Television Books

Book SynopsisThe master distiller Rob Arnold reveals how innovative whiskey producers are recapturing a sense of place to create distinctive, nuanced flavors. He takes readers on a world tour of whiskey and the science of flavor, stopping along the way at distilleries in Kentucky, New York, Texas, Ireland, and Scotland.Trade ReviewThis book is an educational journey through the fascinating worlds of whiskey and flavor. Rob Arnold is well versed in the art and science of whiskey making and shares his wealth of wisdom with the reader in this brilliant book. He helps us understand the connection between the land and the spirit in our glass, shining his inquisitive spotlight on the distillers, grain farmers, and cultivators who are changing the way whiskey is made. If you want to delve beyond the glass into the mind-blowing worlds of flavor and terroir, this book is a must. -- Rob Allanson, editor at large * Whisky Magazine *For years, we’ve argued as to whether terroir exists in whiskey. Rob Arnold makes the best argument yet, and this book is a must-read for every whiskey geek in the world. -- Fred Minnick, author of Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American WhiskeyA fascinating look at whiskey and the manner in which it is made, written in a knowledgeable but friendly tone that welcomes newcomers as well as whiskey aficionados. -- Jeff Fleischer * Foreword *A fantastic debut for a writer whose storytelling talents are proportionate to his distilling skills. -- Rob Theakston * Drink Hacker *Arnold smartly and capably writes for the distiller, educated taster and novice alike, breaking issues into lay language as necessary (even using Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil to explain). Arnold provides specifics for the reader to taste along with him, resulting in a full sensory educational experience. * Shelf Awareness *With standout information that’s both broad and deep, The Terroir of Whiskey considers bourbon, rye, and other popular whiskeys from all angles. * Foreword Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I: Fashioning Flavor, Tasting Terroir1. A Farm in Texas2. The Production and Perception of Flavor3. The Chemistry of Flavor4. The Wine Terroir Tasting5. Wine Country6. The Evolutionary Role of Terroir7. The Rise of CommoditiesPart II: A Roadmap to Terroir8. A Texas Tic-Tac-Toe9. The Chemistry of Terroir10. The Roadmap11. Overlaying the MapsPart III: Following the Map12. Whiskey in the Big Apple13. The Trilogy of Farming14. My Old Kentucky Home15. Corn, Wheat, and Rye Among the Bluegrass16. Across the Pond and Through the Hills17. TĒIREOIR18. Cultivating Flavor on the Farms of Éire19. At Last, a Sip20. The Church of Scotch WhiskyConclusionAppendix 1: Whiskey Terroir Tasting GuideAppendix 2: Key to the Roadmap: Sources for Chapter 10Appendix 3: Key to the Roadmap: Sources for Chapter 11Appendix 4: Key to the Roadmap: Sources for Chapter 17NotesIndex

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Book SynopsisMany of the finest objects of the Western Han dynasty have been excavated from the tombs of kings, who administered local provinces on behalf of the emperors. Allison R. Miller paints a new picture of elite art production by revealing the contributions of the kings to Western Han artistic culture.Trade ReviewKingly Splendor is a deeply researched, lucid, and path-breaking exploration of cultural and political competition and exchange between the Western Han kings and the imperial court. This is a major contribution to the field of early China studies; I know of no other work that demonstrates the method and historical value of material analysis more convincingly. -- Martin Powers, author of China and England: The Preindustrial Struggle for Justice in Word and ImageAn engaging read for students and scholars alike, Kingly Splendor offers a fresh materials-based approach to Western Han archaeology. By privileging the stories of artisans and local rulers, Miller decenters traditional narratives about the court’s pervasive influence and highlights the creativity and innovation that flourished on the fringes. -- Sarah Laursen, Alan J. Dworsky Associate Curator of Chinese Art, Harvard Art MuseumsUsing art and architecture as primary evidence, Kingly Splendor is an in-depth study of the first sixty years of the Han dynasty, and it is much more. Superbly illustrated, this first work to focus on such a short period of Chinese art also offers translations of the most important literary evidence of the period. Further, it interfaces the legacy of China’s first emperor with its resolution in early Han China. The charts, from tomb typology to jade suits, are unsurpassed by any other study. -- Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, author of Chinese Architecture: A HistoryFinally, a book that takes seriously the royal courts of the Western Han as sites of innovation. Miller marshals her impressive art-historical and archaeological skills to zoom in on concrete aspects of a rich record of materiality created by the kings and their artisans. This book is refreshing in its attention to local contexts and initiatives, and in its refusal to assume that the imperial court at Chang’an was the measure of all things. -- Griet Vankeerberghen, author of The Huainanzi and Liu An's Claim to Moral AuthorityTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Kings and the Court in the Early Western Han2. From Imitation to Innovation: The Emperor’s Baling Tomb and the Mountain Tombs of the Western Han Kings3. New Styles from Political Change: The Early Han Kings and the Reimagining of Terracotta Armies4. The Many Meanings of Jade: Jade Suits and Local Identity in the Early Han5. The Murals at Shiyuan and the King of Liang6. The Purple Textiles of Qi: Tracing the Growth of a Provincial IndustryConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface1. Conversation with Andrew Solomon2. Conversation with Evan Osnos3. Conversation with Tim Marlow4. Conversation with Amale Andraos and Carol Becker5. Conversation with Vivian Yee6. Conversation with Nicholas BaumeContributor Biographies

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface1. Conversation with Andrew Solomon2. Conversation with Evan Osnos3. Conversation with Tim Marlow4. Conversation with Amale Andraos and Carol Becker5. Conversation with Vivian Yee6. Conversation with Nicholas BaumeContributor Biographies

