not a Film”: Industrial Expectations and Film Criticism as Censorship at the Bangladesh Film Censor Board / Lotte Hoek 109 5. “This Most Reluctant of Romantic Cities”: Dis-location Film Shooting in the Old City of Sana’a / Steven C. Caton 129 6. Stealing Shots: The Ethics and Edgework of Industrial Filmmaking / Sylvia J. Martin 163 7. Making Virtual Reality Film: An Untimely View of Film Futures from (South) Africa / Jessica Dickson 181 8. The Moroccan Film Industry: Á Contre-Jour: The Unpredictable Odyssey of a Small National Cinema / Kevin Dwyer 213 References 243 Contributors 267 Index 269
£20.89
Duke University Press Vulgar Beauty
Book SynopsisMila Zuo offers a new theorization of cinematic feminine beauty by showing how mediated encounters with Chinese film and popular culture stars produce feelings of Chinese-ness.Trade Review“In this gorgeously written book, Mila Zuo captures how Chinese female film stars perform beauty in ways that reflect their negotiation with the racial sexualization of their femininity. With a rigorous and lucid ferocity, Zuo boldly brings together critical theory, philosophy, aesthetics, women of color feminism, feminist film theory, and performance theory to help us understand Chinese women’s presences on screen. Fearless and powerful, Vulgar Beauty is a pleasure to read.” -- Celine Parreñas Shimizu, author of * The Proximity of Other Skins: Ethical Intimacy in Global Cinema *"[Zuo's] metaphoric language, mostly revolving around food, offers the reader not only an intellectual exploration of the power of vulgar beauty to destabilize racial and patriarchal power structures but also a flavorful and aesthetic journey in and of itself." -- E. Nastacia Schmoll * Lateral *"Anyone interested in performance, in gender and sexuality, in race on an international stage, in Chinese politics and history in this century of suffering, needs to read this book. Anyone hungry, voracious perhaps, for interdisciplinary diasporic and transnational critique that engages not only with cultural but also intellectual traditions from China and Korea had better prepare to feast." -- Vivian L. Huang * Film-Philosophy *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Tasting Vulgar Beauty 1 1. Bitter Medicine, Racial Flavor: Gong Li 39 2. Salty-Cool: Maggie Cheung and Joan Chen 73 3. Pungent Atmospheres: Bai Ling and Tang Wei 113 4. Sweet and Soft Coupling: Vivian Hsu and Shu Qi 152 5. Sour Laughter: Charlyne Yi and Ali Wong 193 Conclusion: Aftertaste 234 Notes 241 Bibliography 267 Index 289
£75.65
Duke University Press Queer African Cinemas
Book SynopsisIn Queer African Cinemas, Lindsey B. Green-Simms examines films produced by and about queer Africans in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in an environment of increasing antiqueer violence, efforts to criminalize homosexuality, and other state-sanctioned homophobia. Green-Simms argues that these films not only record the fear, anxiety, and vulnerability many queer Africans experience; they highlight how queer African cinematic practices contribute to imagining new hopes and possibilities. Examining globally circulating international art films as well as popular melodramas made for local audiences, Green-Simms emphasizes that in these films queer resistance—contrary to traditional narratives about resistance that center overt and heroic struggle—is often practiced from a position of vulnerability. By reading queer films alongside discussions about censorship and audiences, Green-Simms renders queer African cinema as a rich visual archive that documentsTrade Review“Conceptually rich and deeply pedagogical, Queer African Cinemas models how to think about African queer worldmaking. Lindsey B. Green-Simms wrenches resistance away from heteronormative duty and national obligation to track its wayward possibilities. Resistance is no longer an exhausted term that excludes African queers, but one that centers African queer practices and freedoms. Green-Simms listens for how African queer audiences navigate representation and find succor even in hostile places. A joy to read.” -- Keguro Macharia, author of * Frottage: Frictions of Intimacy across the Black Diaspora *“Lindsey B. Green-Simms’s compelling insights prod us to think about resistance as multilayered, incomplete, and even messy in ways that reveal how the vulnerabilities of queer life exist alongside multiple modes of survival, care, and aspirational imaginaries. Queer African Cinemas is engaging, generative, and remarkably persuasive.” -- Grace A. Musila, author of * A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder *“In Queer African Cinemas, Green-Simms offers an insightful and illuminating analysis. . . . Queer African Cinemas makes an important and necessary intervention in queer studies as it works to decenter queerness from the global north and to challenge common understandings of acceptable means of resistance, affect, and representation.” -- Bruno Guaraná * Film Quarterly *“[Green-Simms’s] musings on resistance, aspiration, and resilience, among other difficult-to-define and identity-specific terms, is cultural theory at its finest. Queer African Cinemas will be impactful far beyond its range of study. Highly recommended.” -- G. R. Butters Jr. * Choice *"Written in clear prose and brilliantly self-reflexive in method, this sophisticated reading of queer cinematic texts deserves attention. . . . [A] must-read for those interested in queerness and film studies in Africa and beyond." -- Naminata Diabate * GLQ *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Registering Resistance in Queer African Cinemas 1 1. Making Waves: Queer Eccentricity and West African Wayward Women 37 2. Touching Nollywood: From Negation to Negotiation in Queer Nigerian Cinema 73 3. Cutting Masculinities: Post-Apartheid South African Cinema 123 4. Holding Space, Saving Joy: Queer Love and Critical Resilience in East Africa 165 Coda. Queer African Cinema's Destiny 203 Notes 211 Filmography 227 References 231 Index 243
£20.89
Duke University Press Vulgar Beauty
Book SynopsisMila Zuo offers a new theorization of cinematic feminine beauty by showing how mediated encounters with Chinese film and popular culture stars produce feelings of Chinese-ness.Trade Review“In this gorgeously written book, Mila Zuo captures how Chinese female film stars perform beauty in ways that reflect their negotiation with the racial sexualization of their femininity. With a rigorous and lucid ferocity, Zuo boldly brings together critical theory, philosophy, aesthetics, women of color feminism, feminist film theory, and performance theory to help us understand Chinese women’s presences on screen. Fearless and powerful, Vulgar Beauty is a pleasure to read.” -- Celine Parreñas Shimizu, author of * The Proximity of Other Skins: Ethical Intimacy in Global Cinema *"[Zuo's] metaphoric language, mostly revolving around food, offers the reader not only an intellectual exploration of the power of vulgar beauty to destabilize racial and patriarchal power structures but also a flavorful and aesthetic journey in and of itself." -- E. Nastacia Schmoll * Lateral *"Anyone interested in performance, in gender and sexuality, in race on an international stage, in Chinese politics and history in this century of suffering, needs to read this book. Anyone hungry, voracious perhaps, for interdisciplinary diasporic and transnational critique that engages not only with cultural but also intellectual traditions from China and Korea had better prepare to feast." -- Vivian L. Huang * Film-Philosophy *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Tasting Vulgar Beauty 1 1. Bitter Medicine, Racial Flavor: Gong Li 39 2. Salty-Cool: Maggie Cheung and Joan Chen 73 3. Pungent Atmospheres: Bai Ling and Tang Wei 113 4. Sweet and Soft Coupling: Vivian Hsu and Shu Qi 152 5. Sour Laughter: Charlyne Yi and Ali Wong 193 Conclusion: Aftertaste 234 Notes 241 Bibliography 267 Index 289
£20.69
Duke University Press Gaza on Screen
Book SynopsisContributors to Gaza on Screen, including scholars and Gazan filmmakers, explore the practice, production, and impact of film and videos from and about the Gaza Strip.Trade Review“Gaza on Screen is a groundbreaking text that considers Gaza filmmaking, cinema, and visual production. Its contributors include key Palestinian, especially Gazan, thinkers and artists. The collection offers original, deeply engaging, and often captivating conversations and analysis.” -- Frances S. Hasso, author of * Buried in the Red Dirt: Race, Reproduction, and Death in Modern Palestine *Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction / Nadia Yaqub 1 1. Gaza Filmmaking in a Palestinian Context: A Gazan Filmmakers’ Roundtable / Basma Alsharif, Azza El-Hassan, Mohamed Jabaly, Ahmed Mansour, Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser, and Abdelsalam Shehada (Editing and commentary by Nadia Yaqub with an introduction by Azza El-Hassan) 29 2. Gazan Cinema as an Infrastructure of Care / Viviane Saglier 50 3. Found Footage as Counter-ethnography: Scenes from the Occupation of Gaza and the Films of Basma Alsharif / Samirah Alkassim 71 4. Rendering Gaza Visible: The Visual Economy of the Nakba in Palestinian Films of the Oslo Period / Kamran Rastegar 92 5. So Close, So Far: Gaza in Israeli Cinema / Yaron Shemer 114 6. Attending to the Fugitive: Resistance Videos from Gaza / Nayrouz Abu Hatoum and Hadeel Assali 136 7. Sensory Politics of Return: Hearing Gaza under Siege / Shaira Vadasaria 157 8. How to Unsee Gaza: Israeli Media, State Violence, Palestinian Testimony / Rebecca L. Stein 172 9. The Elisions of Televised Solidarity in the 2024 Lebanese Broadcast for Gaza / Hatim El-Hibri 187 10. Seeing Palestine, Not Seeing Palestinians/ Gaza in the British Pathé Lens / Shahd Abusalama 207 Afterword. Gaza Screened / Helga Tawil-Souri 231 Filmography 239 References 243 Contributors 265 Index 269
£73.95
Duke University Press Gaza on Screen
