Film history, theory or criticism Books

Book SynopsisHistorically, Los Angeles and its exhibition market have been central to the international success of Latin American cinema. Not only was Los Angeles a site crucial for exhibition of these films, but it became the most important hub in the western hemisphere for the distribution of Spanish language films made for Latin American audiences. Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles builds upon this foundational insight to both examine the considerable, ongoing role that Los Angeles played in the history of Spanish-language cinema and to explore the implications of this transnational dynamic for the study and analysis of Latin American cinema before 1960. The volume editors aim to flesh out the gaps between Hollywood and Latin America, American imperialism and Latin American nationalism in order to produce a more nuanced view of transnational cultural relations in the western hemisphere. Trade Review"Excavating previously marginalized histories of Spanish-language film culture in the United States and painstakingly tracing its transnational connections, the exhaustively researched anthology Cinema Between Latin America and Los Angeles embodies the most exciting directions in film and media studies today. The volume’s essays offer rich, fine-grained studies of the local informed by international perspectives, considering the political economy of Spanish-language production and distribution, the forging of film publics, and the cross-pollination between cinema and entertainments like musical theater, popular song, and even contemporary fusions of lucha libre and performance art. Deftly rendering the complexities of cross-border exchanges and the role of film consumption in shaping social identities, Cinema Between Latin America and Los Angeles unearths forgotten but fascinating precursors of today's vibrant Latino and Spanish-language media." -- Rielle Navitski * coeditor of Cosmopolitan Film Cultures in Latin America, 1896-1960 *"With essays on previously unstudied production and distribution companies, Mexican producers’ attempts to appeal to U.S. audiences, Spanish-language cinema, Edwin Carewe’s Ramona (1928), Mexican teatro de revista, and the Mayan Theater this volume makes a compelling case for viewing Los Angeles as a crossroads for Latin American (especially Mexican) cinema. The authors’ transnational perspective allows them to trace the history of a film culture shaped by intermediality, migration, and vibrant border crossing entertainment cultures. The essays in this volume offer nothing less than a prehistory of Latino media." -- Laura Isabel Serna * author of Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture *"Highly recommended." * Choice *"Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles: Origins to 1960 is not just ‘another book about cinema’, but an original, eclectic and to some extent brave contribution to the field. Instead of limiting itself to an audience of film scholars and historians, the book widens its scope to cinema aficionados interested in knowing about the presence and the essence of Spanish- language films up to 1960." * Bulletin of Spanish Studies *"Excavating previously marginalized histories of Spanish-language film culture in the United States and painstakingly tracing its transnational connections, the exhaustively researched anthology Cinema Between Latin America and Los Angeles embodies the most exciting directions in film and media studies today. The volume’s essays offer rich, fine-grained studies of the local informed by international perspectives, considering the political economy of Spanish-language production and distribution, the forging of film publics, and the cross-pollination between cinema and entertainments like musical theater, popular song, and even contemporary fusions of lucha libre and performance art. Deftly rendering the complexities of cross-border exchanges and the role of film consumption in shaping social identities, Cinema Between Latin America and Los Angeles unearths forgotten but fascinating precursors of today's vibrant Latino and Spanish-language media." -- Rielle Navitski * coeditor of Cosmopolitan Film Cultures in Latin America, 1896-1960 *"With essays on previously unstudied production and distribution companies, Mexican producers’ attempts to appeal to U.S. audiences, Spanish-language cinema, Edwin Carewe’s Ramona (1928), Mexican teatro de revista, and the Mayan Theater this volume makes a compelling case for viewing Los Angeles as a crossroads for Latin American (especially Mexican) cinema. The authors’ transnational perspective allows them to trace the history of a film culture shaped by intermediality, migration, and vibrant border crossing entertainment cultures. The essays in this volume offer nothing less than a prehistory of Latino media." -- Laura Isabel Serna * author of Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture *"Highly recommended." * Choice *"Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles: Origins to 1960 is not just ‘another book about cinema’, but an original, eclectic and to some extent brave contribution to the field. Instead of limiting itself to an audience of film scholars and historians, the book widens its scope to cinema aficionados interested in knowing about the presence and the essence of Spanish- language films up to 1960." * Bulletin of Spanish Studies *Table of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction, Colin Gunckel, Jan-Christopher Horak, and Lisa Jarvinen El espectáculo: The Culture of the revistas in Mexico City and Los Angeles (1900−40), Jacqueline Avila Ramona in the City: Mexican Los Angeles, Dolores Del Rio, and the Remaking of a Mythic Story, Desirée J. Garcia Please Sing to Me: The Immigrant Nostalgia that Sparked the Mexican Film Industry, Viviana García Besné and Alistair Tremps A Mass Market for Spanish-language Films: Los Angeles, Hybridity, and the Emergence of Latino Audiovisual Media, Lisa Jarvinen Cantabria Films and the L.A. Film Market, 1938-1940, Jan-Christopher Horak A Cinema between Mexico and Hollywood: What We Can Learn from Adaptations, Remakes, Dubs, Talent Swaps and Other Curiosities, Colin Gunckel On the NUEVO TEATRO MÁXIMO DE LA RAZA: Still Thinking, Feeling and Speaking Spanish on and off Screen, Nina Hoechtl Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs one of popular culture’s most popular arenas, sports are often the subject of cinematic storytelling. But boxing films are special. There are more movies about boxing, by a healthy margin, than any other sport, and boxing accompanied and aided the medium’s late nineteenth-century emergence as a popular mass entertainment. Many of cinema’s most celebrated directors—from Oscar Micheaux to Martin Scorsese—made boxing films. And while the production of other types of sports movies generally corresponds with the current popularity of their subject, boxing films continue to be made regularly even after the sport has wilted from its once-prominent position in the sports hierarchy of the United States. From Edison’s Leonard-Cushing Fight to The Joe Louis Story, Rocky, and beyond, this book explores why boxing has so consistently fascinated cinema and popular media culture by tracing how boxing movies inform the sport’s meanings and uses from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.Trade Review“While focusing on African American representation and racial conflict, Travis Vogan offers a fluent and engaging survey of boxing’s transmedia history.” -- Leger Grindon * author of Knockout: the Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema *"29 Best New Cinema Books To Read In 2021" * Book Authority *"I have a soft spot for boxing movies. They are about the triumph of humanity and the specificity of training. This is another book that takes on an entire genre and breaks it down from memorable hits to forgotten titles." * No Film School *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Boxing Film Over Time and Across Media 1. The Boxing Film through the Golden Age of Sports Media 2. St. Joe Louis, Surrounded by Films 3. TV Fighting and Fighting TV in the 1950s 4. Muhammad Ali, The Super Fight, and Closed-Circuit Exhibition 5. The 1970s, Rocky, and the Shadow of Ali 6. HBO Sports: Docu-Branding Boxing 7. Protecting Boxing with the Boxing Film Conclusion: Handling the Rules Acknowledgements Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs one of popular culture’s most popular arenas, sports are often the subject of cinematic storytelling. But boxing films are special. There are more movies about boxing, by a healthy margin, than any other sport, and boxing accompanied and aided the medium’s late nineteenth-century emergence as a popular mass entertainment. Many of cinema’s most celebrated directors—from Oscar Micheaux to Martin Scorsese—made boxing films. And while the production of other types of sports movies generally corresponds with the current popularity of their subject, boxing films continue to be made regularly even after the sport has wilted from its once-prominent position in the sports hierarchy of the United States. From Edison’s Leonard-Cushing Fight to The Joe Louis Story, Rocky, and beyond, this book explores why boxing has so consistently fascinated cinema and popular media culture by tracing how boxing movies inform the sport’s meanings and uses from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.Trade Review“While focusing on African American representation and racial conflict, Travis Vogan offers a fluent and engaging survey of boxing’s transmedia history.” -- Leger Grindon * author of Knockout: the Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema *"29 Best New Cinema Books To Read In 2021" * Book Authority *"I have a soft spot for boxing movies. They are about the triumph of humanity and the specificity of training. This is another book that takes on an entire genre and breaks it down from memorable hits to forgotten titles." * No Film School *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Boxing Film Over Time and Across Media 1. The Boxing Film through the Golden Age of Sports Media 2. St. Joe Louis, Surrounded by Films 3. TV Fighting and Fighting TV in the 1950s 4. Muhammad Ali, The Super Fight, and Closed-Circuit Exhibition 5. The 1970s, Rocky, and the Shadow of Ali 6. HBO Sports: Docu-Branding Boxing 7. Protecting Boxing with the Boxing Film Conclusion: Handling the Rules Acknowledgements Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe rise of digital media and globalization’s intensification since the 1990s have significantly refigured global cinema’s form and content. The coincidence of digitalization and globalization has produced what this book helps to define and describe as a flourishing border cinema whose aesthetics reflect, construct, intervene in, denature, and reconfigure geopolitical borders. This collection demonstrates how border cinema resists contemporary border fortification processes, showing how cinematic media have functioned technologically and aesthetically to engender contemporary shifts in national and individual identities while proposing alternative conceptions of these identities to those promulgated by the often restrictive current political rhetoric and ideologies that represent a backlash to globalization. Trade Review"While border aesthetics have attracted increasing attention over the last decade, this wide-ranging and innovative collection offers a dynamic argument about why border cinema has become a central direction in contemporary film. Intricately weaving the digital technologies that support it and the shifting global politics that are its