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Book SynopsisMark C. Taylor explores how technological change is weaving together smart things and smart bodies to create new forms of life. He reveals that we are already cyborgs, integral cogs in what will become a superorganism of bodies and things.Trade ReviewIntervolution is at once informative and thought-provoking—a fascinating exploration of the ever-narrowing gap between men and machines. Mark C. Taylor uses his own experience of chronic illness to probe some of the central questions of our time. -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, winner of the Pulitzer PrizeImagine your body. Imagine in it an artificial pancreas, and in the pancreas, an artificial brain. Now imagine that brain networked to—and learning from—thousands of matching pancreas-brains. What you are now imagining Mark C. Taylor has experienced and turns here into an absolutely riveting introduction into how artificial intelligence will transform us from the inside out. -- Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography, winner of the Pulitzer PrizeStimulated by his experience with the insulin pump, Taylor elegantly explores the potential of high-speed networked computers, mobile devices, miniature sensors, big data, and artificial intelligence to create breakthroughs for the human condition. Machines will enable humans to transcend our biologic roots. This is an intellectually provocative glimpse at the future of human health. -- Toby Cosgrove, CEO Emeritus, Cleveland ClinicContributes importantly to the discourse on the intersection of biology and technology...Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Our Bodies Our Selves2. Intranet of the Body3. Internet of Things4. Internet of Bodies5. Intervolutionary FutureNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisMark C. Taylor explores how technological change is weaving together smart things and smart bodies to create new forms of life. He reveals that we are already cyborgs, integral cogs in what will become a superorganism of bodies and things.Trade ReviewIntervolution is at once informative and thought-provoking—a fascinating exploration of the ever-narrowing gap between men and machines. Mark C. Taylor uses his own experience of chronic illness to probe some of the central questions of our time. -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, winner of the Pulitzer PrizeImagine your body. Imagine in it an artificial pancreas, and in the pancreas, an artificial brain. Now imagine that brain networked to—and learning from—thousands of matching pancreas-brains. What you are now imagining Mark C. Taylor has experienced and turns here into an absolutely riveting introduction into how artificial intelligence will transform us from the inside out. -- Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography, winner of the Pulitzer PrizeStimulated by his experience with the insulin pump, Taylor elegantly explores the potential of high-speed networked computers, mobile devices, miniature sensors, big data, and artificial intelligence to create breakthroughs for the human condition. Machines will enable humans to transcend our biologic roots. This is an intellectually provocative glimpse at the future of human health. -- Toby Cosgrove, CEO Emeritus, Cleveland ClinicContributes importantly to the discourse on the intersection of biology and technology...Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Our Bodies Our Selves2. Intranet of the Body3. Internet of Things4. Internet of Bodies5. Intervolutionary FutureNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisRichard Koszarski chronicles the compelling and often surprising origins of New York’s postwar film renaissance. He examines the social, cultural, and economic forces that shaped New York filmmaking, from city politics to union regulations.Trade ReviewAmong recent books on cinema, one of the most nourishing is Richard Koszarski’s “Keep ’Em in the East”. -- Anthony Lane * The New Yorker *Koszarski’s latest movie-industry history is an essential resource for your bookshelves, a detailed inspection of critical film work in the New York City area from the 1930s to 1950s and the release of Elia Kazan’s On The Waterfront. -- Greg Young * The Bowery Boys *This deep dive into the history of Postwar New York cinema is a thrillingly paced read, taking the scholarly headiness of your typical Columbia-backed book and this time pairing it with a palpable energy that feels very much influenced by its subject. At over 500 pages, the book isn’t short on stories or deep dives into films, and with focuses on Kubrick and Kazan, will surely draw many eyes when gift hunting. -- Joshua Brunsting * Criterion Cast *"[This] book is rich with anecdotes, facts, and original insights, no doubt ensuring it will be an indispensable work to scholars of post-war American filmmaking. . . the book overall is a fitting tribute and history to what is both an overlooked, yet rich and influential period in American filmmaking." -- JAMES FENWICK * Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television *This is an exceptional work of research and writing, years in the making. If the production of cheesy films with Pigmeat Markham doesn’t interest you, rest assured that the story grows more captivating as it goes along. Keep ‘em in the East is a knockout. * Leonard Maltin *[A]n ambitious socio-political fresco dedicated to the 'renaissance' of cinema in post-war boom New York. * Cinecitta News *Richard Koszarski is a bold historian, a meticulous researcher, and a spellbinding storyteller. “Keep ‘Em in the East” masterfully displays all his talents. Only Koszarski could so deftly weave together industrial history, political infighting, social conditions, personal and very human biographies, and pointed appreciation of films as different as Naked City and Tall, Tan, and Terrific. In the process, Koszarski brings to light forgotten movies and trends, from little-known urban docudramas to the important 'race films' made for Black audiences. The book’s final stretch “crosscuts” Kazan's making On the Waterfront with Kubrick's preparing Killer’s Kiss, and the result is as exciting as a Hollywood chase. “Keep ‘Em in the East” permanently reshapes our understanding of American film as an art, a business, and a cultural force. -- David Bordwell, author of Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie StorytellingKeep 'Em In the East is a valuable (and long overdue) work of cinema scholarship. It broadens the parameters of American film history to include the boroughs of New York, where independent artists thrived far from Hollywood’s picture factories. Koszarski’s exemplary research shows that New York’s influence extended beyond Broadway’s influential writers, directors, and performers; it included a whole cadre of cinematic talent who'd have a profound impact on American movies. -- Eddie Muller, host of TCM's Noir AlleyIn this reassessment of the role of New York City in the history of film, “Keep ’Em in the East” restores the city’s filmmaking reputation with impeccable research and enthusiasm. No one would dispute that Richard Koszarski is the only film historian who could have written this book. -- Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star MachineKeep 'Em in the East is absorbing and enlightening. The dramas and disasters are expertly told and brilliantly researched. The book is a pleasure to read. -- Kevin Brownlow, author of The Parade's Gone By ... Keep 'Em in the East is an extraordinary achievement. Koszarski knows more about the history of filmmaking in New York City than anyone else, living or dead. This distills the central part of his lifelong research. No one will ever match it. For those who love New York and the movies, this book’s many surprises will provide an unending source of fascination and information. -- Charles Musser, author of The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I: Roots1. Not Just Another Location2. The Pathé Studio: Miniature Hollywood or Just Another False Dawn?3. Now It Can Be Told: Louis de Rochemont, Henry Hathaway, and the Birth of Docudrama4. Race Movies: New York’s Original Independent CinemaPart II: Revival5. Eight Million Stories6. The O’Dwyer Plan7. Joe Lerner’s New York Noir8. Just Passing Through9. Pictures and PoliticsPart III: Renaissance10. Crime on the Waterfront11. Obsessed with Film12. The Golden Warrior13. Kiss Me, Kill Me14. “And the Winner in New York Is . . .”15. Happy Ending16. Thank You, Hollywood!List of AbbreviationsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisRichard Koszarski chronicles the compelling and often surprising origins of New York’s postwar film renaissance. He examines the social, cultural, and economic forces that shaped New York filmmaking, from city politics to union regulationsTrade ReviewAmong recent books on cinema, one of the most nourishing is Richard Koszarski’s “Keep ’Em in the East”. -- Anthony Lane * The New Yorker *Koszarski’s latest movie-industry history is an essential resource for your bookshelves, a detailed inspection of critical film work in the New York City area from the 1930s to 1950s and the release of Elia Kazan’s On The Waterfront. -- Greg Young * The Bowery Boys *This deep dive into the history of Postwar New York cinema is a thrillingly paced read, taking the scholarly headiness of your typical Columbia-backed book and this time pairing it with a palpable energy that feels very much influenced by its subject. At over 500 pages, the book isn’t short on stories or deep dives into films, and with focuses on Kubrick and Kazan, will surely draw many eyes when gift hunting. -- Joshua Brunsting * Criterion Cast *"[This] book is rich with anecdotes, facts, and original insights, no doubt ensuring it will be an indispensable work to scholars of post-war American filmmaking. . . the book overall is a fitting tribute and history to what is both an overlooked, yet rich and influential period in American filmmaking." -- JAMES FENWICK * Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television *This is an exceptional work of research and writing, years in the making. If the production of cheesy films with Pigmeat Markham doesn’t interest you, rest assured that the story grows more captivating as it goes along. Keep ‘em in the East is a knockout. * Leonard Maltin *[A]n ambitious socio-political fresco dedicated to the 'renaissance' of cinema in post-war boom New York. * Cinecitta News *Richard Koszarski is a bold historian, a meticulous researcher, and a spellbinding storyteller. “Keep ‘Em in the East” masterfully displays all his talents. Only Koszarski could so deftly weave together industrial history, political infighting, social conditions, personal and very human biographies, and pointed appreciation of films as different as Naked City and Tall, Tan, and Terrific. In the process, Koszarski brings to light forgotten movies and trends, from little-known urban docudramas to the important 'race films' made for Black audiences. The book’s final stretch “crosscuts” Kazan's making On the Waterfront with Kubrick's preparing Killer’s Kiss, and the result is as exciting as a Hollywood chase. “Keep ‘Em in the East” permanently reshapes our understanding of American film as an art, a business, and a cultural force. -- David Bordwell, author of Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie StorytellingKeep 'Em In the East is a valuable (and long overdue) work of cinema scholarship. It broadens the parameters of American film history to include the boroughs of New York, where independent artists thrived far from Hollywood’s picture factories. Koszarski’s exemplary research shows that New York’s influence extended beyond Broadway’s influential writers, directors, and performers; it included a whole cadre of cinematic talent who'd have a profound impact on American movies. -- Eddie Muller, host of TCM's Noir AlleyIn this reassessment of the role of New York City in the history of film, “Keep ’Em in the East” restores the city’s filmmaking reputation with impeccable research and enthusiasm. No one would dispute that Richard Koszarski is the only film historian who could have written this book. -- Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star MachineKeep 'Em in the East is absorbing and enlightening. The dramas and disasters are expertly told and brilliantly researched. The book is a pleasure to read. -- Kevin Brownlow, author of The Parade's Gone By ... Keep 'Em in the East is an extraordinary achievement. Koszarski knows more about the history of filmmaking in New York City than anyone else, living or dead. This distills the central part of his lifelong research. No one will ever match it. For those who love New York and the movies, this book’s many surprises will provide an unending source of fascination and information. -- Charles Musser, author of The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I: Roots1. Not Just Another Location2. The Pathé Studio: Miniature Hollywood or Just Another False Dawn?3. Now It Can Be Told: Louis de Rochemont, Henry Hathaway, and the Birth of Docudrama4. Race Movies: New York’s Original Independent CinemaPart II: Revival5. Eight Million Stories6. The O’Dwyer Plan7. Joe Lerner’s