Book SynopsisGaza’s long association with resistance and humanitarian need has generated a complex and ever shifting range of visual material, comprising not just news reports and documentaries, but also essay, experimental, and fiction films, militant videos, and solidarity images. Contributors to Gaza on Screen, who include scholars and Gazan filmmakers, explore the practice, production, and impact of film and videos from and about the Gaza Strip. Conceptualizing screens—both large and small—as tools for mediation that are laden with power, the volume explores Gazan film and video in relation to humanitarianism and human rights, care, community, environment, mobility and confinement, and decolonization. The volume includes visual material ranging from solidarity broadcasts on Lebanese television, mid-twentieth-century British Pathé newsreels, and fiction films to breaking news, visuals of contemporary militant resistance, documentaries, and found footage films, argTrade Review“Gaza on Screen is a groundbreaking text that considers Gaza filmmaking, cinema, and visual production. Its contributors include key Palestinian, especially Gazan, thinkers and artists. The collection offers original, deeply engaging, and often captivating conversations and analysis.” -- Frances S. Hasso, author of * Buried in the Red Dirt: Race, Reproduction, and Death in Modern Palestine *Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction / Nadia Yaqub 1 1. Gaza Filmmaking in a Palestinian Context: A Gazan Filmmakers’ Roundtable / Basma Alsharif, Azza El-Hassan, Mohamed Jabaly, Ahmed Mansour, Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser, and Abdelsalam Shehada (Editing and commentary by Nadia Yaqub with an introduction by Azza El-Hassan) 29 2. Gazan Cinema as an Infrastructure of Care / Viviane Saglier 50 3. Found Footage as Counter-ethnography: Scenes from the Occupation of Gaza and the Films of Basma Alsharif / Samirah Alkassim 71 4. Rendering Gaza Visible: The Visual Economy of the Nakba in Palestinian Films of the Oslo Period / Kamran Rastegar 92 5. So Close, So Far: Gaza in Israeli Cinema / Yaron Shemer 114 6. Attending to the Fugitive: Resistance Videos from Gaza / Nayrouz Abu Hatoum and Hadeel Assali 136 7. Sensory Politics of Return: Hearing Gaza under Siege / Shaira Vadasaria 157 8. How to Unsee Gaza: Israeli Media, State Violence, Palestinian Testimony / Rebecca L. Stein 172 9. The Elisions of Televised Solidarity in the 2024 Lebanese Broadcast for Gaza / Hatim El-Hibri 187 10. Seeing Palestine, Not Seeing Palestinians/ Gaza in the British Pathé Lens / Shahd Abusalama 207 Afterword. Gaza Screened / Helga Tawil-Souri 231 Filmography 239 References 243 Contributors 265 Index 269
£20.89
Duke University Press The Archival Afterlives of Philippine Cinema
Book SynopsisDrawing on cultural policy, queer and feminist theory, materialist media studies, and postcolonial historiography, Bliss Cua Lim analyzes the crisis-ridden history of Philippine film archiving—a history of lost films, limited access, and collapsed archives. Rather than denigrate underfunded Philippine audiovisual archives in contrast to institutions in the global North, The Archival Afterlives of Philippine Cinema shows how archival practices of making do can inspire alternative theoretical and historical approaches to cinema. Lim examines formal state and corporate archives, analyzing restorations of the last nitrate film and a star-studded lesbian classic as well as archiving under the Marcos dictatorship. She also foregrounds informal archival efforts: a cinephilic video store specializing in vintage Tagalog classics; a microcuratorial initiative for experimental films; and guerilla screenings for rural Visayan audiences. Throughout, Lim centers the improvisational creaTrade Review“In this timely and consequential book, Bliss Cua Lim summons a history of Philippine cinema that disrupts settled idioms of archival recuperation, restoration, and reparation. Through a dazzling and detailed analysis of the material, historical, and political precarity of Philippine cinema, Lim centers the afterlives of filmic archives sustained through institutional and community efforts. The Archival Afterlives of Philippine Cinema demands a much-needed cinematic history that conjoins the experiences, histories, and violence of a collective past and present.” -- Anjali Arondekar, author of * Abundance: Sexuality’s History *“Bliss Cua Lim unveils a searing and unforgettable saga of official neglect, false starts, waste, indifference, arcane politics, and amnesia that have tragically deprived the Philippines of so much of its film heritage. She also reveals the extensive grassroots activism, optimism, and spirit of persistence that will ultimately bring a lasting solution. This story will resonate with audiovisual archivists, memory professionals, and cultural advocates around the world.” -- Ray Edmondson, author of * Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles *Table of ContentsAcronyms ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction. Keywords for Philippine Cinema’s Archival Afterlives 1 1. A Tale of Three Buildings: Marcos Cultural Policy and Anarchival Temporality 51 2. Silence, Perseverance, and Survival in State-Run Philippine Film Archives 76 3. Privatization and the ABS-CBN Film Archives 107 4. Queer Anachronisms and Temporalities of Restoration: T-Bird at Ako 133 5. Informal Archiving in a Riverine System: Video 48 and the Kalampag Tracking Agency 173 6. Binisaya: Archival Power and Vernacular Audiences in Iskalawags 214 Epilogue. Of Audiences and Archival Publics: Pepot Artista 256 Notes 277 Bibliography 339 Index 375