target, the book intervenes precisely and provocatively in how we understand world cinema today.” -- Timothy Corrigan * author of A Short Guide to Writing about Film *"Examining media from around the globe, this collection of essays compellingly interrogates the relationship between the digital and border cinema aesthetics. As the editors show, the border has become multiple, even mobile borders; mediated representations of these third spaces call viewers to political action and ethical engagement while affording opportunities for re-imagining subjectivities in a post 9-11 world. Essential reading for those invested in the way cinema imagines liminal social spaces." -- Laura Isabel Serna * author of Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture *"Recommended." * Choice *"While border aesthetics have attracted increasing attention over the last decade, this wide-ranging and innovative collection offers a dynamic argument about why border cinema has become a central direction in contemporary film. Intricately weaving the digital technologies that support it and the shifting global politics that are its target, the book intervenes precisely and provocatively in how we understand world cinema today.” -- Timothy Corrigan * author of A Short Guide to Writing about Film *"Examining media from around the globe, this collection of essays compellingly interrogates the relationship between the digital and border cinema aesthetics. As the editors show, the border has become multiple, even mobile borders; mediated representations of these third spaces call viewers to political action and ethical engagement while affording opportunities for re-imagining subjectivities in a post 9-11 world. Essential reading for those invested in the way cinema imagines liminal social spaces." -- Laura Isabel Serna * author of Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture *"Recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction: “Moving Images: Cinematic Contestations of Global Borders in the Digital Age,” by Monica Hanna and Rebecca A. Sheehan “Composite Aesthetics as Cultural Cartographies of Europe-in-Transition,” Marina Hassapopoulou “Undocumation: Documentary Animation’s Unsettled Borders,” Rebecca A. Sheehan “The Art of Witness in Lourdes Portillo’s Señorita Extraviada (2001),” Rosa-Linda Fregoso “The Cinematic Borderlands of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel,” Monica Hanna “Challenging European Borders: Goran Paskaljevic’s Honeymoons,” Anita Pinzi “Remapping the Borderlands in ¿Quién diablos es Juliette?” Elena Lahr-Vivaz “Crossing through el Hueco: The Visual Politics of Smuggling in Colombian Migration Films,” Jennifer Harford Vargas “Toward a Transfrontera-Latinx Aesthetics: An Interview with Filmmaker and Artist Alex Rivera,” Frederick Luis Aldama “No-man's Land: Shifting Borders and Alternating Identities in Contemporary Israeli Cinema,” Anat Zanger and Nurith Gertz “Te Borders We Cross in Search of a Better World: On Border Crossing in Three of Amos Gitai’s Feature Films,” Yael Munk “Filipinos at the Border: Migrant Workers in Transnational Philippine Cinema,” José B. Capino

Read more less

Book SynopsisChinatown Film Culture provides the first comprehensive account of the emergence of film and moviegoing in the transpacific hub of San Francisco in the early twentieth century. Working with materials previously left in the margins of grand narratives of history, Kim K. Fahlstedt uncovers the complexity of a local entertainment culture that offered spaces where marginalized Chinese Americans experienced and participated in local iterations of modernity. At the same time, this space also fostered a powerful Orientalist aesthetic that would eventually be exported to Hollywood by San Francisco showmen such as Sid Grauman. Instead of primarily focusing on the screen-spectator relationship, Fahlstedt suggests that immigrant audiences' role in the proliferation of cinema as public entertainment in the United States saturated the whole moviegoing experience, from outside on the street to inside the movie theater. By highlighting San Francisco and Chinatown as featured participants rather than bit players, Chinatown Film Culture provides an historical account from the margins, alternative to the more dominant narratives of U.S. film history.Trade Review"Chinatown Film Culture is an impressive and exhaustively researched history of early film exhibition practices and filmgoing culture in San Francisco's Chinatown. It is a remarkable contribution to film history!" -- Philippa Gates * author of Criminalization/Assimilation: Chinese/Americans and Chinatowns in Classical Hollywood Film *"Original and compelling, Chinatown Film Culture fills a significant gap in cinema history. Drawing on fascinating and highly illustrative primary sources, Kim K. Fahlstedt explores the place of Asian American communities in the emergence of cinematic modernity in the United States." -- Zhang Zhen * editor of The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century *Table of ContentsContents Preface Introduction Part I: Early Film in San Francisco 1. Bold Visions and Frontier Conditions – The Emergence of Film in San Francisco 2. “If I Had the Power to Do So I Would Destroy Them with My Own Hands” – Film and Politics in Post-Quake San Francisco Part II: Chinatown Exhibition and Movie Theaters 3. “The Most Cosmopolitan City in the World” – Chinese San Francisco at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 4. “Eyes Darting Around, Spirit Dashing About” – Mapping Chinatown Film Culture, 1906 – 1915 5. The Chinesque Aesthetic -Orientalist Stereotypes in Post-Quake Film Culture Part III: Chinese American Audiences 6. “Where the People Aren’t All American” – Chinatown Audiences and Spectators 7. Chinatown Modernity – Revolutions and Movie Theaters 8. Trajectories and Concluding Remarks Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmerican War Stories asks readers to contemplate what traditionally constitutes a “war story” and how that constitution obscures the normalization of militarism in American culture. The book claims the traditionally narrow scope of “war story,” as by a combatant about his wartime experience, compartmentalizes war, casting armed violence as distinct from everyday American life. Broadening “war story” beyond the specific genres of war narratives such as “war films,” “war fiction,” or “war memoirs,” American War Stories exposes how ingrained militarism is in everyday American life, a condition that challenges the very democratic principles the United States is touted as exemplifying. Trade Review“Boyle excavates America’s most sacred martial myths with paleontological care, unearthing a surprise from every inch of sediment. Beyond curating the struggles and accidents of history, she expertly shows how they have been reshaped by powerful interests into an apparently natural landscape. In doing so, American War Stories gives us a language for the tectonics of received understanding.”— Roger Stahl, professor of communications, University of Georgia “American War Stories starts with the important idea that, in recent years, a pernicious dedication to dubiously authentic ‘soldier’s stories’ and paid patriotism has naturalized a particular kind of militarist triumphalism that obscures the events of the past and renders a workable understanding of the present impossible. Delving into a range of genres of this storytelling—film, memorials, memoirs, half-time shows—Boyle offers a compelling reconstruction of some of these stories as they serve the needs of an all-volunteer military and a population that is increasingly removed from both military service and the direct costs of war. She argues that these stories enable the emergence of a proud narrative of well-meaning underdogs serving the needs of a waiting world to come to be seen as an obvious, plain truth rather than a violent, blinding invention.”— Kristin Hass, author of Carried to the Wall and Sacrificing Soldiers on the National MallTable of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction American War Stories Since World War II 1 State of Crisis: Stories of American Exceptionalism, the French, and Masculinities in Vietnam 2 Staging War: Stories of Collectivity at, by, and through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial 3 Lone Wolf Family Man: Stories of Individualism and Collectivism in American Sniper(s) and Lone Survivor(s) 4 Military Judgment in a Neoliberal Age: Stories of Egalitarianism and the All-Volunteer Force 5 The Soldier’s Creed: Stories of Warrior Patriotism in Visual Culture Coda Prices Paid for the War Stories We Tell Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmerican War Stories asks readers to contemplate what traditionally constitutes a “war story” and how that constitution obscures the normalization of militarism in American culture. The book claims the traditionally narrow scope of “war story,” as by a combatant about his wartime experience, compartmentalizes war, casting armed violence as distinct from everyday American life. Broadening “war story” beyond the specific genres of war narratives such as “war films,” “war fiction,” or “war memoirs,” American War Stories exposes how ingrained militarism is in everyday American life, a condition that challenges the very democratic principles the United States is touted as exemplifying. Trade Review“Boyle excavates America’s most sacred martial myths with paleontological care, unearthing a surprise from every inch of sediment. Beyond curating the struggles and accidents of history, she expertly shows how they have been reshaped by powerful interests into an apparently natural landscape. In doing so, American War Stories gives us a language for the tectonics of received understanding.”— Roger Stahl, professor of communications, University of Georgia “American War Stories starts with the important idea that, in recent years, a pernicious dedication to dubiously authentic ‘soldier’s stories’ and paid patriotism has naturalized a particular kind of militarist triumphalism that obscures the events of the past and renders a workable understanding of the present impossible. Delving into a range of genres of this storytelling—film, memorials, memoirs, half-time shows—Boyle offers a compelling reconstruction of some of these stories as they serve the needs of an all-volunteer military and a population that is increasingly removed from both military service and the direct costs of war. She argues that these stories enable the emergence of a proud narrative of well-meaning underdogs serving the needs of a waiting world to come to be seen as an obvious, plain truth rather than a violent, blinding invention.”