New York Noir8. Just Passing Through9. Pictures and PoliticsPart III: Renaissance10. Crime on the Waterfront11. Obsessed with Film12. The Golden Warrior13. Kiss Me, Kill Me14. “And the Winner in New York Is . . .”15. Happy Ending16. Thank You, Hollywood!List of AbbreviationsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe pontianak, a terrifying female vampire ghost, is a powerful figure in Malay cultures. Exploring how and why the pontianak found new life in postcolonial Southeast Asian film and society, Rosalind Galt reveals the importance of cinema to histories and theories of decolonization.Trade ReviewAlluring Monsters is indispensable reading for those interested in how media, folklore, and anticolonial feminism might be explored together. The pontianak, a female ghost of childbirth with queer feminist appeal, is a fascinating fusion of pre-Islamic animism and postindependence aspirations; her influence on transnational vampire lore is decisive but little known. Galt’s deep dive into the political potential of the pontianak moves from colonial misconstruals of indigenous culture to late-colonial studio films and the decolonizing impulses of Malaysian and Singaporean popular cinemas. Across such multiethnic, intercultural flows, Galt explores issues of racialization, ethnonationalism, and environmentalism via an archivally rich exploration of supernatural horror in Southeast Asian and world cinemas. -- Bliss Cua Lim, author of Translating Time: Cinema, the Fantastic, and Temporal CritiqueThe first of its kind and a book like no other, Alluring Monsters brings Southeast Asian cinema and postcoloniality into productive tension through the much-beloved yet much-feared figure of the pontianak. Rosalind Galt has created thrilling new paths for thinking about postcolonial cinema, animism, feminism, queer/trans subjectivities, and decolonial politics. -- Alicia Izharuddin, author of Gender and Islam in Indonesian CinemaAlluring Monsters delivers on all of its ambitious promises. Rosalind Galt elegantly balances the local and the global, the historical and the theoretical, the industrial and the aesthetic, the cultural and the political, the filmic and the related arts. The result is an important new model for imagining world cinema. -- Adam Lowenstein, author of Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital MediaAlluring Monsters is an excellent study of the role of the ubiquitous pontianak in the Malay cinema located in Malaysia and Singapore during the cultural processes of the decolonization of both countries. Galt’s scholarship is impressive in its breadth and depth, contributing to our understanding of why we must take the monstrous figure of the pontianak seriously. -- Stephen Teo, author of Chinese Martial Arts Film and the Philosophy of ActionGalt offers a rich and vivid history of the pontianak’s relevance to questions of race, gender, and Islam in the context of decolonization in the Malay peninsula. This book’s entwinement of local historiography with theorizations of the global comprises its bold and welcome intervention. -- Iggy Cortez * Film Quarterly *A history lesson on this understudied cinematic culture and also a nuanced theoretical study that demonstrates the author’s knowledge of Malay cinema and contemporary cultural and cinematic theory. Though Galt centers on Malay cinema, the study will be invaluable for those interested in the horror genre and cinema in non-Western nations in general. -- G. R. Butters Jr. * Choice Reviews *Galt offers new insights for understanding decolonisation discourses in which knowledge categories and identity are questioned. Indeed, this book opens up new ways to study other mythical horror figures that put Western rationalisation at stake. -- Erika Tiburcio-Moreno * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *A truly unique achievement on multiple levels. -- Alicia Izharuddin * Journal of Vampire Studies *Superlative scholarship. . .[Galt’s] research is wide-ranging and thorough, providing a groundbreaking understanding of a popular culture icon through the lens of decolonization. -- Philippe Mather * East Asian Journal of Popular Culture *Alluring Monsters is an insightful and sophisticated piece of work that illuminates how a popular film subgenre that features the most iconic hantu in the region facilitates a theoretical debate about world cinema. In addition, it serves as a conduit for multiple meanings and discourses that reflect colonial legacies and ideologies that continue to haunt postcolonial Malaysian and Singaporean societies. -- Norman Yusoff * Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia *Trenchantly argued and eminently readable, Alluring Monsters will be of interest to anyone interested in feminist film criticism, the horror film, histories of world cinemas, and indeed, history as such. -- Sen Meheli * Journal of Religion & Film *[A] very rich decolonial book . . . what makes the book so fascinating and unique is its fertile dalliance with contemporary scholarship in other fields like ecocinema and new animisms, which are gaining some momentum in Southeast Asian cinema. Thus, while providing a rich foundation for students of Southeast Asian cinema, the book also carries a broader appeal beyond Asian studies. -- Gaik Cheng Khoo * Journal of Asian Studies *Undoubtedly an important contribution to Malay cultures and cinema. -- David H.J. Neo * Asian Ethnicity *Engagingly written and impressively well-researched. * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on Malay LanguageIntroduction: On the Trail of the Pontianak1. Popular Horror and the Anticolonial Imaginary2. Troubling Gender with the Pontianak3. Race, Religion, and Malay Identities4. Who Owns the Kampung? Heritage, History, and Postcolonial Space5. Animism as Form: A Pontianak Theory of the ForestNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe pontianak, a terrifying female vampire ghost, is a powerful figure in Malay cultures. Exploring how and why the pontianak found new life in postcolonial Southeast Asian film and society, Rosalind Galt reveals the importance of cinema to histories and theories of decolonization.Trade ReviewAlluring Monsters is indispensable reading for those interested in how media, folklore, and anticolonial feminism might be explored together. The pontianak, a female ghost of childbirth with queer feminist appeal, is a fascinating fusion of pre-Islamic animism and postindependence aspirations; her influence on transnational vampire lore is decisive but little known. Galt’s deep dive into the political potential of the pontianak moves from colonial misconstruals of indigenous culture to late-colonial studio films and the decolonizing impulses of Malaysian and Singaporean popular cinemas. Across such multiethnic, intercultural flows, Galt explores issues of racialization, ethnonationalism, and environmentalism via an archivally rich exploration of supernatural horror in Southeast Asian and world cinemas. -- Bliss Cua Lim, author of Translating Time: Cinema, the Fantastic, and Temporal CritiqueThe first of its kind and a book like no other, Alluring Monsters brings Southeast Asian cinema and postcoloniality into productive tension through the much-beloved yet much-feared figure of the pontianak. Rosalind Galt has created thrilling new paths for thinking about postcolonial cinema, animism, feminism, queer/trans subjectivities, and decolonial politics. -- Alicia Izharuddin, author of Gender and Islam in Indonesian CinemaAlluring Monsters delivers on all of its ambitious promises. Rosalind Galt elegantly balances the local and the global, the historical and the theoretical, the industrial and the aesthetic, the cultural and the political, the filmic and the related arts. The result is an important new model for imagining world cinema. -- Adam Lowenstein, author of Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital MediaAlluring Monsters is an excellent study of the role of the ubiquitous pontianak in the Malay cinema located in Malaysia and Singapore during the cultural processes of the decolonization of both countries. Galt’s scholarship is impressive in its breadth and depth, contributing to our understanding of why we must take the monstrous figure of the pontianak seriously. -- Stephen Teo, author of Chinese Martial Arts Film and the Philosophy of ActionGalt offers a rich and vivid history of the pontianak’s relevance to questions of race, gender, and Islam in the context of decolonization in the Malay peninsula. This book’s entwinement of local historiography with theorizations of the global comprises its bold and welcome intervention. -- Iggy Cortez * Film Quarterly *A history lesson on this understudied cinematic culture and also a nuanced theoretical study that demonstrates the author’s knowledge of Malay cinema and contemporary cultural and cinematic theory. Though Galt centers on Malay cinema, the study will be invaluable for those interested in the horror genre and cinema in non-Western nations in general. -- G. R. Butters Jr. * Choice Reviews *Galt offers new insights for understanding decolonisation discourses in which knowledge categories and identity are questioned. Indeed, this book opens up new ways to study other mythical horror figures that put Western rationalisation at stake. -- Erika Tiburcio-Moreno * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *A truly unique achievement on multiple levels. -- Alicia Izharuddin * Journal of Vampire Studies *Superlative scholarship. . .[Galt’s] research is wide-ranging and thorough, providing a groundbreaking understanding of a popular culture icon through the lens of decolonization. -- Philippe Mather * East Asian Journal of Popular Culture *Alluring Monsters is an insightful and sophisticated piece of work that illuminates how a popular film subgenre that features the most iconic hantu in the region facilitates a theoretical debate about world cinema. In addition, it serves as a conduit for multiple meanings and discourses that reflect colonial legacies and ideologies that continue to haunt postcolonial Malaysian and Singaporean societies. -- Norman Yusoff * Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia *Trenchantly argued and eminently readable, Alluring Monsters will be of interest to anyone interested in feminist film criticism, the horror film, histories of world cinemas, and indeed, history as such. -- Sen Meheli * Journal of Religion & Film *[A] very rich decolonial book . . . what makes the book so fascinating and unique is its fertile dalliance with contemporary scholarship in other fields like ecocinema and new animisms, which are gaining some momentum in Southeast Asian cinema. Thus, while providing a rich foundation for students of Southeast Asian cinema, the book also carries a broader appeal beyond Asian studies. -- Gaik Cheng Khoo * Journal of Asian Studies *Undoubtedly an important contribution to Malay cultures and cinema. -- David H.J. Neo * Asian Ethnicity *Engagingly written and impressively well-researched. * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on Malay LanguageIntroduction: On the Trail of the Pontianak1. Popular Horror and the Anticolonial Imaginary2. Troubling Gender with the Pontianak3. Race, Religion, and Malay Identities4. Who Owns the Kampung? Heritage, History, and Postcolonial Space5. Animism as Form: A Pontianak Theory of the ForestNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisRelives a lost moment in American postwar history, when boxing ruled as one of the nation's most widely televised sports.Trade Review"Troy Rondinone's history of television's first go-round with boxing is outstanding in every respect. Twinning it with the riveting life story of the popular veteran of 200 or so pro fights was inspired."--Cyber Boxing Zone"A superior piece of sports history. . . . Friday Night Fighter is not only a lively historical analysis of boxing, it is consistently perceptive, avoids sentimentality, and yet is reassuringly sympathetic. . . . A treasure trove."--Journal of Sport History“Rondinone unearths two important histories. . . . He writes with a nostalgic eye, using sparkling prose,and he culls from diverse sources.”--The Journal of American History "A fascinating biography. . . . Rondinone links televised boxing's success to television's need for prime-time programming, the role of a blood sport, changing attitudes toward race, Cold War masculinity and the impact of organized crime. Highly recommended."--Choice"El Indio Gaspar Ortega will always be our first champion. We love him, we cherish him, and we respect him."--Carlos Santana"Troy Rondinone masterfully and nostalgically captures the romance of boxing on television in the 1950s. It was a sport on the air, in your living room, and at its crossroads. The Friday Night Fighters may be gone--but they will never be forgotten."--Russell Sullivan, author of Rocky Marciano: The Rock of His Times"This excellent history makes a truly significant contribution to sports scholarship and American studies. With colorful detail, Rondinone uncovers the world of the Latino fighter in the 1950s and discusses important cultural aspects of boxing in this era."--Gerald L. Early, author of A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports

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Book SynopsisTelevision drama and the rhetoric of U.S. cultural identity

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Book SynopsisMedia in Postapartheid South Africa examines recent political developments in South Africa, using media as a narrator of social transition from the days of the struggle against apartheid to a capitalist consumer economy.Trade Review"Sean Jacobs take a unique approach to tell a comprehensive story of postapartheid South Africa and African society. Media consolidates and enacts the victory of a particular image of what South Africa ought to be. This is an incredibly powerful story, which is much bigger than media, but to which media gives us access."—Herman Wasserman, author of Tabloid Journalism in South Africa"Sean Jacobs proposes a new agenda for the study of culture in contemporary South Africa by focusing on media infrastructures that condition, select, and edit the sorts of information that are available. Jacobs's work will be read for its revelations about the nature of citizenship and public engagement in our media saturated age."—Daniel R. Magaziner, author of The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa , 1968–1977

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Like a great pro wrestler has a signature move for taking down a rival, every student and scholar of sports media and professional wrestling should have a book like this to help them pin down the importance of the WWE on sports and culture."—Adam Earnheardt, editor (with Paul Haridakis and Barbara Hugenberg) of Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization: Exploring the FandemoniumTable of ContentsIntroduction: Storyworld, Wrestling, Entertainment / Dru JeffriesPart I: Corporate Kayfabe: WWE as Media Empire1. World Building in the WWE Universe / Eero Laine2. The Work of Wrestling: Struggles for Creative and Industrial Power in WWE Labor / Andrew Zolides3. Mapping the WWE Universe: Territory, Media, Capitalism / Dru Jeffries and Andrew Kannegiesser4. Narrative Smarts: Negotiations of Creative Authority in Wrestling's Reality Era / Christian NormanPart II: Marks and Smarts: WWE's Unruly Fandoms5. Sport vs. Spectacle: Fan Discontent and the Rise of Sports Entertainment / Shane Toepfer6. The Marks Have Gone Off-Script: Rogue Actors in WWE's Stands / Sam Ford7. Botchamania and the Acoustics of Professional Wrestling / Christian B. LongPart III: Then, Now, Forever: Wresting with WWE's Past and Transmedia Future8. "Tout It Out": WWE's Experimentation and Failure with Social TV / Cory Barker9. "We're Not Just Cheerleaders": Reading the Postfeminist Polysemy of Total Divas / Anna F. Peppard10. Daniel's Specter: Daniel Bryan, Chris Benoit, and the Work of Mourning / Sean DesiletsIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Like a great pro wrestler has a signature move for taking down a rival, every student and scholar of sports media and professional wrestling should have a book like this to help them pin down the importance of the WWE on sports and culture."—Adam Earnheardt, editor (with Paul Haridakis and Barbara Hugenberg) of Sports Fans, Identity, and Socialization: Exploring the FandemoniumTable of ContentsIntroduction: Storyworld, Wrestling, Entertainment / Dru JeffriesPart I: Corporate Kayfabe: WWE as Media Empire1. World Building in the WWE Universe / Eero Laine2. The Work of Wrestling: Struggles for Creative and Industrial Power in WWE Labor / Andrew Zolides3. Mapping the WWE Universe: Territory, Media, Capitalism / Dru Jeffries and Andrew Kannegiesser4. Narrative Smarts: Negotiations of Creative Authority in Wrestling's Reality Era / Christian NormanPart II: Marks and Smarts: WWE's Unruly Fandoms5. Sport vs. Spectacle: Fan Discontent and the Rise of Sports Entertainment / Shane Toepfer6. The Marks Have Gone Off-Script: Rogue Actors in WWE's Stands / Sam Ford7. Botchamania and the Acoustics of Professional Wrestling / Christian B. LongPart III: Then, Now, Forever: Wresting with WWE's Past and Transmedia Future8. "Tout It Out": WWE's Experimentation and Failure with Social TV / Cory Barker9. "We're Not Just Cheerleaders": Reading the Postfeminist Polysemy of Total Divas / Anna F. Peppard10. Daniel's Specter: Daniel Bryan, Chris Benoit, and the Work of Mourning / Sean DesiletsIndex

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Book SynopsisUsing high concept as a framework for the analysis of the 2003 coverage of the Iraq War - paying close attention to how Fox News and CNN packaged and promoted the US invasion of Iraq - this book offers a fresh paradigm for understanding how television news reporting shapes our perceptions of events.Trade ReviewThe author's thorough documentation and careful analysis will be most appreciated by students of journalism or communications, as an understanding of communications theory is helpful, but readers seriously following current events may be interested as well. * Library Journal *. . . a thoughtful commentary and critique of the state of the cable news component of early-21st-century journalism. . . . Highly recommended.May 2010 * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Spectacle of Televised War1. High Concept, Media Conglomeration, and Commercial News2. The High-Concept War Narrative3. Intertextuality, Genres, and Stars4. War Characters5. The Look and Sound of High-Concept War Coverage6. The Marketing of the 2003 Invasion of IraqConclusion: The Narrative Exits Screen Right, the Coverage Fizzles, and News is What, Exactly?Appendix AAppendix BAppendix CWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisA collection of speeches from a 1966 seminar on television.Table of Contents Preface 1. The Mournful Numbers (Harry S. Ashmore) 2. Television from the Inside The Independent Producer (George Schaefer) The Advertiser (August Priemer) The Advertising Agency (Leonard S. Matthews) The Network (Thomas Moore) 3. Television: The Broad View The Historical Perspective (David Potter) The Social Perspective (Paul Goodman) 4. Television in a New Light (Marshall McLohan) 5. Television: A Personal View (John R. Silber) The Findings Conclusions Contributors

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Book SynopsisAn engaging exploration of the relationship between avant-garde art and American network television from the 1940s through the 1970s

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Book SynopsisA renowned movie critic on film’s treatment of one of mankind’s darkest behaviors: murderTrade Review“[Thomson’s] analysis of death in Hitchcock movies is gorgeous. His restlessness is palpable. There is an anxiety in this brief, hurried book that suits these political and medical times.”—Lisa Schwarzbaum, New York Times Book Review“David Thomson looks at how audiences become complicit in a cinematic ‘warped triangle’ in his provocative Murder and the Movies.”—Choice Magazine“In dissecting homicide’s screen allure, Thomson’s erudite insight dazzles.”—Kevin Harley, Total Film“Thomson’s dive into dependency of movies on murder leads to a surprisingly quiet tone, a conversation of lowered voices: a sense of film enacting some fated, circular history.”—Greil Marcus“Thomson, one of the world’s leading film critics and historians, in his polished, recognizable style (dancing writing, provocative gestures, first person participation), has produced a slim, smart, readable volume on murder, movies, and society.”—Jonathan Kirshner, author of Hollywood’s Last Golden Age“Completely unpredictable, always surprising, always deeply engaging, and always very entertaining. You never know where Thomson may take you. You just know that wherever he does take you will be a wonderful place he will let you discover for yourself.”—Richard Burt, University of Florida