£80.75
New York University Press The Hollywood Jim Crow
Book SynopsisThe story of racial hierarchy in the American film industry The #OscarsSoWhite campaign, and the content of the leaked Sony emails which revealed, among many other things, that a powerful Hollywood insider didn't believe that Denzel Washington could open a western genre film, provide glaring evidence that the opportunities for people of color in Hollywood are limited. In The Hollywood Jim Crow, Maryann Erigha tells the story of inequality, looking at the practices and biases that limit the production and circulation of movies directed by racial minorities. She examines over 1,300 contemporary films, specifically focusing on directors, to show the key elements at work in maintaining the Hollywood Jim Crow. Unlike the Jim Crow era where ideas about innate racial inferiority and superiority were the grounds for segregation, Hollywood's version tries to use economic and cultural explanations to justify the underrepresentation and stigmatization of Black filmmakers. Erigha exposes the key eTrade Review"Offers a provocative lens for understanding how entrenched the industrys racial imbalances areand how the lack of people of color in top studio roles only perpetuates this inequality." * The Atlantic *"#OscarsSoWhite was a spotlight on the obvious. The Hollywood Jim Crow is an important and eloquent extension of that conversation." * Film Comment *"Aconvincing analysis of structural barriers and attitudes that obstruct black filmmakers in today's culture. .. .A meaningful tribute to the achievements of pioneer directors and a sharp call for studios to keep trying harder to acknowledge structural racism." * Kirkus Reviews *"Erigha analyzes the barriers that black filmmakers face in Hollywood . . . this well-written work demonstrates a cogent understanding of institutional racism . . . Anyone seeking to study, and dismantle, structures of oppression will appreciate this clarifying read." * STARRED Library Journal *"The superhero blockbuster Black Panther is the most recent exception to Hollywoods golden rule: the only color that matters is green, and in the name of green, one should downplay Black. Maryann Erigha confronts the implications of this rule in The Hollywood Jim Crow, which traces how the conflation of race and economics works, in the minds of the white men who dominate the industry, to marginalize Black stories and Black talent at the movies. Through a careful analysis of more than a decade of box office data, film budgets, and incriminating insider statements about the role race plays in shaping industry decision-making, Erigha exposes the centrality of ghettoization processes in a key American cultural forum." -- Darnell Hunt,Co-editor of Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities"Draws important conclusions about genre production, career trajectories, and occupational segregation by race and gender in one of the world’s most high-profile industries... I can recommend this book to anyone teaching or researching on work and occupational careers, inequality in popular culture, symbolic or colorblind racism, of the production of culture in the film industry." * Social Forces *"Erigha’s study is a tour de force in six acts, taking on the topics of how racial hierarchy is maintained, how blackness is labeled ‘unbankable,’ why black directors are often marginalized, how black films are ‘ghettoized,’ what backstage assumptions are made concerning market success, and how a new, equitable Hollywood could be formed." * Journal of American Ethnic History *"In Maryann Erigha’s probing, razor-sharp, and damning The Hollywood Jim Crow, what is and is not predictable about hitmaking gets flipped. In making her argument, Erigha relies on quantitative data, public interviews, and (anonymized) private emails ... she finds Black directors and actors trying to navigate a two-tiered system in which they’re cordoned off into lower-cost (and, therefore, almost always lower-profit) genres." * Public Books *
£66.60
New York University Press God on the Big Screen