— Kristin Hass, author of Carried to the Wall and Sacrificing Soldiers on the National MallTable of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction American War Stories Since World War II 1 State of Crisis: Stories of American Exceptionalism, the French, and Masculinities in Vietnam 2 Staging War: Stories of Collectivity at, by, and through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial 3 Lone Wolf Family Man: Stories of Individualism and Collectivism in American Sniper(s) and Lone Survivor(s) 4 Military Judgment in a Neoliberal Age: Stories of Egalitarianism and the All-Volunteer Force 5 The Soldier’s Creed: Stories of Warrior Patriotism in Visual Culture Coda Prices Paid for the War Stories We Tell Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHaunted Homes is a short but groundbreaking study of homes in horror film and television. While haunted houses can be fun and thrilling, Hollywood horror tends to focus on haunted homes, places where the suburban American dream of safety and comfort has turned into a nightmare. From classic movies like The Old Dark House to contemporary works like Hereditary and the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, Dahlia Schweitzer explores why haunted homes have become a prime stage for dramatizing anxieties about family, gender, race, and economic collapse. She traces how the haunted home film was intertwined with the expansion of American suburbia, but also explores works like The Witch and The Babadook, which transport the genre to different times and places. This lively and readable study reveals how and why an increasing number of films imagine that home is where the horror is. Watch a video of the author discussing the topic Haunted Homes (https://youtu.be/_irTEfvtZfQ).Trade Review"Dahlia Schweitzer's brilliantly-crafted book provides a perfect autopsy of the haunted house genre. Haunted Homes is not just a useful dissection of a popular subgenre of horror, it provides the perfect re-watch list for fans seeking to confront their inner fears." — Chris Gore, co-founder of Film Threat Dahlia Schweitzer’s “Haunted Homes” A Little Nerd News— The Mo'Kelly Show "Dahlia Schweitzer’s book Haunted Homes is a fascinating exploration of our culture's nearly insatiable desire for films that explore this genre. It is as hard to put down as it is to avert your eyes from the screen, even as you know you’re going to cower in fear." — Michael Grais, co-writer of Poltergeist New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture interview with Dahlia Schweitzer — New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture "Exclusive Excerpt from Dahlia Scweitzer's Haunted Homes"— Film Threat "In this highly entertaining book Dahlia Schweitzer takes readers on a tour of the American middle-class suburbs where true evil lurks, from The Cat and the Canary (1927) to The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix, 2018). The American dream to own one’s home has a flipside, namely to be stuck in a place that can be economically draining and literally the entrance to hell. Haunted Homes is one of those rare finds where state-of-the-art research and excellent prose go hand in hand and make you finish this book faster than a thriller.” — Rikke Schubart, author of Mastering Fear: Women, Emotions, and Contemporary Horror "Haunted Homes is a book for anyone who has ever awoken in the depths of the night, convinced that they heard someone–or something–lurking beyond their bedroom door. Through engaging analyses of American Horror Story (2011–) and Get Out (2017), amongst many others, Schweitzer proves that home ownership really is ‘a literal nightmare’."— Alison Peirse, editor of Women Make Horror SKYLIT: Dahlia Schweitzer, “HAUNTED HOMES”— Skylit: Skylight Books Podcast SeriesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 The Suburbs 2 The Suburban Gothic 3 Gender, Horror, and the Family 4 Race, Horror, and the Family Conclusion Acknowledgments Further Reading Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhitewashing the Movies addresses the popular practice of excluding Asian actors from playing Asian characters in film. Media activists and critics have denounced contemporary decisions to cast White actors to play Asians and Asian Americans in movies such as Ghost in the Shell and Aloha. The purpose of this book is to apply the concept of “whitewashing” in stories that privilege White identities at the expense of Asian/American stories and characters. To understand whitewashing across various contexts, the book analyzes films produced in Hollywood, Asian American independent production, and US-China co-productions. Through the analysis, the book examines the ways in which whitewashing matters in the project of Whiteness and White racial hegemony. The book contributes to contemporary understanding of mediated representations of race by theorizing whitewashing, contributing to studies of Whiteness in media studies, and producing a counter-imagination of Asian/American representation in Asian-centered stories.Trade Review"David C. Oh’s Whitewashing the Movies: Asian Erasure and White Subjectivity in U.S. Film Culture makes a strong case that these are still relevant approaches for scholars and critics seeking to make sense of Hollywood’s continued displacement of Asian characters on-screen, even when box-office analysis confirms over and over that stories about nonwhite characters reap significant financial returns....[I]f Oh’s target is Hollywood, he strikes it with example after example, a repetitive bull’s-eye that shows no mercy for the liberal hypocrisy and creative stagnation of Hollywood’s 'colorblind' racism." * Film Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Whitewashing Romance in Hawai’i: Aloha 2 White China Experts, Asian American Twinkies: Shanghai Calling and Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong 3 White Grievance, Heroism, and Postracist, Mixed-Race Inclusion in 47 Ronin 4 Satire and the Villainy of Kim Jong-un: The Interview 5 White Survival in Southeast Asia: No Escape and The Impossible 6 Whitewashing Anime Remakes: Ghost in the Shell and Dragonball Evolution 7 Transnational Coproduction and the Ambivalence of White Masculine Heroism: The Great Wall, Outcast, and Enter the Warriors Gate Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisLawrence of Arabia, The Miracle Worker, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Manchurian Candidate, Gypsy, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Longest Day, The Music Man, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, and more.Most conventional film histories dismiss the early 1960s as a pallid era, a downtime between the heights of the classic studio system and the rise of New Hollywood directors like Scorsese and Altman in the 1970s. It seemed to be a moment when the movie industry was floundering as the popularity of television caused a downturn in cinema attendance. Cinema ’62 challenges these assumptions by making the bold claim that 1962 was a peak year for film, with a high standard of quality that has not been equaled since. Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan show how 1962 saw great late-period work by classic Hollywood directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and John Huston, as well as stars like Bette Davis, James Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, and Barbara Stanwyck. Yet it was also a seminal year for talented young directors like Sidney Lumet, Sam Peckinpah, and Stanley Kubrick, not to mention rising stars like Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Peter O’Toole, and Omar Sharif. Above all, 1962—the year of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Manchurian Candidate—gave cinema attendees the kinds of adult, artistic, and uncompromising visions they would never see on television, including classics from Fellini, Bergman, and Kurosawa. Culminating in an analysis of the year’s Best Picture winner and top-grossing film, Lawrence of Arabia, and the factors that made that magnificent epic possible, Cinema ’62 makes a strong case that the movies peaked in the Kennedy era.Trade Review"I wouldn’t have pointed to 1962 as a landmark year for movies, but Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan have proven me wrong. Their knowledgeable and persuasive book spotlights diverse films from the U.S. and abroad that put today’s mainstream releases to shame. Can you imagine a menu of superior movies like Lolita, The Manchurian Candidate, Ride the High Country, Days of Wine and Roses and The Music Man all coming out in one twelve-month period? The authors provide valuable context for this lineup, a treasure trove well worth celebrating." -- Leonard Maltin * film critic and historian *"1962 was the greatest AND most important year in movie history! 1939, its closest competitor, was the apex of Hollywood’s Golden Age when dream factories entranced and riveted audiences into their seats. But in 1962 new waves washed into theaters, and the spell was broken: the Golden Age gave way to the Emboldened Age. Filmmakers began to feel they could create their own dreams. Art houses and film schools proliferated. Audiences jumped out of their seats and argued about what they loved… and hated. Friendships were tested. Film mattered! It was the New Frontier. You shoulda been there! Wait! You can be there! Farber and McClellan have provided you with the best way to re-live those thrilling days. They’ve unearthed gems, told great tales, and provided plenty of juicy gossip. Cinema ’62 will arouse you to once again have arguments, go for the jugular, test your friendships…and care about film!” -- Philip Kaufman * award-winning director of The Right Stuff and Invasion of the Body Snatchers *"1962 was a magical year for all of us who love the movies. Filmmaking and art merged in ways that were under-appreciated until now. This fine work by Farber and McClellan makes me realize how fortunate we are to have these momentous and enduring movies. It also made me remember why I wanted to become a director." -- Penelope Spheeris * Director of The Decline of Western Civilization and Wayne’s World *"Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan, with first-rate scholarship and an accessible, entertaining style, make a superb case that 1962 was perhaps the most fascinating, influential, and yes, greatest year in world cinema. They examine a year when the major studios were still committed to making films for adults, the stifling production code was at last loosening up, foreign films were gaining in popularity, and a woman in the central role wasn't a brave and rare event. Cinema '62: The Greatest Year at the Movies is as great as its subject." -- Charles Busch * playwright, actor and screenwriter *"What an amazing year 1962 was in the history of cinema, and what an amazing book Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan have written about it. Cinema '62 is at once deft scholarship and sublime storytelling, a tough balance to maintain, but Farber and McClellan pull it off seamlessly. And the authors make an absolutely convincing case for 1962 as the greatest year in the history of world cinema." -- W.K. Stratton * author of The Wild Bunch *"The case for 1962 can certainly be made with socially provocative films such as Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lolita, and The Manchurian Candidate, yet the authors bolster their argument with dozens of other entries, including David and Lisa and a Taste of Honey, largely overlooked by the general public." * Library Journal *"There’s plenty of interesting history in Cinema ’62. Farber and McClellan bop from film to film with details about each one’s development, making, release, and influence." * Psychobabble *"Authors Farber and McClellan serve film fans a briskly written, meticulously researched history that gives an often-overlooked and underrated era in cinema its due." * Associated Press *"1962 Was The Year" http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2020/03/1962-was-the-year/ * Hollywood Elsewhere *"BETTE DAVIS VS. JOAN CRAWFORD: HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST FEUD: On the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962" https://crimereads.com/bette-davis-vs-joan-crawford-hollywoods-greatest-feud/ * CrimeReads *"With fresh interviews from participants in many of the key projects and with the authors’ vast, personal knowledge of the films and the context in which they were made, Cinema ’62 is as sharp and lively as that modernist-slanted title implies. Best of all, its approach never feels as if it’s looking back. One feels