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"James loves television, he loves the winding stories it tells and that we share them together. Play All is a late love letter to the medium of our lives."—AA Gill, Sunday Times"His style, smart as paint and full of esoteric references, but entranced by the stupid and the stupidly enjoyable, has been widely copied but never surpassed. . . . He shares with these serial dramas a fiercely intelligent populism, a willingness to play to the crowd while trusting they will be able to keep up without too much plot-summary or handholding."—Joe Moran, The Guardian"A loving and breezy set of essays about the shows [James] admires and the flowering of TV more generally. . . . James is an incisive and hilarious critic with a relaxed, learned voice. . . . Play All is full of riotous turns of phrase, keen observations, and sick burns."—Willa Paskin, Slate"James brings a fundamentally serious eye to his chosen medium, littering the prose with grand literary references, eager to engage with television as a worthy, even important, part of culture. . . . He does so with wit and knowing levity, conscious that television is neither fiction nor film, and that it carries its own evaluative criteria."—Andrew Irwin, Times Literary Supplement"Play All is a small book but by no means a slight one. Large-brained and largehearted, and written with astonishing energy, it carries its study of the box-set dramas . . . into revelatory depths while reserving the right to be, wherever possible, superficial, waggish, ludicrous, Clive James-ian. It is also quite obviously and plangently full of love: love of life, love of story, love of art, love of daughters. Against a darkening background the TV screen flickers brighter, and James’s mind casts its illuminations with still greater vividness."—James Parker, New York Times Book Review“If the [Nobel Prize in Literature] were ever to go to a critic, I’d give it to Clive James. He has so much erudition and high-stepping passion. He writes excellent poems and even better memoirs. He has delivered very good books of translation. He is a polymath. He is also very funny.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times"James brings his sharp critical eye to TV’s current golden age, providing witty and insightful musing on popular and critically acclaimed series of the past two decades."—Publishers Weekly“Clive James was the best television critic of his generation, and in this absorbing look at the US TV dramas that have flooded our screens in recent years, he shows that he has lost none of his flair.” —Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday"Everyone who has written television criticism since the 1970s, including this reviewer, has done so in the long shadow of Clive James. . . . On every page and sometimes every paragraph there’s a sentence at which you have little choice but to stop, think and, inevitably, admire."—Andrew Anthony, The Observer"This snug body of writings will enrich your appreciation of TV drama’s big hitters and help elevate discussion of them . . . Often as entertaining and compulsorily viewed as the very shows themselves."—Hilary A. White, Belfast Telegraph"On almost every page of Play All there is an example of splendid, wilful contentiousness and tart observations that hit the bulls-eye."—Alan Taylor, Glasgow Herald"We need a definite reassessment of the so-called Golden Age of Television, and who better to do it than Clive James. . . . There’s no doubt that James has still got it. Even when you don’t agree with him you will be pleasantly provoked."—James Medd, New Statesman"Book critics often write about the importance of a distinctive authorial voice but there can’t be many writers whose voice is as clear and as dear to its readers as Clive James. . . . Few so successfully combine the erudition of the academic with the giddiness of the true fan, capable of analysing The Wire via Camus and Nietzsche without sounding like a pretentious/delusional fool. Instead James sounds thoughtful, confident and generous."—Big Issue"A work that is a joy to read for anyone with any interest in television. . . . Whatever James is writing about his prose is full of wit, fire and lightly worn learning. Play All has, for obvious reasons, a valedictory tone, but if this is James’s farewell to writing about television, it is an abundantly grateful and happy one."—Nigel Andrew, Literary Review"Play All is brilliant, comic nourishment. James has never written better or with so much mischief and elan. His observations—withering and celebratory—are bracingly intelligent and written in so accessible and winning a voice."—David Thomson“Clive James was the best television critic of his generation, and in this absorbing look at the US TV dramas that have flooded our screens in recent years, he shows that he has lost none of his flair.” —Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday -- Simon Shaw * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisA leading film critic on the evolving world of streaming media and its impact on societyTrade Review“Thomson is the greatest writer on movies there’s ever been.”—Christopher Bray, TheSpectator “Our greatest film historian, critic, and writer about movies turns his peerless eye to TV, from I Love Lucy to Succession, Seinfeld to Ozark, The West Wing to Babylon Berlin; offering a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes bleak—and always brilliant—personal essay on the medium that has seemingly swallowed our world, fractured the way we view content, and forever altered whatever sense of reality we once shared.”—Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho“This book is like no other. David Thomson is television’s great demystifier, but one who nevertheless retains the power to fall in love, then fall out of love, become enchanted, then disillusioned almost in same breath. Both detached and partisan, enthusiast and skeptic, Thomson is at his paradoxical best in this book.”—Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films“That David Thomson writes brilliantly about the big screen is not news. What is news: that he’s every bit as insightful, every bit as penetrating, every bit as enthralling on the small screen. Pure rapture.”—Lili Anolik, author of Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.“In these pages, we join David and Lucy, sometimes almost imagining themselves Ricky and Lucy, watching alongside them, and then we’re arguing with them, doubting, quarreling as they do, making connections from the show on the screen to the world at large and then backing off, as trapped in the show as they are. ‘The night is young,’ Thomson says. ‘Or younger than we are.’”—Greil Marcus, author of Folk Music“In our time David Thomson is the supreme authority on filmic experience, period. Now he trains his vast powers of observation, analysis, erudition, and wit on the ‘golden age of television.’ Every golden age needs an honest man, and this golden age finds its honest man in these pages.”—Leon Wieseltier, editor of Liberties “Thomson’s brilliant writing about the experience of viewing film and television is informed by his deep knowledge of both media, his scholarship, and his unmatchable wit.”—Diane Johnson, author of Lorna Mott Comes Home “David Thomson is our greatest living writer on film, and in Remotely he takes on the wonders of the smaller screen to dazzling effect. His piercing eye shows us television for what it really is: the mirror of our deepest intimacies.”—Matthew Specktor, author of Always Crashing in the Same Car

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Book SynopsisA fascinating exploration of the philosophy behind NBC's hit TV series, 30 Rock With edgy writing and a great cast, 30 Rock is one of the funniest television shows on the airand where hilarity ensues, philosophical questions abound: Are Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy ethical heroes? Kenneth redefines goody two shoes, but what does it really mean to be good? Dr. Leo Spaceman routinely demonstrates that medicine is not a science, so what is the role of the incompetent professional in America today? In 30 Rock and Philosophy, Tina Fey and her fellow cast members are thrust onto the philosophical stage with Plato, Aristotle, Kantand other great thinkers to examine these key questions and many others that involve the characters and plotlines of 30 Rock and its fictional TGS with Tracy Jordan comedy show. Takes an entertaining, up-close look at the philosophical issues behind 30 Rock''s characters and storylines, froTable of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks for Helping Us Go to There ix Introduction: Platonic Fantasies and Tina Fey-losophy 1 PART ONE WHAT WOULD OPRAH DO?: ETHICS AND THE GOOD LIFE AT 30 ROCK 1 Being Kenneth: Some Moral Lessons 7 P. Sue Dohnimm 2 Sour Lemon: Liz’s Workaholism and the Meaning of Life 16 Jeffrey A. Hinzmann 3 Friendship on 30 Rock: What a Greek Philosopher Can Teach Us about Companionship 28 Dan Yim 4 A Confucian-Aristotelian Critique of 30 Rock’s “Semi-Virtuous Path” 43 Adam Barkman PART TWO THE GIRLIE SHOW: GENDER, RACE, AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION AT 30 ROCK 5 Race at the Rock: Race Cards, White Myths, and Postracial America 57 J. Jeremy Wisnewski 6 Getting Gay: How 30 Rock Helps Us Understand Sexuality 75 J. Jeremy Wisnewski 7 And the Followship Award Goes to . . . Third-Wave Feminism? 89 Ashley Barkman PART THREE DEALBREAKER!: CORPORATIONS, PROFESSIONS, AND POLITICS 8 Medicine’s Not a Science: Dr. Leo Spaceman and the Role of the Incompetent Professional in Today’s America 101 Kevin S. Decker 9 Is There a Difference between East Coast Television and Microwave Ovens?: Moral Questions about Corporate Management 114 Andrew Terjesen 10 The Emancipation Corporation: Loving and Loathing the Shinehardt Wigs of the World 130 Nicolas Michaud 11 Liz and Jack Can’t Be Friends!: Communitarianism, Libertarianism, and Politics at 30 Rock 138 Nicolas Michaud PART FOUR MIND GRAPES (TO NOURISH YOUR THINKING) 12 “The Bubble,” the Cave, and Samsara: Being Deluded at 30 Rock 149 Adam Barkman 13 Of Cookie Jars and CEOs: Time and Self on 30 Rock 161 Tyler Shores 14 One City’s Cheese-Curl Addict Is Another City’s Model: A Question of Taste 174 Michael Da Silva and Melina Found 15 “I’m Straight-Up Mentally Ill”: Tracy Jordan and True, Justified Belief 186 Robert Arp 16 Performing at 30 Rock (and Everywhere Else) 195 Marc E. Shaw APPENDIX 1 : Frank’s Hat Store 209 APPENDIX 2 : The Wisdom of the Page: Meet Kenneth Ellen Parcell 211 CONTRIBUTORS: Cast Members of 30 Rock and Philosophy 217 INDEX: Shinehardt Wig Company Filing System 221

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Book SynopsisCritically acclaimed Mad Men portrays the changing social and political mores of 1960s America, where women were secretaries, men controlled the money, and everyone lived under the imminent threat of nuclear war. However, understanding the philosophy behind this show is even more fascinating.Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS: "I Think We Need to Salute That!" Introduction: "A Thing Like That". PART ONE: "PEOPLE MAY SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY, BUT THEY DON’T REALLY WANT TO": MAD MEN AND PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE AND FREEDOM. 1 What Fools We Were: Mad Men, Hindsight, and Justification (Landon W. Schurtz). 2 "People Want to Be Told What to Do So Badly That They'll Listen to Anyone": Mimetic Madness at Sterling Cooper (George A. Dunn). 3 Capitalism and Freedom in the Affluent Society (Kevin Guilfoy). PART TWO: "THERE IS NO BIG LIE, THERE IS NO SYSTEM, THE UNIVERSE IS INDIFFERENT": MAD MEN AND THE PROBLEM OF MEANING. 4 Pete, Peggy, Don, and the Dialectic of Remembering and Forgetting (John Fritz). 5 The Existential Void of Roger Sterling (Raymond Angelo Belliotti). 6 Egoless Egoists: The Second-Hand Lives of Mad Men (Robert White). 7 An Existential Look at Mad Men: Don Draper, Advertising, and the Promise of Happiness (Ada S. Jaarsma). PART THREE: "AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPINESS IS?": MAD MEN AND ETHICS. 8 "In on It": Honesty, Respect, and the Ethics of Advertising (Andreja Novakovic and Tyler Whitney). 9 Creating the Need for the New: "It's Not the Wheel. It's the Carousel." (George Teschner and Gabrielle Teschner). 10 "You're Looking in the Wrong Direction": Mad Men and the Ethics of Advertising (Adam Barkman). 11 Is Don Draper a Good Man? (Andrew Terjesen). 12 Don Draper, on How to Make Oneself (Whole Again) (John Elia). PART FOUR: "NO ONE ELSE IS SAYING THE RIGHT THING ABOUT THIS": MAD MEN AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY. 13 "And Nobody Understands That, but You Do": The Aristotelian Ideal of Friendship among the Mad Men (and Women) (Abigail E. Myers). 14 Mad Women: Aristotle, Second-Wave Feminism, and the Women of Mad Men (Ashley Jihee Barkman). 15 "We've Got Bigger Problems to Worry about Than TV, Okay?" Mad Men and Race (Rod Carveth). 16 "New York City Is a Marvelous Machine": Mad Men and the Power of Social Convention (James B. South). APPENDIX: It's Not a List of Titles and Air Dates; It's an Episode Guide. CONTRIBUTORS: Some Real Mad Men and Women. INDEX: Client Files Lifted from Sterling Cooper.