Book SynopsisLinks film history with church history over the past century, illuminating America's broader relationship with religious currents over time Moments of prayer have been represented in Hollywood movies since the silent era, appearing unexpectedly in films as diverse as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Frankenstein, Amistad, Easy Rider, Talladega Nights, and Alien 3, as well as in religiously inspired classics such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments. Here, Terry Lindvall examines how films have reflected, and sometimes sought to prescribe, ideas about how one ought to pray. He surveys the landscape of those films that employ prayer in their narratives, beginning with the silent era and moving through the uplifting and inspirational movies of the Great Depression and World War II, the cynical, anti-establishment films of the 60s and 70s, and the sci-fi and fantasy blockbusters of today. Lindvall considers how the presentation of cinematic prayer varies across race, age, and gender, and places Trade Review"Terry Lindvall’s book isn’t simply about prayer—despite the subtitle—but about the forms that American religion has taken since the emergence of silent films around the turn of the century." * Nova Religio *
£73.80
New York University Press God on the Big Screen
Book SynopsisLinks film history with church history over the past century, illuminating America's broader relationship with religious currents over time Moments of prayer have been represented in Hollywood movies since the silent era, appearing unexpectedly in films as diverse as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Frankenstein, Amistad, Easy Rider, Talladega Nights, and Alien 3, as well as in religiously inspired classics such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments. Here, Terry Lindvall examines how films have reflected, and sometimes sought to prescribe, ideas about how one ought to pray. He surveys the landscape of those films that employ prayer in their narratives, beginning with the silent era and moving through the uplifting and inspirational movies of the Great Depression and World War II, the cynical, anti-establishment films of the 60s and 70s, and the sci-fi and fantasy blockbusters of today. Lindvall considers how the presentation of cinematic prayer varies across race, age, and gender, and places Trade Review"Terry Lindvall’s book isn’t simply about prayer—despite the subtitle—but about the forms that American religion has taken since the emergence of silent films around the turn of the century." * Nova Religio *
£27.54
Baylor University Press Coen
Book SynopsisExplores how Coen brothers’ films emerge as morality tales, set in a mythological American landscape, that critique greed and self-interest. Coen teaches its readers something new about religion, about film, and about the kind of world-making that each claims to be.Trade ReviewTaken as a whole, the essays in Coen offer a lively conversation (indeed, the contributors edited one another's essays, and several of the published texts contain helpful intertextual comments) about the ways in which filmmakers, audiences, and scholars all imagine interactions between film and religion. As a compilation of criticism on the Coen filmography, the collection organizes and reframes an expansive bibliography. As works of scholarship on religion, its essays imaginatively connect critical theory of religion with cinema studies scholarship, applied in clever and illuminating readings of the Coens' oeuvre. -- Geoffrey Pollick -- The Revealer...[ Coen ] offers an unexpected number of insights beyond the Coens and their films. -- Christian Wessely, Journal for Religion, Film and MediaThis immensely readable work is a stunning success of eloquent writers tackling riveting topics. Each of the Coen brothers' movies, the hilarious and the harrowing treated in chronological order, receives careful critical analysis that sheds blazing light on the dark genius of these filmmakers. -- Terry Lindvall -- Journal of the American Academy of ReligionA work that sets out in search of the Coens' cinematic soul and returns with a raft of compelling insights -- Richard Goodwin -- Journal of Religion and FilmTable of ContentsIntroduction: Are the Coen Brothers Religious Filmmakers? Or How Simple Is Blood Simple ? Act One: The Early Films: Reading Religion as... 1. Morality in Raising Arizona 2. Theology in Millerâs Crossing 3. World Creation in Barton Fink 4. Community in The Hudsucker Proxy First Intermission: So Are the Coen Brothers Religious Filmmakers? Fargo between Christian Moralism and Post-Modern Irony Act Two: The Middle Films: Analyzing Religion and... 5. Fandom in The Big Lebowski 6. Race in O Brother, Where Art Thou? 7. Money in Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers 8. The State in Burn after Reading Second Intermission: Are the Coen Brothers Formally Coherent? No Country for Old Men between Time and Eternity Act Three: The Later Films: Theorizing... 9. Transcendence in The Man Who Wasnât There 10. Hermeneutics in A Serious Man 11. Death in True Grit 12. Absence in Inside Llewyn Davis Epilogue: Hail, Caesar?