that the authors just watched all the movies last week and they’re just dying to tell you about some life-changing piece of art that you’ve just got to see." * Variety *"The authors argue their case convincingly by systematically trotting out one exciting foreign film after another, reminding you that, especially thanks to France and Italy, the early 1960s represented a true golden age for arthouse cinema, as it was widely called at the time." * The Hollywood Reporter *Classic Movie Musts podcast interview with Michael McClellan https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/classic-movie-musts/id1375263468#episodeGuid=classicmoviemusts.podbean.com/786a74f0-976d-5578-95f4-2dcfa7cf39d5 * Classic Movie Musts podcast *"From ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’ And ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ To The Debut Of James Bond, Was 1962 The Greatest Movie Year EVER? A New Book Says Yes" by Pete Hammond * Deadline *"A potent reminder that the early 1960s were indeed a turning point in global cinema." * Classic Film & TV Cafe *A New and Notable Film Book for March 2020: "I never would have chosen 1962 as a watershed year for filmmaking but authors McClellan and Farber have proven me wrong. Their essays provide historical context and a well-informed look at the ingredients that meshed to make this an exceptional period for filmmakers and filmgoers alike." * LeonardMaltin.com *"DigiGods Episode 198: Hey Macorona!" interview with Stephen Farber http://digigods.ign.libsynpro.com/digigods-episode-198-hey-macorona * DigiGods podcast *Battleship Pretension podcast: Episode 681: Cinema '62 with Stephen Farber http://battleshippretension.com/episode-681-cinema-62-with-stephen-farber/ * Battleship Pretension *"The Greatest Year at the Movies: Experts Share Behind-the-Scenes Stories about the Unforgettable Classics We Know and Love" by Katie Bruno * Closer Weekly *"This is a solid work of film study and appreciation that makes its case for a new ‘Golden Year’ quite well." * CineSavant Column *"Was 1962 the best year for film? Grab your popcorn, we have time to discuss it," by Ben Hoyt * The Times of London *"Cinema '62 is a compelling and entertaining assessment of the films released in 1962 and will help budding film buffs assemble a list of must-see movies. Forget 1939, Cinema '62 looks at the acclaimed and neglected films of 1962, and persuasively and entertainingly argues it was the peak year for motion pictures." * Shelf Awareness for Readers *"Interview: Author Michael McClellan Talks New Book" https://journeysinclassicfilm.com/2020/04/23/interview-author-michael-mcclellan-talks-new-book/ * Journeys in Classic Film *"The Gold Standard: Is 1962 secretly the greatest year ever for movies?" by Ben Hoyle * Air Mail *"What’s the best movie year ever? People have claimed for years it was 1939; recently, there have been dissenters. Farber, a veteran Los Angeles film critic, and McClellan, a longtime film buyer, make their case for 1962, the year that produced such classics as 'Lawrence of Arabia,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'The Manchurian Candidate.'" * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel *"[Farber and McClellan] succeed in crafting a credible, critical narrative of an art form in transition, with chapters covering the foreign-film revolution, the loosening of sexual morals onscreen, the increasing influence of psychoanalysis and, naturally, the move from black and white to glorious Technicolor." * Flick Attack *"A terrific recapitulation of the year in film...It’s superb at probing the political, social, critical, and economic impact of the major and not-so major movies of the year with insight and meticulous research." * Mount Laurel Library, "Irv on Film" *"The authors knowledgeably examine some two-dozen films from 1962, offering cogent insights on what makes them great. Highly recommended." * Choice *CineSavant column mention of Cinema '62 https://cinesavant.com/cinesavant-column-254/ * CineSavant *"Wisely organized thematically....The result is a good survey of critical and box office receptions and makes for easy reading." * CineMontage *"[Farber and McClellan] do an excellent job of moving the needle for American/UK cinema in favor of their claim. They remind us, and provide short, but pithy discussions, of some truly great films of the year." * Quarterly Review of Film and Video *"Film historians/authors Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan make the argument for cinema in 1962, culminating with David Lean's extraordinary 'Lawrence of Arabia."' * Los Angeles Times Gift Guide *"29 Best New Cinema Books To Read In 2021" * Book Authority *"Cinema ’62: The Greatest Year at the Movies by Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan deserve[s] film lovers’ attention." * Boston Globe *"The authors not only rave about excellent films and the correspondingly high number of viewers, they also work out a trend that is already emerging—the end of the Hollywood studio system and the growing influence of so-called filmmakers. The authors deal with an equally important aspect by discussing the move away from black and white to color film." * Country Mag *Table of ContentsForeword by Bill Condon Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Overseas Explosion 2 New American Auteurs 3 Survivors: Con Men and Hollywood Honchos 4 Grande Dames and a Box-Office Queen 5 Calling Dr. Freud 6 Adapted for the Screen: Prestige and Provocation 7 Black and White to Technicolor 8 The New Frontier 9 Sexual and Social Outlaws 10 Crowning Achievement Epilogue Appendix A: Other Films of 1962 Appendix B: Accolades and Box Office for 1962 Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDouble Exposure examines the role of film in shaping social psychology’s landmark postwar experiments. We are told that most of us will inflict electric shocks on a fellow citizen when ordered to do so. Act as a brutal prison guard when we put on a uniform. Walk on by when we see a stranger in need. But there is more to the story. Documentaries that investigators claimed as evidence were central to capturing the public imagination. Did they provide an alibi for twentieth century humanity? Examining the dramaturgy, staging and filming of these experiments, including Milgram's Obedience Experiments, the Stanford Prison Experiment and many more, Double Exposure recovers a new set of narratives.Trade ReviewNew Books Network: New Books in Sociology interview with Kathryn Millard— New Books Network: New Books in Sociology “This is an important contribution to the raging debate on ethics and truth in storytelling, both in film and scientific research; it sheds light on the true-crime film genre; it recovers lost film history; and it reveals the value of truly interdisciplinary research. An exceptional creative and scholarly achievement!"— Patricia Aufderheide, author of Documentary: A Very Short Introduction “A landmark work! The classic films that reported human behavior experiments selectively told one story but many more were possible. Why one and not another? Millard explains why the dominant stories won out with an insightful provocative mix of analysis and speculation.”— Bill Nichols, author of Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in DocumentaryTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction 1. Setting the Scene 2. “You’re an Actor Now” 3. New Haven Noir 4. Good or Bad Samaritans? 5. Doing Time 6. Crime Scenes 7. Restaging the Psychology Experiment 8. “I was the SYSTEM” 9. Shifting the Story Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDouble Exposure examines the role of film in shaping social psychology’s landmark postwar experiments. We are told that most of us will inflict electric shocks on a fellow citizen when ordered to do so. Act as a brutal prison guard when we put on a uniform. Walk on by when we see a stranger in need. But there is more to the story. Documentaries that investigators claimed as evidence were central to capturing the public imagination. Did they provide an alibi for twentieth century humanity? Examining the dramaturgy, staging and filming of these experiments, including Milgram's Obedience Experiments, the Stanford Prison Experiment and many more, Double Exposure recovers a new set of narratives.Trade Review“A landmark work! The classic films that reported human behavior experiments selectively told one story but many more were possible. Why one and not another? Millard explains why the dominant stories won out with an insightful provocative mix of analysis and speculation.” -- Bill Nichols * author of Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary *“This is an important contribution to the raging debate on ethics and truth in storytelling, both in film and scientific research; it sheds light on the true-crime film genre; it recovers lost film history; and it reveals the value of truly interdisciplinary research. An exceptional creative and scholarly achievement!" -- Patricia Aufderheide * author of Documentary: A Very Short Introduction *New Books Network: New Books in Sociology interview with Kathryn Millard * New Books Network: New Books in Sociology *“A landmark work! The classic films that reported human behavior experiments selectively told one story but many more were possible. Why one and not another? Millard explains why the dominant stories won out with an insightful provocative mix of analysis and speculation.” -- Bill Nichols * author of Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary *“This is an important contribution to the raging debate on ethics and truth in storytelling, both in film and scientific research; it sheds light on the true-crime film genre; it recovers lost film history; and it reveals the value of truly interdisciplinary research. An exceptional creative and scholarly achievement!" -- Patricia Aufderheide * author of Documentary: A Very Short Introduction *New Books Network: New Books in Sociology interview with Kathryn Millard * New Books Network: New Books in Sociology *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction1. Setting the Scene2. “You’re an Actor Now”3. New Haven Noir4. Good or Bad Samaritans?5. Doing Time6. Crime Scenes7. Restaging the Psychology Experiment8. “I was the SYSTEM”9. Shifting the StoryIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisNominated for 2022 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Book award Born in 1964, Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh grew up in the midst of the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal reign of terror, which claimed the lives of many of his relatives. After escaping to France, where he attended film school, he returned to his homeland in the late 1980s and began work on the documentaries and fiction films that have made him Cambodia’s most celebrated living director. The fourteen essays in The Cinema of Rithy Panh explore the filmmaker’s unique aesthetic sensibility, examining the dynamic and sensuous images through which he suggests that “everything has a soul.” They consider how Panh represents Cambodia’s traumatic past, combining forms of individual and collective remembrance, and the implications of this past for Cambodia’s transition into a global present. Covering documentary and feature films, including his literary adaptations of Marguerite Duras and Kenzaburō Ōe, they examine how Panh’s attention to local context leads to a deep understanding of such major themes in global cinema as justice, imperialism, diaspora, gender, and labor. Offering fresh takes on masterworks like The Missing Picture and S-21 while also shining a light on the director’s