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Book SynopsisCritically examines two interpretations of government. The first comes from pop culture fictions about politics, the second from academic political science. Stephen Benedict Dyson argues that televised political fictions and political science theories are attempts at meaning-making, reflecting and shaping how a society thinks about its politics.Trade ReviewImagining Politics is a first-rate work of scholarship. Popular culture as conveyed through television shows, such as The West Wing and Yes, Minister, can help to explain the political world. The study provides an innovative account of the populist turn in multiple locations around the world. This is essential reading." - Patrick James, University of Southern California"This is an important and engaging resource for scholars and researchers because of the way that Dyson weaves understandings of fictional narrative into an understanding of the embedded narrative that constructs an entire academic discipline. Dyson integrates popular culture and narratives while analyzing the narratives that shape and form political science as a discipline, exploring the connections between stories told in different contexts." - Imagining Politics: Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television guides the reader through a fascinating interpretation of politics, from diverse vantage points, but through an understanding of the role of narratives." - Lilly Goren, Carroll University"Imagining Politics makes an interesting, novel, and important intervention into the political science literature. The book is crafty—it gets readers to learn about some particularly dry areas of political science by enticing us with Scandal and House of Cards—nicely done." - Renée Ann Cramer, Drake University "When a reality television personality becomes the President of the United States, it's time to pay attention to what television can tell us about politics. Stephen Benedict Dyson has the unusual ability to bridge political science and popular culture and find the 'useful fictions' in both." - John Sides, George Washington University

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Book SynopsisExamines how notions of Jewishness have been conveyed in a range of television, stage, and film productions, since the end of World War II. Beginning in 1947, this book draws on a different discipline of performance studies to explore the ever-changing relationship between Jews and mainstream American culture.Trade Review"Fascinating and original...Bial's command of sources is impressive, and his concept of 'double-coding' is convincing... the book should have no trouble finding a large audience." - Barbara W. Grossman, author of Funny Woman: The Life and Times of Fanny Brice"

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Book SynopsisGathers pivotal and more mundane moments, dispersed across a predominantly Western history of moving images, in which animals materialize in movies and TV shows, from iconic scenes of cattle slaughter in early Soviet montage to quandaries over hunting trophies in recent home-renovation reality TV series, to animals in Black horror films.Trade Review“O’Brien’s wonderful study offers rich readings of the mediation of animal lives and deaths by cinema and television, its connections to slaughter and taxidermy, and related questions of race and commodification. O’Brien traces the historical and material contours of these entanglements in highly astute and accessible terms, prompting us to look anew at animal and animalized presences on-screen, from slaughter cinema to ‘TV trophies’.”—Laura McMahon, University of Cambridge “Bits and Pieces explores the ways in which film and television mediate our understanding of animal life and death, and especially the issue of animal slaughter. The scholarship is sound, and the presentation of the material and writing style are wonderfully clear and crisp.” —Claire Jean Kim, University of California, Irvine “O’Brien rightly finds images of animals everywhere—but doesn’t try to approach the subject encyclopedically. Instead, she hones in on parallel thematic and imagistic tracks, and takes intensive looks within. Bits and Pieces is a compelling, well-written, and deeply researched work.”—Cynthia Chris, College of Staten Island, CUNYTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Filmography Chapter 1: Slaughter Cinema Chapter 2: Glass Walls Chapter 3: Cabinets of Curiosity Chapter 4: TV Trophies Conclusion Index

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Book SynopsisOffers a collection of interviews with leading film and TV professionals concerning the many ways that digital delivery systems are transforming the entertainment business.Trade Review"Although the collection largely allows individuals at the forefront of changing practices to speak for themselves, Curtin, Holt, and Sanson lead them through carefully crafted questions and assembled an insightful and diverse roster of interviewees... Distribution Revolution provides a resource students will recognize as relevant and applicable to their world." Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Making of a Revolution By Michael Curtin, Jennifer Holt, and Kevin Sanson Studios Editors' Introduction Gary Newman, President and Chairman, 20th Century Fox Television Richard Berger, Senior Vice President, Global Digital Strategy and Operations, Sony Pictures Kelly Summers, Former Vice President, Worldwide Digital Distribution, Walt Disney Studios Thomas Gewecke, Chief Digital Officer, Warner Bros. Entertainment Mitch Singer, Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Upstarts Editors' Introduction Gail Berman, Founding Partner, BermanBraun Jordan Levin, President, Alloy Digital and Chief Executive Officer, Generate Betsy Scolnik, Founder, Scolnik Enterprises Christian Mann, General Manager, Evil Angel Productions Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, Netflix, Inc. Anders Sjoman, Vice President, Communication, Voddler Group Creatives Editors' Introduction Scott Frank, Screenwriter-Director Paris Barclay, Director-Producer Felicia D. Henderson, Writer-Producer Stanton "Larry" Stein, Partner, Liner Law Patric Verrone, Writer-Producer and Former President, WGA-West Dick Wolf, Executive Producer and Creator, Law & Order