£36.51
Baylor University Press Monsters in America
Book SynopsisMonsters arrived in 2011 - and now they are back. Not only do they continue to live in our midst, but, as historian Scott Poole shows, these monsters are an important part of our past - a hideous obsession America cannot seem to escape.Trade Review"Poole brings to life American horror stories by framing them within folk belief, religion, and popular culture, broadly unraveling the idea of the monster. Thanks to Poole's insights we see the ubiquity of the monster lurking in and around us." John David Smith, Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of American History, The University of North Carolina at CharlottePoole's connection of the monster to American history is a kind of Creature Features meets American cultural history. Here we not only meet such monsters but also discover America's cultural monstrosity." John W. Morehead, editor, www.TheoFantastique.com"An unexpected guilty pleasure! Poole invites us into an important and enlightening, if disturbing, conversation about the very real monsters that inhabit the dark spaces of Americas past." J. Gordon Melton, Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion"A well informed, thoughtful, and indeed frightening angle of vision to a persistent and compelling American desire to be entertained by the grotesque and the horrific." Gary Laderman, Professor of American Religious History and Cultures, Emory University"With Monsters in America, W. Scott Poole has given us a guidebook for a journey into nightmare territory. Insightful and brilliant!" Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Patient Zero and Dead of Night"Poole ... has set the bar ridiculously high for any future research exploring the locus of historical and cultural studies, particularly as it pertains to the horrific. ... Monsters In America challenges, enlightens, and, quite honestly, frightens in its prescient view of American history, as well as the seeming ubiquity of the monsters of our past and probable future." The Crawlspace"... one of the best reads of the year." Dave Canfield, Fangoria"Monsters in America does a bang-up job of demonstrating how our culture helps us achieve some sort of understanding about our world and our lives. Poole's examples are well-chosen and well-explicated. It is a frightening world we live in, yet the horrific things in our literature and culture play a vital part in helping us reach some understanding, and even some peace about them." Greg Garrett, Faithful Citizenship blogger and author of One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter"Numerous scholars explore the cultural and political implications of monster and horror films for the times from which they emerge.... Few scholars connect such implications across broader expanses of time to reveal how intrinsically monsters and the horrific have been bound up in the history of America. Even fewer scholars do so as adeptly and as entertainingly as W. Scott Poole." J. Ryan Parker, Pop Theology"... incredibly rewarding and fulfilling reading.... Monsters in America has without a doubt earned a spot on my favorite books of 2011. Highly recommended." Jenn's Bookshelves"In Monsters in America, Scott Poole expertly weaves together folklore, media studies, and some of the more disturbing moments in American history to remind us of the vital roles monsters play in our culture. The new edition extends this analysis to shed light on some of the darker developments in recent American political culture. From early American ghost stories to Jordan Peeles Get Out (2017), Scott Poole expertly tracks the importance of monsters and monstrosity in American culture." Kendall R. Phillips, Syracuse University, author of A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema"Monsters in America is lively and entertaining throughout. The book's unusual range is one of its contributions; its freshness of juxtaposition is another." Elizabeth Young, Mount Holyoke College, American Historical Review (February 2013)A captivating read... Amanda Rock, Slug (October 2014)Monsters in America is an important contribution, and it will be enjoyed by literary and cultural historians alike. Nicole K. Konopka, American Studies (58:4)[Pooles] book is sufficiently clear and engaging for general readers to enjoy and would make a worthwhile addition to undergraduate course in American history or culture. Aaron John Gulyas, Nova ReligioHistorian W. Scott Poole distinguishes himself by focusing on the American context, providing a history told through the personified expressions of our anxieties and fears. In the follow-up to his first book, Satan in America, Poole has now turned his attention to the monsters that inhabit American cinema and American imaginations." Christopher James Blythe, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture
£26.96
University of Toronto Press Golden Fruit