lesser-known films, The Cinema of Rithy Panh will give readers a new appreciation for the boundless creativity and ethical sensitivity of one of Southeast Asia’s cinematic visionaries.Trade Review"In this brilliant volume, sixteen scholars explore camera, voice, memory and witness in Rithy Panh’s extraordinary cinema. Frame by frame, their essays reveal Panh as a global director, and Cambodia’s most gifted chronicler." -- Penny Edwards * author of Cambodge: The cultivation of a nation 1860-1945 *"In this brilliant volume, sixteen scholars explore camera, voice, memory and witness in Rithy Panh’s extraordinary cinema. Frame by frame, their essays reveal Panh as a global director, and Cambodia’s most gifted chronicler." -- Penny Edwards * author of Cambodge: The cultivation of a nation 1860-1945 *Table of ContentsChronology Introduction: Rithy Panh and the Cinematic Image Leslie Barnes and Joseph Mai Part I: Aftermath: A Cinema of Post-War Survival 1. The “Mad Mother” in Rithy Panh’s Films Boreth Ly 2. Resilience in the Ruins: Artistic Practice in Rithy Panh’s The Burnt Theater Joseph Mai 3. The Wounds of Memory: Poetics, Pain, and Possibilities in Rithy Panh’s Exile and Que la barque se brise Khatharya Um Part II: From Colonial to Global Cambodia 4. Rithy Panh’s The Sea Wall: Reinventing Duras in Cambodia Jack A. Yeager and Rachel Harrison 5. Rithy Panh as Chasseur d’images Jennifer Cazenave 6. Aerial Aftermaths and Reckonings from Below: Reseeing Rithy Panh’s Shiiku, the Catch Cathy J. Schlund-Vials 7. Cambodia's "Wandering Souls": Migrant Labor and the Promise of Connection Leslie Barnes Part III: The Question of Justice 8. Archiving the Perpetrator Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier and John Kleinen 9. Creating Duch: The Projects of Duch, François Bizot, and Rithy Panh Donald Reid 10. Rithy Panh, Jean Améry, and the Paradigm of Moral Resentment Raya Morag Part IV: Memory, Voice, and Cinematic Practice 11. Looking Back and Projecting Forward from Site 2 Lindsay French 12. Bophana’s Image and Narrative: Tragedy, Accusatory Gaze, and Hidden Treasure Vicente Sánchez-Biosca 13. Memory Translation: Rithy Panh’s Provocations to the Primacy and Virtues of the Documentary Sound/Image Index David LaRocca 14. Rithy Panh: Storyteller of the Extreme Soko Phay Acknowledgments Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter World War II, studies examining youth culture on the silver screen start with James Dean. But the angst that Dean symbolized—anxieties over parents, the “Establishment,” and the expectations of future citizen-soldiers—long predated Rebels without a Cause. Historians have largely overlooked how the Great Depression and World War II impacted and shaped the Cold War, and youth contributed to the national ideologies of family and freedom. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors explores this gap by connecting facets of boyhood as represented in American film from the 1930s to the postwar years. From the Andy Hardy series to pictures such as The Search, Intruder in the Dust, and The Gunfighter, boy characters addressed larger concerns over the dysfunctional family unit, militarism, the “race question,” and the international scene as the Korean War began. Navigating the political, social, and economic milieus inside and outside of Hollywood, Peter W.Y. Lee demonstrates that continuities from the 1930s influenced the unique postwar moment, coalescing into anticommunism and the Cold War. Trade Review"A specter was haunting mid-twentieth century Hollywood – the specter of the rebellious boy. Peter W.Y. Lee ably shows how US filmmakers of the period created a cast of culturally potent boy characters to arbitrate conflicts of age, gender, race, class, and political ideology at the dawning of the American Century. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors is required reading for historians of youth, film, and the early Cold War." -- Mischa Honeck * author of Our Frontier Is the World, The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy *"A specter was haunting mid-twentieth century Hollywood – the specter of the rebellious boy. Peter W.Y. Lee ably shows how US filmmakers of the period created a cast of culturally potent boy characters to arbitrate conflicts of age, gender, race, class, and political ideology at the dawning of the American Century. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors is required reading for historians of youth, film, and the early Cold War." -- Mischa Honeck * author of Our Frontier Is the World, The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy *Table of ContentsContents List of Figures List of Tables Foreword Chronology List of Abbreviations Introduction: Are the Kids All Right? 1 The Family in Trouble, 1920-1945 2 Gable is Able: Re-Creating the Postwar Family 3 Curbing Delinquency: Hot Rods and Hotrodding 4 Whitewashing the Race Cycle in 1949 5 The International Picture Conclusion: Revising the “Deanlinquent” Acknowledgments Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter World War II, studies examining youth culture on the silver screen start with James Dean. But the angst that Dean symbolized—anxieties over parents, the “Establishment,” and the expectations of future citizen-soldiers—long predated Rebels without a Cause. Historians have largely overlooked how the Great Depression and World War II impacted and shaped the Cold War, and youth contributed to the national ideologies of family and freedom. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors explores this gap by connecting facets of boyhood as represented in American film from the 1930s to the postwar years. From the Andy Hardy series to pictures such as The Search, Intruder in the Dust, and The Gunfighter, boy characters addressed larger concerns over the dysfunctional family unit, militarism, the “race question,” and the international scene as the Korean War began. Navigating the political, social, and economic milieus inside and outside of Hollywood, Peter W.Y. Lee demonstrates that continuities from the 1930s influenced the unique postwar moment, coalescing into anticommunism and the Cold War. Trade Review"A specter was haunting mid-twentieth century Hollywood – the specter of the rebellious boy. Peter W.Y. Lee ably shows how US filmmakers of the period created a cast of culturally potent boy characters to arbitrate conflicts of age, gender, race, class, and political ideology at the dawning of the American Century. From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors is required reading for historians of youth, film, and the early Cold War."— Mischa Honeck, author of Our Frontier Is the World, The Boy Scouts in the Age of American AscendancyTable of ContentsContents List of Figures List of Tables Foreword Chronology List of Abbreviations Introduction: Are the Kids All Right? 1 The Family in Trouble, 1920-1945 2 Gable is Able: Re-Creating the Postwar Family 3 Curbing Delinquency: Hot Rods and Hotrodding 4 Whitewashing the Race Cycle in 1949 5 The International Picture Conclusion: Revising the “Deanlinquent” Acknowledgments Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisBefore Bemberg: Argentine Women Filmmakers calls into question the historiography of Argentine women filmmakers that has centered on María Luisa Bemberg to the exclusion of her predecessors. Its introductory discussion of the abundant initial participation by women in film production in the 1910s is followed by an account of their exclusion from creative roles in the studio cinema, which was only altered by the opportunities opened by a boom in short filmmaking in the 1960s. The book then discusses in depth the six sound features directed by women before 1980, which, despite their trailblazing explorations of the perspectives of female characters, daring denunciations of authoritarianism and censorship, and modernizing formal invention, have been forgotten by Argentine film history. Looking at the work and roles of Eva Landeck, Vlasta Lah, María Herminia Avellaneda and María Elena Walsh and Maria Bemberg, the book recognizes these filmmakers’ contributions at a significant moment in which movements to eliminate gender-based oppression and violence in Argentina and elsewhere are surging.Watch some of the films discussed in the book with English subtitles (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF_6F4am5024rklIWwExUVA?view_as=subscriber).Trade Review“Before Bemberg excavates a fascinating history of Argentine women filmmakers that have rarely been acknowledged. The book promises to widen the framing of important filmmakers in the Argentine film canon including Maria Luisa Bemberg, Lucrecia Martel and other contemporary women directors. Matt Losada’s work presents an important contribution to the lesser known, but equally important women directors from earlier eras that are at last gaining wider recognition." -- Tamara Falicov * author of The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film *"Film production in Argentina had been very much a male affair until the emergence of María Luisa Bemberg in the 1970s. Losada has undertaken a significant documentary history of Bemberg’s predecessors, in a study that contributes to our understanding of both the difficulties women faced in the industry and their contributions to cinema." -- David William Foster * author of Queer Issues in Latin American Filmmaking *"Losada's contribution to the scholarship of Argentine cinema and Latin American women's cinema is invaluable. Specifically, his archival research into Argentine women directors before Bemberg is instrumental in understanding the true history of women's active participation in Argentine cinema from the very beginning." * The Americas *"In short, Losada presents us with a text full of information, destined to rewrite the history of the cinematographic directors who preceded Bemberg. Added to the archival work is the wide dissemination of the research carried out by Argentine critics, many of whom are linked in one way or another to AsAECA. Although the analysis of the films is excellent, this reader is left wanting to know more about the time and who marked it, but as long as that is the reaction, Losada has more than fulfilled its objective." * Imagofagia, Magazine of the Argentine Association of Film and Audiovisual Studies *"The book's initial claim to recuperation, one that would allow today's cinephiles and scholars to access a more complete history and acknowledge the past difficulties and possibilities for women', is substantiated by the critical reading of a wide range of primary and secondary sources, combined with impeccable textual analysis. What eventually enables the delivery of the far more complex story' that this study aims to accomplish, is the author's ability to navigate from the macro i.e., the working conditions of women within the industry, during the era of the studio system in Argentina), to the micro (i.e., the detailed examination of how the gendered mechanics of the cinematic apparatus are challenged and de-constructed in the films that form this study's corpus)." -- Constanza Burucúa * Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies *“Before Bemberg excavates a fascinating history of Argentine women filmmakers that have rarely been acknowledged. The book promises to widen the framing of important filmmakers in the Argentine film canon including Maria Luisa Bemberg, Lucrecia Martel and other contemporary women directors. Matt Losada’s work presents an important contribution to the lesser known, but equally important women directors from earlier eras that are at last gaining wider recognition." -- Tamara Falicov * author of