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Book SynopsisFilm and television create worlds, but they are also of a world, a world that is made up of stuff, to which humans attach meaning. Think of the last time you watched a movie: the chair you sat in, the snacks you ate, the people around you, maybe the beer or joint you consumed to help you unwindall this stuff shaped your experience of media and its influence on you. The material culture around film and television changes how we make sense of their content, not to mention the very concepts of the mediums. Focusing on material cultures of film and television reception, The Stuff of Spectatorshipargues that the things we share space with and consume as we consume television and film influence the meaning we gather from them. This book examines the roles that six different material cultures have played in film and television culture since the 1970sincluding video marketing, branded merchandise, drugs and alcohol, and even gun violenceand shows how objects considered peripheral to film and television culture are in fact central to its past and future.Trade Review "This book is an important and cutting-edge contribution. . . . A provocative, entertaining contribution to context and material culture studies, The Stuff of Spectatorship provides an outstanding rationale to investigate stuff." * Film Quarterly * "These unique analyses leave readers aware that a show's or a film's meaning and interest hinge on a material experience inseparable from the images flashing on the screen." * CHOICE *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Material Mediations 1. Collecting and Recollecting: Battlestar Galactica through Video's Varied Technologies of Memory 2. The Commercial Economy of Film History: Or, Looking for Looking for Mr. Goodbar 3. "Let’s Movie": How TCM Made a Lifestyle of Classic Film 4. Spirits of Cinema: Alcohol Service and the Future of Theatrical Exhibition 5. Blunt Spectatorship: Inebriated Poetics in Contemporary US Television 6. Shot in Black and White: The Racialized Reception of US Cinema Violence Conclusion: Expanding the Scene of the Screen Appendix: Documented Incidents of Cinema Violence in the United States through December 31, 2019 Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFilm and television create worlds, but they are also of a world, a world that is made up of stuff, to which humans attach meaning. Think of the last time you watched a movie: the chair you sat in, the snacks you ate, the people around you, maybe the beer or joint you consumed to help you unwindall this stuff shaped your experience of media and its influence on you. The material culture around film and television changes how we make sense of their content, not to mention the very concepts of the mediums. Focusing on material cultures of film and television reception, The Stuff of Spectatorshipargues that the things we share space with and consume as we consume television and film influence the meaning we gather from them. This book examines the roles that six different material cultures have played in film and television culture since the 1970sincluding video marketing, branded merchandise, drugs and alcohol, and even gun violenceand shows how objects considered peripheral to film and television culture are in fact central to its past and future.Trade Review "This book is an important and cutting-edge contribution. . . . A provocative, entertaining contribution to context and material culture studies, The Stuff of Spectatorship provides an outstanding rationale to investigate stuff." * Film Quarterly * "These unique analyses leave readers aware that a show's or a film's meaning and interest hinge on a material experience inseparable from the images flashing on the screen." * CHOICE *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Material Mediations 1. Collecting and Recollecting: Battlestar Galactica through Video's Varied Technologies of Memory 2. The Commercial Economy of Film History: Or, Looking for Looking for Mr. Goodbar 3. "Let’s Movie": How TCM Made a Lifestyle of Classic Film 4. Spirits of Cinema: Alcohol Service and the Future of Theatrical Exhibition 5. Blunt Spectatorship: Inebriated Poetics in Contemporary US Television 6. Shot in Black and White: The Racialized Reception of US Cinema Violence Conclusion: Expanding the Scene of the Screen Appendix: Documented Incidents of Cinema Violence in the United States through December 31, 2019 Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA rich account that combines media-industry history and cultural studies, Their Own Best Creations looks at women writers' contributions to some of the most popular genres of postwar TV: comedy-variety, family sitcom, daytime soap, and suspense anthology. During the 1950s, when the commercial medium of television was still being defined, women writers navigated pressures at work, constructed public personas that reconciled traditional and progressive femininity, and asserted that a woman's point of view was essential to television as an art form. The shows they authored allegorize these professional and personal pressures and articulate a nascent second-wave feminist consciousness. Annie Berke brings to light the long-forgotten and under-studied stories of these women writers and crucially places them in the historical and contemporary record.Trade Review"Berke’s imagination — bolstered by insight, expertise, and scholarship — reveals stunning depths. Authors’ intent may be unknowable, but critical interpretations are their own kind of creative work. Berke’s interpretations are generative and convincing accounts of the way that art and artists can come to reflect each other." * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Their Own Best Creations seamlessly bridges the fields of media studies and feminist studies via a rich and lively exploration of the women who scripted the first Golden Age of television." * Journal of Cinema and Media Studies *"Drawing on writers who worked in both film and radio, Berke’s book will pique the interest of radio and television scholars, but her conceptual frameworks and innovative use of texts alongside industrial history make it essential reading for students and scholars of media industries and labor." * Media Industries Journal *"The book is energetic and animated, drawing on rich source materials that come to life. . . . an impressive accomplishment and valuable contribution." * H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Craftsmen and Work Wives The Gendering of Television Writing 2. “A Sea of Male Interests” Your Show of Shows and the Comedy of Female Mischief 3. Gertrude Berg, Peg Lynch, and the “Small Situation” of the Stay-at-Home Showrunner 4. “What Girl Shouldn’t?” The Many Children of Irna Phillips 5. “Knowing All the Plots” Presenting the Woman Story Editor 6. “A Girl’s Gotta Live” The Literate Heroines of the Suspense Anthology Drama Conclusion Better Than It Never Was Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA rich account that combines media-industry history and cultural studies, Their Own Best Creations looks at women writers' contributions to some of the most popular genres of postwar TV: comedy-variety, family sitcom, daytime soap, and suspense anthology. During the 1950s, when the commercial medium of television was still being defined, women writers navigated pressures at work, constructed public personas that reconciled traditional and progressive femininity, and asserted that a woman's point of view was essential to television as an art form. The shows they authored allegorize these professional and personal pressures and articulate a nascent second-wave feminist consciousness. Annie Berke brings to light the long-forgotten and under-studied stories of these women writers and crucially places them in the historical and contemporary record.Trade Review"Berke’s imagination — bolstered by insight, expertise, and scholarship — reveals stunning depths. Authors’ intent may be unknowable, but critical interpretations are their own kind of creative work. Berke’s interpretations are generative and convincing accounts of the way that art and artists can come to reflect each other." * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Their Own Best Creations seamlessly bridges the fields of media studies and feminist studies via a rich and lively exploration of the women who scripted the first Golden Age of television." * Journal of Cinema and Media Studies *"Drawing on writers who worked in both film and radio, Berke’s book will pique the interest of radio and television scholars, but her conceptual frameworks and innovative use of texts alongside industrial history make it essential reading for students and scholars of media industries and labor." * Media Industries Journal *"The book is energetic and animated, drawing on rich source materials that come to life. . . . an impressive accomplishment and valuable contribution." * H-Soz-Kult *Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Craftsmen and Work Wives The Gendering of Television Writing 2. “A Sea of Male Interests” Your Show of Shows and the Comedy of Female Mischief 3. Gertrude Berg, Peg Lynch, and the “Small Situation” of the Stay-at-Home Showrunner 4. “What Girl Shouldn’t?” The Many Children of Irna Phillips 5. “Knowing All the Plots” Presenting the Woman Story Editor 6. “A Girl’s Gotta Live” The Literate Heroines of the Suspense Anthology Drama Conclusion Better Than It Never Was Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAlgorithmic recommender systems, deployed by media companies to suggest content based on users' viewing histories, have inspired hopes for personalized, curated media but also dire warnings of filter bubbles and media homogeneity. Curiously, both proponents and detractors assume that recommender systems for choosing films and series are novel, effective, and widely used. Scrutinizing the world's most subscribed streaming service, Netflix, this book challenges that consensus. Investigating real-life users, marketing rhetoric, technical processes, business models, and historical antecedents, Mattias Frey demonstrates that these choice aids are neither as revolutionary nor as alarming as their celebrants and critics maintainand neither as trusted nor as widely used.Netflix Recommendsbrings to light the constellations of sources that real viewers use to choose films and series in the digital age and argues that although some lament AI's hostile takeover of humanistic cultures, the thirst fTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1 • Why We Need Film and Series Suggestions 2 • How Algorithmic Recommender Systems Work 3 • Developing Netflix's Recommendation Algorithms 4 • Unpacking Netflix's Myth of Big Data 5 • How Real People Choose Films and Series Afterword: Robot Critics vs. Human Experts Appendix. Designing the Empirical Audience Study Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the two decades after World War II, a vibrant cultural infrastructure of cineclubs, archives, festivals, and film schools took shape in Latin America through the labor of film enthusiasts who often worked in concert with French and France-based organizations. In promoting the emerging concept and practice of art cinema, these film-related institutions advanced geopolitical and class interests simultaneously in a polarized Cold War climate. Seeking to sharpen viewers' critical faculties as a safeguard against ideological extremes, institutions of film culture lent prestige to Latin America's growing middle classes and capitalized on official and unofficial efforts to boost the circulation of French cinema, enhancing the nation's soft power in the wake of military defeat and occupation. As the first book-length, transnational analysis of postwar Latin American film culture, Transatlantic Cinephilia deepens our understanding of how institutional networks have nurtured alternative and nontheatrical cinemas.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Cineclub Movement in Latin America: Transatlantic Cooperation, Local Frictions 2. Toward a Global Film Preservation Practice? FIAF and the Emergence of Latin American Archives 3. Brokering Art Cinema: Latin America and the Festival Circuit 4. Film Pedagogy between Latin America and France: Training Professionals, Fostering Film Culture Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the two decades after World War II, a vibrant cultural infrastructure of cineclubs, archives, festivals, and film schools took shape in Latin America through the labor of film enthusiasts who often worked in concert with French and France-based organizations. In promoting the emerging concept and practice of art cinema, these film-related institutions advanced geopolitical and class interests simultaneously in a polarized Cold War climate. Seeking to sharpen viewers' critical faculties as a safeguard against ideological extremes, institutions of film culture lent prestige to Latin America's growing middle classes and capitalized on official and unofficial efforts to boost the circulation of French cinema, enhancing the nation's soft power in the wake of military defeat and occupation. As the first book-length, transnational analysis of postwar Latin American film culture, Transatlantic Cinephilia deepens our understanding of how institutional networks have nurtured alternative and nontheatrical cinemas.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Cineclub Movement in Latin America: Transatlantic Cooperation, Local Frictions 2. Toward a Global Film Preservation Practice? FIAF and the Emergence of Latin American Archives 3. Brokering Art Cinema: Latin America and the Festival Circuit 4. Film Pedagogy between Latin America and France: Training Professionals, Fostering Film Culture Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis course text should encourage students to understand what contemporary audiences are all about. It is based on a recent survey of audiences undertaken by the ITC, and extrapolates from the most recent findings about the future prospects for both terrestrial and satellite/cable broadcasts.Trade Review"An invaluable book; the author knows a very great deal about television in a global sense and writes with a huge amount of infectious enthusiasm." Ian Mowatt, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction. 1. Audiences. 2. Technology. 3. Programmes. 4. Quality Television. 5. News. 6.Television, Politics, and Impartiality. 7. Offensive Television. 8. Children, Regulation, and the 'Effects' of Television. 9. Television's Uncertain Future. Postscript: "Don't Ask What does People Harm. Ask what Does Them Good". Notes. Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisConsuming Television is a textbook designed to introduce students to the role of television in contemporary society and to encourage an understanding of what contemporary audiences are all about. Written clearly and simply, and devoid of jargon Covers both the empirical and theoretical ground in a lively manner Unlike most books on the television audience, this volume looks at the programmes themselves, as well as the production process (including policies which affect television production) Trade Review"An invaluable book; the author knows a very great deal about television in a global sense and writes with a huge amount of infectious enthusiasm." Ian Mowatt, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction. 1. Audiences. 2. Technology. 3. Programmes. 4. Quality Television. 5. News. 6.Television, Politics, and Impartiality. 7. Offensive Television. 8. Children, Regulation, and the 'Effects' of Television. 9. Television's Uncertain Future. Postscript: "Don't Ask What does People Harm. Ask what Does Them Good". Notes. Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisDerided as simple, dismissed as inferior to film, characterized as a vast wasteland, television nonetheless exerts an undeniable, apparently inescapable power. The secret of television's success may lie in the narrative complexities underlying its seeming simplicity, complexities the author unmasks in her analysis here.Trade ReviewRemarkably little work (scholarly or otherwise) has been done on television. These four essays provide what may be the most cogent and systematic study of the subject currently available. Thompson is an extremely solid writer with a keen intellect and exceptional analytical skills, and all of these qualities are in evidence here. Simply stated, there is at present no book quite like this one, despite the pressing need for such a book. -- Thomas Schatz, Professor of Radio, Television & Film, University of Texas at AustinI quite enjoyed reading this book. What I like most about it is its interdisciplinary approach. It shows the insights that an intellectually mature media scholar can have when she crosses disciplinary boundaries--applying analytical principles of one medium to another. I feel strongly that this sort of work should be encouraged. -- Jeremy Butler, Professor of Telecommunications and Film, University of AlabamaTable of ContentsPreface 1. Go with the Flow? Analyzing Television 2. What Do They Think They're Doing? Theory and Practice in Screenwriting 3. The Dispersal of Narrative: Adaptations, Sequels, Serials, Spin-offs, and Sagas 4. The Strange Cases of David Lynch Notes Index