Book SynopsisThrough a close reading of key texts, including poetic and spiritual writings, fairy tales, and a botanical treatise, Golden Fruit examines the role of oranges in Italian culture from their introduction during the medieval period through to the present day. Featuring a beautiful full-colour spread, Cristina Mazzoni’s book brings together artistic depictions, literary analysis, historical context, and popular culture to investigate the changing representations of the orange over time and across the Italian peninsula. Oranges were introduced to Italy in the 1200s, many centuries after beloved Mediterranean fruits such as grapes, figs, and pomegranatesall well-known since Antiquity. Not burdened with age-old meanings and symbolism, then, oranges in early modern times provided a malleable image for artists, writers, and scientists alike. Thus, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, oranges appear in visual and verbal representations as an effective aid in physical and Table of ContentsIntroduction: How to Peel an Orange 1. Bread and oranges 2. How to Peel an Orange 3. Of Beauty and Citrons 4. Boy Peeling Fruit 5. One Thousand Orange Shirts 6. The Golden Fruit Chapter One: Fruit of the Spirit 1. Divine Oranges 2. One Pope’s Melons… 3. … And Another Pope’s Oranges 4. Rome’s First Orange Tree 5. Catherine’s Orange Letter 6. Bitter Fruit 7. Candied Oranges 8. A Recipe for Conversion Chapter Two: The Fruit of Love 1. Two Men and an Orange 2. Fairy Fruit 3. Basile’s Citrons 4. Citrus Confusion 5. The Fruit of Love 6. Local Fruit 7. The Color of Citrus 8. Fruitful Fairy Tales Chapter Three: Fruit of the Womb 1. Pregnant Citrus 2. Fruitful Metamorphoses 3. Ferrari’s Citrus 4. Fruits of the Womb 5. Sexy fruit 6. Botanical Monsters 7. Citrus Metamorphoses 8. Citrus Mothers Chapter Four: Strange Fruit 1. Damned Oranges 2. Fruit Fit for a King 3. Immigrant Fruit 4. Citrus and Folklore 5. Golden Oranges 6. Fruit Fetish 7. Heavenly Citrus 8. Fruit from the Sea Conclusion: Golden Fruit
£45.00
University of Toronto Press Righteous Anger in Contemporary Italian Literary
Book SynopsisRighteous Anger in Contemporary Italian Literary and Cinematic Narratives analyses the role of passion particularly indignation and how it shapes intention and inspires the work of many contemporary Italian writers and filmmakers. Noting how art often holds the power to shed light on issues surrounding inequity, inequality, and injustice, the book explores the ethical function of art as a tool in resistance and sociopolitical protest, thereby validating the axiom that ethics and aesthetics can still collaborate in the creation of meaning. Drawing on a range of Italian novels and films and examining the works of artists such as Tiziano Scarpa, Simona Vinci, Paolo Sorrentino, and Monica Stambrini, the author shows that anger can be used constructively as a weapon of resistance against negative and oppressive forces.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Part I. Anger and Commitment in the Narratives of Tiziano Scarpa 1. Pasolini’s La rabbia and the Spectacularization of Scarpa’s Posthuman Aesthetics 2. An Apocalyptic Kamikaze: Tiziano Scarpa or How to Invade the Reader 3. The Fundamental Things in Life According to Scarpa Part II. Anger and Spaces of Vulnerability in the Narratives of Melania Mazzucco and Monica Stambrini 4. Melania Mazzucco’s Un giorno perfetto: Domestic Violence on an Everyday Perfect Day 5. Pushing Boundaries: Road Movies and Gas Stations in Monica Stambrini’s Benzina Part III. Anger and Spaces of Otherness in the Narratives of Paolo Sorrentino, Simona Vinci, and Veronica Tomassini 6. A Recipe for the Advantages and Disadvantages of Love: Anger and Misogyny in Paolo Sorrentino's The Consequences of Love 7. Society, Simulacra, and Love: Simona Vinci’s Stanza 411 8. Wounding the Individual: Dynamics of Diversity and Anatomy of Love in Veronica Tomassini’s Sangue di Cane Afterword Notes Works Cited Index
£51.85
University of Nebraska Press Late Westerns
Book Synopsis For more than a century the cinematic western has been America’s most familiar genre, always teetering on the verge of exhaustion and yet regularly revived in new forms. Why does this outmoded vehicle—with the most narrowly based historical setting of any popular genre—maintain its appeal? In Late Westerns Lee Clark Mitchell takes a position against those critics looking to attach “post” to the all-too-familiar genre. For though the frontier disappeared long ago, though men on horseback have become commonplace, and though films of all sorts have always, necessarily, defied generic patterns, the western continues to enthrall audiences. It does so by engaging narrative expectations stamped on our collective consciousness so firmly as to integrate materials that might not seem obviously “western” at all. Through plot cues, narrative reminders, and even cinematic frameworks, recent films shape interpretive understanding by Trade Review"Scholars familiar with the Western genre of film and literature will find this book of particular value, as will those concerned with questions of genre in film studies. Its greatest strength lies in the variety of films selected for close viewing. . . . Mitchell makes an overall clear and persuasive argument for the continuation of the Western film genre and that there is nothing 'post' about it."