The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film *"Film production in Argentina had been very much a male affair until the emergence of María Luisa Bemberg in the 1970s. Losada has undertaken a significant documentary history of Bemberg’s predecessors, in a study that contributes to our understanding of both the difficulties women faced in the industry and their contributions to cinema." -- David William Foster * author of Queer Issues in Latin American Filmmaking *"Losada's contribution to the scholarship of Argentine cinema and Latin American women's cinema is invaluable. Specifically, his archival research into Argentine women directors before Bemberg is instrumental in understanding the true history of women's active participation in Argentine cinema from the very beginning." * The Americas *"In short, Losada presents us with a text full of information, destined to rewrite the history of the cinematographic directors who preceded Bemberg. Added to the archival work is the wide dissemination of the research carried out by Argentine critics, many of whom are linked in one way or another to AsAECA. Although the analysis of the films is excellent, this reader is left wanting to know more about the time and who marked it, but as long as that is the reaction, Losada has more than fulfilled its objective." * Imagofagia, Magazine of the Argentine Association of Film and Audiovisual Studies *"The book's initial claim to recuperation, one that would allow today's cinephiles and scholars to access a more complete history and acknowledge the past difficulties and possibilities for women', is substantiated by the critical reading of a wide range of primary and secondary sources, combined with impeccable textual analysis. What eventually enables the delivery of the far more complex story' that this study aims to accomplish, is the author's ability to navigate from the macro i.e., the working conditions of women within the industry, during the era of the studio system in Argentina), to the micro (i.e., the detailed examination of how the gendered mechanics of the cinematic apparatus are challenged and de-constructed in the films that form this study's corpus)." -- Constanza Burucúa * Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies *Table of ContentsContents Introduction 1. A History of the Gendered Division of Labor in Argentine Cinema 2. Eva Landeck 3. Beauvoir Before Bemberg: Lah, Avellaneda-Walsh, Bemberg Acknowledgements About the Author Filmography Works Cited

Read more less

Book SynopsisIndie Cinema Online investigates the changing nature of contemporary American independent cinema in an era of media convergence. Focusing on the ways in which modes of production, distribution, and exhibition are shifting with the advent of online streaming, simultaneous release strategies, and web series, this book analyzes sites such as SundanceTV, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and other online spaces as a means of redefining independent cinema in a digital era. Analyzing the intersections among cinema studies, cultural studies, and new media studies within contemporary convergence culture, author Sarah E.S. Sinwell looks at sites of media convergence that are often ignored within most studies of digital media. Emphasizing the ways in which the forms and technologies of media culture have changed during the age of convergence, this book analyzes contemporary production, distribution, and exhibition practices as a means of examining the changing meanings of independent cinema within digital culture.Trade Review"Indie cinema has been moving increasingly online and Sarah Sinwell's book is the first to offer a comprehensive mapping of this new and exciting terrain. Paying attention to the key players in the field and offering a host of interesting examples, the book is an extremely welcome addition to the blossoming field of independent cinema studies." -- Yannis Tzioumakis * author of American Independent Cinema *"Sarah Sinwell's Indie Cinema Online is an engaging and provocative examination of independent cinema in the past two decades. Through detailed case studies, Sinwell captures the promise and the challenge to independent cinema with the current array of release windows and the drastically changed distribution and marketing mechanisms. Sinwell's project opens new avenues to shape our understanding and appreciation of independent cinema in the 21st century." -- Justin Wyatt * author of High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood *"Sarah E. S. Sinwell’s excellent investigation into American independent cinema in the digital age is, above all things, extremely timely....Indie Cinema Online is therefore a vital contribution to a historiography of American independent cinema: aware of its past, revealing about its present, and preparing us for the challenges and issues that will shape its future." * New Review of Film and Television Studies *"Indie cinema has been moving increasingly online and Sarah Sinwell's book is the first to offer a comprehensive mapping of this new and exciting terrain. Paying attention to the key players in the field and offering a host of interesting examples, the book is an extremely welcome addition to the blossoming field of independent cinema studies." -- Yannis Tzioumakis * author of American Independent Cinema *"Sarah Sinwell's Indie Cinema Online is an engaging and provocative examination of independent cinema in the past two decades. Through detailed case studies, Sinwell captures the promise and the challenge to independent cinema with the current array of release windows and the drastically changed distribution and marketing mechanisms. Sinwell's project opens new avenues to shape our understanding and appreciation of independent cinema in the 21st century." -- Justin Wyatt * author of High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood *"Sarah E. S. Sinwell’s excellent investigation into American independent cinema in the digital age is, above all things, extremely timely....Indie Cinema Online is therefore a vital contribution to a historiography of American independent cinema: aware of its past, revealing about its present, and preparing us for the challenges and issues that will shape its future." * New Review of Film and Television Studies *Table of ContentsContents Introduction 1 Indie Via Instant Viewing: Now Streaming on Netflix and Hulu 2 Simultaneous Release Strategies: Soderbergh and the Screening Room 3 DIY Distribution: YouTube, Four Eyed Monsters, and Girl Walks Into A Bar 4 The Fourth Screen: Sundance, Shorts, and Cell Phones Conclusion Acknowledgments About the Author Bibliography Mediagraphy Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIndie Cinema Online investigates the changing nature of contemporary American independent cinema in an era of media convergence. Focusing on the ways in which modes of production, distribution, and exhibition are shifting with the advent of online streaming, simultaneous release strategies, and web series, this book analyzes sites such as SundanceTV, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and other online spaces as a means of redefining independent cinema in a digital era. Analyzing the intersections among cinema studies, cultural studies, and new media studies within contemporary convergence culture, author Sarah E.S. Sinwell looks at sites of media convergence that are often ignored within most studies of digital media. Emphasizing the ways in which the forms and technologies of media culture have changed during the age of convergence, this book analyzes contemporary production, distribution, and exhibition practices as a means of examining the changing meanings of independent cinema within digital culture.Trade Review"Indie cinema has been moving increasingly online and Sarah Sinwell's book is the first to offer a comprehensive mapping of this new and exciting terrain. Paying attention to the key players in the field and offering a host of interesting examples, the book is an extremely welcome addition to the blossoming field of independent cinema studies." -- Yannis Tzioumakis * author of American Independent Cinema *"Sarah Sinwell's Indie Cinema Online is an engaging and provocative examination of independent cinema in the past two decades. Through detailed case studies, Sinwell captures the promise and the challenge to independent cinema with the current array of release windows and the drastically changed distribution and marketing mechanisms. Sinwell's project opens new avenues to shape our understanding and appreciation of independent cinema in the 21st century." -- Justin Wyatt * author of High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood *"Sarah E. S. Sinwell’s excellent investigation into American independent cinema in the digital age is, above all things, extremely timely....Indie Cinema Online is therefore a vital contribution to a historiography of American independent cinema: aware of its past, revealing about its present, and preparing us for the challenges and issues that will shape its future." * New Review of Film and Television Studies *"Indie cinema has been moving increasingly online and Sarah Sinwell's book is the first to offer a comprehensive mapping of this new and exciting terrain. Paying attention to the key players in the field and offering a host of interesting examples, the book is an extremely welcome addition to the blossoming field of independent cinema studies." -- Yannis Tzioumakis * author of American Independent Cinema *"Sarah Sinwell's Indie Cinema Online is an engaging and provocative examination of independent cinema in the past two decades. Through detailed case studies, Sinwell captures the promise and the challenge to independent cinema with the current array of release windows and the drastically changed distribution and marketing mechanisms. Sinwell's project opens new avenues to shape our understanding and appreciation of independent cinema in the 21st century." -- Justin Wyatt * author of High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood *"Sarah E. S. Sinwell’s excellent investigation into American independent cinema in the digital age is, above all things, extremely timely....Indie Cinema Online is therefore a vital contribution to a historiography of American independent cinema: aware of its past, revealing about its present, and preparing us for the challenges and issues that will shape its future." * New Review of Film and Television Studies *Table of ContentsContents Introduction 1 Indie Via Instant Viewing: Now Streaming on Netflix and Hulu 2 Simultaneous Release Strategies: Soderbergh and the Screening Room 3 DIY Distribution: YouTube, Four Eyed Monsters, and Girl Walks Into A Bar 4 The Fourth Screen: Sundance, Shorts, and Cell Phones Conclusion Acknowledgments About the Author Bibliography Mediagraphy Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe long 1950s, which extend back to the early postwar period and forward into the early 1960s, were a period of “containment culture” in America, as the media worked to reinforce traditional family values and suspected communist sympathizers were blacklisted from the entertainment industry. Yet some brave filmmakers and actors still challenged the status quo to produce indelible and imaginative work that delivered uncomfortable truths to Cold War audiences. Triumph Over Containment offers an uncompromising look at some of the era’s greatest films and directors, from household names like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick to lesser-known iconoclasts like Samuel Fuller and Ida Lupino. Taking in everything from The Thing from Another World (1951) to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), acclaimed film scholar Robert P. Kolker scours a variety of different genres to find pockets of resistance to the repressive and oppressive norms of Cold War culture. He devotes special attention to two quintessential 1950s genres—the melodrama and the science fiction film—that might seem like polar opposites, but each offered pointed responses to containment culture. This book takes a fresh look at such directors as Nicholas Ray, John Ford, and Orson Welles, while giving readers a new appreciation for the depth and artistry of 1950s Hollywood films.Trade Review"New Books Network: New Books in Film interview with Robert P. Kolker"— New Books Network: New Books in Film “Robert Kolker ingeniously uses George Kennan’s Cold War strategy of 'containment' as a metaphor to illuminate the complex interplay between movies and politics in this personal, yet incisive exploration of America’s pop culture in the 1950’s.”— Peter Biskind, author of Seeing is Believing and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls “Unabashedly autobiographical and unapologetically auteurist, Robert Kolker’s trip into the fever heat of 1950s American cinema is an eloquent and erudite delight.”— Peter Stanfield, author of The Cool and the Crazy: Pop Fifties CinemaTable of Contents Introduction 1 On Containment, Screen Size, and the Lightness and the Dark 2 “It Was Like Going Down to the Bottom of the World”: John Garfield and Enterprise 3 “I’m a Stranger Here Myself”: Nicholas Ray and Ida Lupino 4 “Love, Hate, Action, Violence, and Death . . . in One Word: Emotion”: Joseph Losey and Samuel Fuller 5 “Put an Amen to It”: The Old Masters—Welles, Hitchcock, Ford 6 Looking to the Skies: Science Fiction in the 1950s 7 “How Can You Say You Love Me . . . ?”: Melodrama Conclusion: “Complete Total Final Annihilating Artistic Control”—Stanley Kubrick Explodes Containment Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMovie-Made Jews focuses on a rich, usable American Jewish cinematic tradition. This tradition includes fiction and documentary films that make Jews through antisemitism, Holocaust indirection, and discontent with assimilation. It prominently features the unapologetic assertion of Jewishness, queerness, and alliances across race and religion. Author Helene Meyers shows that as we go to our local theater, attend a Jewish film festival, play a DVD, watch streaming videos, Jewishness becomes part of the multicultural mosaic rather than collapsing into a generic whiteness or being represented as a life apart. This engagingly-written book demonstrates that a Jewish movie is neither just a movie nor for Jews only. With incisive analysis, Movie-Made Jews challenges the assumption that American Jewish cinema is a cinema of impoverishment and assimilation. While it’s a truism that Jews make movies, this book brings into focus the diverse ways movies make Jews. Trade Review"Southwestern English Professor Publishes Book on American Jewish Cinematic Tradition: McManis University Chair Helene Meyers is the author of Movie-Made Jews"— Southwestern.edu New Books: Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition by Helene Meyers— Jewish Book World "An engaging, lively, and important contribution to Jewish film studies."— Elyce Rae Helford, author of What Price Hollywood?: Gender and Sex in the Films of George Cukor "Meyer’s research shows that accurate cultural representation is diverse representation, which challenges stereotypes, while providing viewers insight into Jewish lives or allowing viewers to identify with the Jewish characters they see on their television screens." — The Phi Beta Kappa Society "Behind this eminently readable survey of American Jewish film is a very smart intervention. Meyers broadens the well-worn examination of Jews in film to include not just Jewish representations or Jews in the production process. She makes a solid case for adding the Jewish audience as part of the equation for what makes Jewish film Jewish."— Steven Carr, author of Hollywood and Anti-Semitism: A Cultural History up to World War II "Romeo Juliet in Yiddish" an excerpt of Movie-Made Jews by Helene Meyers— Lilith "Forthcoming Jewish Books for Fall 2021"— ErikaDreifus.com "Well-researched and presents some intriguing ideas for thought and discussion." — The American Israelite "Those with a serious interest in film will definitely want to add this book to their shelves. Other readers may also find themselves intrigued to learn more about their favorite films, or enjoy reading about films with which they are not familiar."— The Reporter Episode 21: Hollywood, Movies, and American Jews: interview with Helene Meyers— The Revealer "Too Jewish for Hollywood? An excerpt from the book Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition"— The Revealer "Jewish Literary Links" June 3 round-up— ErikaDreifus.com What Makes a Movie Jewish? Alma chats with author and professor Helene Meyers about the profound impact Jewish movies can have on our identities— Hey Alma New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies interview with Helene Meyers— New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies "By focusing on very clear, specific, and discrete thematic groupings, Meyers has written a book that speaks volumes in a small package. Through the choices she made, the way she arranged them, and the fascinating analysis and commentary she layers on top, Meyers has produced a book that is a must-have for scholars of film, Jewish studies, cultural studies, and a range of other disciplines. She has created a roadmap text that anyone could use to construct a new course on Jewish American film or revamp an existing course. Jews may make films and films may make Jews, but Meyers has made both into something special." — Jenny Caplan, Journal of Religion and Film "A must-read for any Jewish cinephiles." — Hey Alma "A significant and lively testament to the vitality of American Jewish cinema and its relationship to Jewish life in America."— David Desser, co-author of American Jewish Filmmakers "Meyers makes the important observation that Jewish film festivals represent and make communities of Jews."— Jewish Herald-VoiceTable of Contents1 Introduction: Making Jews Onscreen and Off 2 Looking at Antisemites and Jews Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) School Ties (1992) The Believer (2001) Protocols of Zion (2005) 3 Looking at the Shoah from a Distance The Pawnbroker (1964) Enemies, A Love Story (1989) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Barton Fink (1991) and A Serious Man (2009) 4 Focusing on Assimilation and Its Discontents The Way We Were (1973) Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) Crossing Delancey (1988) Avalon (1990) and Liberty Heights (1999) 5 Assertively Jewish Onscreen Whatever Works (2009) Fading Gigolo (2013) Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish (2010) Keeping Up with the Steins (2006) Wish I Was Here (2014) 6 Queering the Jewish Gaze I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) and Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) and Milk (2008) Treyf (1998) Trembling Before G-d (2001) Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School (2005) 7 Cinematic Alliances Heart of Stone (2009) Crime after Crime (2011) Zebrahead (1992) Arranged (2007) David (2011) 8 Epilogue: Cinematic Continuity and Change through a Feminist Lens 93Queen (2018) RBG (2018) Acknowledgments Filmography Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMovie-Made Jews focuses on a rich, usable American Jewish cinematic tradition. This tradition includes fiction and documentary films that make Jews through antisemitism, Holocaust indirection, and discontent with assimilation. It prominently features the unapologetic assertion of Jewishness, queerness, and alliances across race and religion. Author Helene Meyers shows that as we go to our local theater, attend a Jewish film festival, play a DVD, watch streaming videos, Jewishness becomes part of the multicultural mosaic rather than collapsing into a generic whiteness or being represented as a life apart. This engagingly-written book demonstrates that a Jewish movie is neither just a movie nor for Jews only. With incisive analysis, Movie-Made Jews challenges the assumption that American Jewish cinema is a cinema of impoverishment and assimilation. While it’s a truism that Jews make movies, this book brings into focus the diverse ways movies make Jews. Trade Review"Behind this eminently readable survey of American Jewish film is a very smart intervention. Meyers broadens the well-worn examination of Jews in film to include not just Jewish representations or Jews in the production process. She makes a solid case for adding the Jewish audience as part of the equation for what makes Jewish film Jewish." -- Steven Carr * author of Hollywood and Anti-Semitism: A Cultural History up to World War II *"A significant and lively testament to the vitality of American Jewish cinema and its relationship to Jewish life in America." -- David Desser * co-author of American Jewish Filmmakers *"An engaging, lively, and important contribution to Jewish film studies." -- Elyce Rae Helford * author of What Price Hollywood?: Gender and Sex in the Films of George Cukor *"Jewish Literary Links" June 3 round-up * ErikaDreifus.com *"Forthcoming Jewish Books for Fall 2021" * ErikaDreifus.com *"Southwestern English Professor Publishes Book on American Jewish Cinematic Tradition: McManis University Chair Helene Meyers is the author of Movie-Made Jews" * Southwestern.edu *"Meyers makes the important observation that Jewish film festivals represent and make communities of Jews." * Jewish Herald-Voice *"A must-read for any Jewish cinephiles." * Hey Alma *What Makes a Movie Jewish? Alma chats with author and professor Helene Meyers about the profound impact Jewish movies can have on our identities * Hey Alma *"Those with a serious interest in film will definitely want to add this book to their shelves. Other readers may also find themselves intrigued to learn more about their favorite films, or enjoy reading about films with which they are not familiar." * The Reporter *New Books: Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition by Helene Meyers * Jewish Book World *"Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish" an excerpt of Movie-Made Jews by Helene Meyers * Lilith *"Well-researched and presents some intriguing ideas for thought and discussion." * The American Israelite *"Meyer’s research shows that accurate cultural representation is diverse representation, which challenges stereotypes, while providing viewers insight into Jewish lives or allowing viewers to identify with the Jewish characters they see on their television screens." * The Phi Beta Kappa Society *Episode 21: Hollywood, Movies, and American Jews: interview with Helene Meyers * The Revealer *"Too Jewish for Hollywood? ?An excerpt from the book Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition" * The Revealer *New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies interview with Helene Meyers * New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies *"Behind this eminently readable survey of American Jewish film is a very smart intervention. Meyers broadens the well-worn examination of Jews in film to include not just Jewish representations or Jews in the production process. She makes a solid case for adding the Jewish audience as part of the equation for what makes Jewish film Jewish." -- Steven Carr * author of Hollywood and Anti-Semitism: A Cultural History up to World War II *"A significant and lively testament to the vitality of American