—Rebecca Trammell Couch, Western American Literature"Lee Clark Mitchell argues the often autopsied genre is well and alive, and ever-evolving without changing at its core. Examining a fistful of films, from 3:10 to Yuma to Brokeback Mountain to No Country For Old Men, he makes his points in persuasive detail."—Henry C. Parke, True West"Scholars and enthusiasts alike will place this volume beside Mitchell's Westerns on their shelves."—Lydia R. Cooper, American Literary History“Late Westerns offers a helpful and timely contribution to an important and growing area in the field of Western film studies, one anchored in the broader field of genre studies. All of the chapters are expertly written in a confident and highly readable style and, furthermore, indicate the work of a scholar completely in charge of his subject matter.”—Matthew Carter, senior lecturer in film at Manchester Metropolitan University and author of Myth of the Western: New Perspectives on Hollywood’s Frontier NarrativeTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: There’s No Such Thing as Postwestern, and It’s a Good Thing Too 1. Ghostly Evocations in Bad Day at Black Rock 2. Catching the 3:10 to Yuma 3. Border-Crossing in Lone Star 4. Alternative Facts in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada 5. Defying Expectations in A History of Violence and Brokeback Mountain 6. Dueling Genres in No Country for Old Men 7. Subverting Late Westerns in The Counselor Epilogue: Habits of Imagination Notes Bibliography Index
£40.50
University Press of Mississippi Vampires and Zombies
Book SynopsisThe vampire, with roots in medieval European folklore, and the zombie, with origins in Afro-Caribbean mythology, have both undergone significant transformations in global culture, proliferating as deviant representatives of the zeitgeist. As this volume demonstrates, distribution of vampires and zombies across time and space has revealed these undead figures to carry multiple meanings.
£65.08
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi She Damn Near Ran the Studio The Extraordinary
Book SynopsisBest known as the woman who “ran MGM”, Ida Koverman served as talent scout, mentor, executive secretary, and confidant to American movie mogul Louis B. Mayer for twenty-five years. This book offers the first full account of Koverman's life and the story of how she became a formidable politico and a creative powerhouse during Hollywood's Golden Era.Trade Review“Historian Braitman illuminates the woman behind one of Golden Age Hollywood’s most powerful moguls in this revealing biography…Both women’s history and film buffs will be fascinated by Braitman’s account.” —Publishers Weekly
£27.96
University Press of Mississippi Stanley Kubrick
Book SynopsisAn argument appreciating and mapping the wide divergences in the director''s interpretations of literatureAlthough Stanley Kubrick adapted novels and short stories, his films deviate in notable ways from the source material. In particular, since 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), his films seem to definitively exploit all cinematic techniques, embodying a compelling visual and aural experience. But, as author Elisa Pezzotta contends, it is for these reasons that his cinema becomes the supreme embodiment of the sublime, fruitful encounter between the two arts and, simultaneously, of their independence.Stanley Kubrick''s last six adaptations--2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999)--are characterized by certain structural and stylistic patterns. These features help to draw conclusions about the role of Kubrick in the history of cinema, about his role as an adapter, and, more generally, about
£26.10
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Last Man Standing Mort Sahl and the Birth of
Book SynopsisOn December 22, 1953, Mort Sahl took the stage at San Francisco's hungry i and changed comedy forever. Before him, standup was about everything but hard news and politics. In his wake, a new generation of smart comics emerged. Here, for the first time, is the whole story of Mort Sahl, America's iconoclastic father of modern standup comedy.
£31.96
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Winnie Lightner Tomboy of the Talkies
Book SynopsisWinnie Lightner (1899-1971) stood out as the first great female comedian of the talkies. David L. Lightner shows how Winnie Lightner's hilarious performance in the 1929 musical comedy Gold Diggers of Broadway made her an overnight sensation. At long last, this biography gives Winnie Lightner the recognition she deserves as a notable figure in film history.
£27.96