Jewish cinema and its relationship to Jewish life in America." -- David Desser * co-author of American Jewish Filmmakers *"An engaging, lively, and important contribution to Jewish film studies." -- Elyce Rae Helford * author of What Price Hollywood?: Gender and Sex in the Films of George Cukor *"Jewish Literary Links" June 3 round-up * ErikaDreifus.com *"Forthcoming Jewish Books for Fall 2021" * ErikaDreifus.com *"Southwestern English Professor Publishes Book on American Jewish Cinematic Tradition: McManis University Chair Helene Meyers is the author of Movie-Made Jews" * Southwestern.edu *"Meyers makes the important observation that Jewish film festivals represent and make communities of Jews." * Jewish Herald-Voice *"A must-read for any Jewish cinephiles." * Hey Alma *What Makes a Movie Jewish? Alma chats with author and professor Helene Meyers about the profound impact Jewish movies can have on our identities * Hey Alma *"Those with a serious interest in film will definitely want to add this book to their shelves. Other readers may also find themselves intrigued to learn more about their favorite films, or enjoy reading about films with which they are not familiar." * The Reporter *New Books: Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition by Helene Meyers * Jewish Book World *"Romeo Juliet in Yiddish" an excerpt of Movie-Made Jews by Helene Meyers * Lilith *"Well-researched and presents some intriguing ideas for thought and discussion." * The American Israelite *"Meyer’s research shows that accurate cultural representation is diverse representation, which challenges stereotypes, while providing viewers insight into Jewish lives or allowing viewers to identify with the Jewish characters they see on their television screens." * The Phi Beta Kappa Society *Episode 21: Hollywood, Movies, and American Jews: interview with Helene Meyers * The Revealer *"Too Jewish for Hollywood? An excerpt from the book Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition" * The Revealer *New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies interview with Helene Meyers * New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies *"By focusing on very clear, specific, and discrete thematic groupings, Meyers has written a book that speaks volumes in a small package. Through the choices she made, the way she arranged them, and the fascinating analysis and commentary she layers on top, Meyers has produced a book that is a must-have for scholars of film, Jewish studies, cultural studies, and a range of other disciplines. She has created a roadmap text that anyone could use to construct a new course on Jewish American film or revamp an existing course. Jews may make films and films may make Jews, but Meyers has made both into something special." -- Jenny Caplan * Journal of Religion and Film *Table of Contents1 Introduction: Making Jews Onscreen and Off 2 Looking at Antisemites and JewsGentleman’s Agreement (1947)School Ties (1992)The Believer (2001)Protocols of Zion (2005) 3 Looking at the Shoah from a DistanceThe Pawnbroker (1964)Enemies, A Love Story (1989)Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)Barton Fink (1991) and A Serious Man (2009) 4 Focusing on Assimilation and Its DiscontentsThe Way We Were (1973)Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)Crossing Delancey (1988)Avalon (1990) and Liberty Heights (1999) 5 Assertively Jewish OnscreenWhatever Works (2009)Fading Gigolo (2013)Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish (2010)Keeping Up with the Steins (2006)Wish I Was Here (2014) 6 Queering the Jewish GazeI Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) and Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) and Milk (2008) Treyf (1998) Trembling Before G-d (2001)Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School (2005) 7 Cinematic AlliancesHeart of Stone (2009)Crime after Crime (2011)Zebrahead (1992)Arranged (2007)David (2011) 8 Epilogue: Cinematic Continuity and Change through a Feminist Lens93Queen (2018)RBG (2018) Acknowledgments Filmography Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisGiven the current moment—polarized populations, increasing climate fears, and decline of supranational institutions in favor of a rising tide of nationalisms—it is easy to understand the proliferation of apocalyptic and dystopian elements in popular culture. Infected Empires examines one of the most popular figures in contemporary apocalyptic film: the zombie. This harbinger of apocalypse reveals bloody truths about the human condition, the wounds of history, and methods of contending with them. Infected Empires considers parallels in the zombie genre to historical and current events on different political, theological and philosophical levels, and proposes that the zombie can be read as a figure of decolonization and an allegory of resistance to oppressive structures that racialize, marginalize, disable, and dispose of bodies. Studying films from around the world, including Latin America, Asia, Africa, the US, and Europe, Infected Empires presents a vision of a global zombie that points toward a posthuman and feminist future. Trade Review"A brilliant cartography of the zombie film, elegantly crafted, theoretically informed and ambitious in its transnational sweep and decolonial focus." -- Cynthia Steele * author of Politics, Gender, and the Mexican Novel, 1968-1988 *"A fascinating and rigorous study that invites us to analyze our dreams and fears, the contemporary effects of global power and coloniality, necropolitics, today’s structures of oppression, and certainly the very essence of our own humanity. Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini have written a book on zombies that will stand the test of time; their reading decolonizes and queers identity, the present, the future, horror fiction, and most definitely: our understanding of history." -- Oswaldo Estrada * author of Troubled Memories: Iconic Mexican Women and the Traps of Representation *The Page 99 Test: ?Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini's "Infected Empires" * The Page 99 Test *"A brilliant cartography of the zombie film, elegantly crafted, theoretically informed and ambitious in its transnational sweep and decolonial focus." -- Cynthia Steele * author of Politics, Gender, and the Mexican Novel, 1968-1988 *"A fascinating and rigorous study that invites us to analyze our dreams and fears, the contemporary effects of global power and coloniality, necropolitics, today’s structures of oppression, and certainly the very essence of our own humanity. Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini have written a book on zombies that will stand the test of time; their reading decolonizes and queers identity, the present, the future, horror fiction, and most definitely: our understanding of history." -- Oswaldo Estrada * author of Troubled Memories: Iconic Mexican Women and the Traps of Representation *The Page 99 Test: Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini's "Infected Empires" * The Page 99 Test *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: What is a Zombie? Chapter 2: Mutilate the State! Nation Race, Power Chapter 3: Devouring Capitalism Chapter 4: Bodies that Splatter. Queering and Cripping Zombies Chapter 5: Of Matter, Dust, and Earth: Zombies and the Environment Conclusions

Read more less

Book SynopsisGerman Ways of War deploys theories of space, mobility, and affect to investigate how war films realize their political projects. Analyzing films across the decades, from the 1910s to 2000s, German Ways of War addresses an important lacuna in media studies: while scholars have tended to focus on the similarities between cinematic looking and weaponized targeting -- between shooting a camera and discharging a gun – this book argues that war films negotiate spaces throughout that frame their violence in ways more revealing than their battle scenes. Beyond that well-known intersection of visuality and violence, German Ways of War explores how the genre frames violence within spatio-affective operations. The production of novel spaces and evocation of new affects transform war films, including the genre’s manipulation of mobility, landscape, territory, scales, and topological networks. Such effects amount to what author Jaimey Fisher terms the films’ “affective geographies” that interweave narrative-generated affects, spatial depictions, and political processes. Trade Review"German Ways of War is an engaging text that charts out a captivating genre history that extends far beyond its immediate scope of German War films. The book is written as a fascinating account to how warfare changed in the twentieth century. . . The project is meticulously researched and provides invaluable political, historical, and legal documentation regarding war and peace policies in Germany."— Nora M. Alter, author of Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema 1967-2000 "This original study of exemplary German features probes essential dimensions of war cinema that have received little scholarly attention, its geopolitical determinations, spatial imaginaries, and affective geographies. A major contribution to film history and media studies, German Ways of War offers a comprehensive analysis of the numerous countenances and different functions this generic possibility has assumed in exemplary German productions from World War I to the postmillennial era.”— Eric Rentschler, author of The Use and Abuse of Cinema: German Legacies from the Weimar Era to the Present "German Ways of War is an engaging text that charts out a captivating genre history that extends far beyond its immediate scope of German War films. The book is written as a fascinating account to how warfare changed in the twentieth century. . . The project is meticulously researched and provides invaluable political, historical, and legal documentation regarding war and peace policies in Germany."— Nora M. Alter, author of Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema 1967-2000 "This original study of exemplary German features probes essential dimensions of war cinema that have received little scholarly attention, its geopolitical determinations, spatial imaginaries, and affective geographies. A major contribution to film history and media studies, German Ways of War offers a comprehensive analysis of the numerous countenances and different functions this generic possibility has assumed in exemplary German productions from World War I to the postmillennial era.”— Eric Rentschler, author of The Use and Abuse of Cinema: German Legacies from the Weimar Era to the PresentTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1. Introduction: The Affective Geographies and Generic Transformations of German War Films, 1910s-2000s 2. Land into Landscape, Landscape into Territory: Transformations of Space in German War Cinema, 1914-1918 (The Diary of Dr. Hart, Sword and Hearth, Inexpiable) 3. “Landscapes of Death” and Memories of the Human: Distance, Scale, and the Double Map in the First “War-Sound-Film” (Westfront 1918, Kameradschaft) 4. Combat Films and their Aerial Spaces under the Nazi Regime (Medal of Honor, Squadron Lützow, Above Everything in the World) 5. Out of the War Mode: Demobilizing the War Genre in the Postwar Rubble-Film (Request Concert [1940], The Great Love, Ways into Twilight, The Sons of Mr. Gaspary, Birds of Migration) 6. War in the Reconstructive 1950s: Genre, Espionage, and Cold-War Subjectivities in the 1950s War Film (Canaris, Fox of Paris, Rommel Calls Cairo) 7. Conclusion: Affective Geographies of the Fading Genre (Das Boot, Downfall) Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less