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Book SynopsisDrawing on in-depth interviews with animation professionals, field research, and a wide-scale market survey, The Anime Boom in the United States investigates the Japanese export of anime television and film to the United States. This story carries broad significance for those interested in understanding the cultural and media globalization.Trade ReviewThis book has long been needed. Amid the many treatises on the contents, fans, images, artistic qualities, and sociocultural meanings of anime, there is finally a study of factors such as transnationalism, globalization, conglomeration, entrepreneurship, and hybridity relative to Japanese animation…The Anime Boom in the United States excellently pries open another area of animation study. -- J. A. Lent * Choice *

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Book SynopsisDeals with the topic - Watching Television.Table of ContentsTelevision - familiarity and phenomenology; television - hermeneutics and horizon; audiences - constructions of sense; viewing and the veridical effect; mechanisms of identification in film and television; subverting the veridical image; towards an "epic" television; conclusion - resisting television's familiarity.

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Book SynopsisIn a world that has been shrunk by modern communications and transport, Star Trek has maintained the values of western maritime exploration, and the discovery of Strange New Worlds in space. This - Starry Sea - has become a familiar metaphor in the history of Star Trek, providing a backdrop to the relentless questioning of human nature.Trade Review'Star Trek has been subject to a lot of scrutiny by literary and cultural critics ... The bad conscience that many have about serious discussion of popular culture means that Star Trek can still be read simplistically, as a stalking-horse for denouncing the modernity of the American century. The Barretts are more subtle. A television series is a product of a variety of creators and so, inevitably, a rich complex of signs, hints and idealisms. There is no final reading of Star Trek; just an endless journey.' The Independent 'There are only a handful of book length surveys of Star Trek, and this mother-and-son collaboration is a welcome contribution to those. It provides a valuable overview of the programme from its original appearance 35 years ago, tracing the ways in which successive series have reproduced and challenged the original "liberal humanist" ethos of Star Trek.' New Formations'As we stand on the threshold of the age of human cloning, the leading question asked by this engaging book-- What is human?--could hardly be more timely. The Barretts offer persuasive answers in their thorough analysis of a media phenomenon that has touched virtually everyone who lives in a technologically advanced society.' Andrew Ross, Director, American Studies Program, New York University Star Trek: The Human Frontier goes a long way toward explaining the enduring success of "the franchise" without succumbing to naive celebration. It explores Star Trek's strengths and flaws, its continuities and discontinuities, its intertextualities and its contextualities. The two Barretts explore Star Trak's ambivalent relationship to modernity, to nautical exploration (and colonial empires), humanism, and ultimately, post-modernity. Moving effortlessly from Homer to Foucault, from Orwell to Butler, they manage to give substance to many of the intuitvely experienced, commonsensical assumptions about Star Trek. And they have produced a book that is a delight to read. If this is what intergenerational authorship can accomplish, we should all start writing with our kids. Lawrence Grossberg, Morris davis Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillTable of ContentsList Of Illustrations. Preface And Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part One: Exploration. Part Two: Humanity On Trial. Part Three: Boldly Going Postmodern. Conclusion. Notes. Index

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Book SynopsisIn a world that has been shrunk by modern communications and transport, Star Trek has maintained the values of western maritime exploration, and the discovery of Strange New Worlds in space. This - Starry Sea - has become a familiar metaphor in the history of Star Trek, providing a backdrop to the relentless questioning of human nature.Trade Review'Star Trek has been subject to a lot of scrutiny by literary and cultural critics ... The bad conscience that many have about serious discussion of popular culture means that Star Trek can still be read simplistically, as a stalking-horse for denouncing the modernity of the American century. The Barretts are more subtle. A television series is a product of a variety of creators and so, inevitably, a rich complex of signs, hints and idealisms. There is no final reading of Star Trek; just an endless journey.' The Independent 'There are only a handful of book length surveys of Star Trek, and this mother-and-son collaboration is a welcome contribution to those. It provides a valuable overview of the programme from its original appearance 35 years ago, tracing the ways in which successive series have reproduced and challenged the original "liberal humanist" ethos of Star Trek.' New Formations'As we stand on the threshold of the age of human cloning, the leading question asked by this engaging book-- What is human?--could hardly be more timely. The Barretts offer persuasive answers in their thorough analysis of a media phenomenon that has touched virtually everyone who lives in a technologically advanced society.' Andrew Ross, Director, American Studies Program, New York University Star Trek: The Human Frontier goes a long way toward explaining the enduring success of "the franchise" without succumbing to naive celebration. It explores Star Trek's strengths and flaws, its continuities and discontinuities, its intertextualities and its contextualities. The two Barretts explore Star Trak's ambivalent relationship to modernity, to nautical exploration (and colonial empires), humanism, and ultimately, post-modernity. Moving effortlessly from Homer to Foucault, from Orwell to Butler, they manage to give substance to many of the intuitvely experienced, commonsensical assumptions about Star Trek. And they have produced a book that is a delight to read. If this is what intergenerational authorship can accomplish, we should all start writing with our kids. Lawrence Grossberg, Morris davis Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillTable of ContentsList Of Illustrations. Preface And Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part One: Exploration. Part Two: Humanity On Trial. Part Three: Boldly Going Postmodern. Conclusion. Notes. Index

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Book SynopsisEvery day millions watch, vote and critique reality programs in print and online. June Deery examines why this has programming proven to be so popular and so tenacious.Trade Review"This vibrant, accessible book provides an up-to-date synthesis of current patterns in and thinking about reality TV. Ranging across cutting-edge topics such as new media, commercialization, identity markers and politics, this illuminating study draws on an eye-popping array of programmes to argue that reality television is less a style than an ontology."Misha Kavka, The University of Auckland"Taking reality television seriously as "staged actuality," Deery presents a clear way to understand this phenomenon of the past twenty years through a seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of the programs and the scholarship on them. This is a great text for students and viewers alike."Vicki Mayer, Tulane UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements1. Introduction: Definitions, History, Critiques2. Reality Status3. Social Television: Reality TV and New Media4. Advertising and Commercialization5. Gender and Race6. Class7. PoliticsNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisEvery day millions watch, vote and critique reality programs in print and online. June Deery examines why this has programming proven to be so popular and so tenacious.Trade Review"This vibrant, accessible book provides an up-to-date synthesis of current patterns in and thinking about reality TV. Ranging across cutting-edge topics such as new media, commercialization, identity markers and politics, this illuminating study draws on an eye-popping array of programmes to argue that reality television is less a style than an ontology."Misha Kavka, The University of Auckland"Taking reality television seriously as "staged actuality," Deery presents a clear way to understand this phenomenon of the past twenty years through a seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of the programs and the scholarship on them. This is a great text for students and viewers alike."Vicki Mayer, Tulane UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements1. Introduction: Definitions, History, Critiques2. Reality Status3. Social Television: Reality TV and New Media4. Advertising and Commercialization5. Gender and Race6. Class7. PoliticsNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisMexican cinema is booming today, a decade after the international successes of Amores perros and Y tu mamá también. Mexican films now display a wider range than any comparable country, from art films to popular genre movies, and boasting internationally renowned directors like Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Guillermo del Toro. At the same time, television has broadened its output, moving beyond telenovelas to produce higher-value series and mini-series. Mexican TV now stakes a claim to being the most dynamic and pervasive national narrative. This new book by Paul Julian Smith is the first to examine the flourishing of audiovisual fiction in Mexico since 2000, considering cinema and TV together. It covers much material previously unexplored and engages with emerging themes, including violence, youth culture, and film festivals. The book includes reviews of ten films released between 2001 and 2012 by directors who are both established (Maryse Sistach, CarloTrade Review''Combining insightful readings of key films with social science approaches to issues of production, distribution, exhibition and audience response, Paul Julian Smith’s Mexican Screen Fiction ventures beyond the boundaries of traditional film studies to offer a probing and wide ranging study of Mexico’s dynamic audiovisual sector.'' Kathleen Vernon, Stony Brook University ''With his latest book, Paul Julian Smith not only offers valuable insights into contemporary Mexican screen fiction, bringing together both film and TV, which are located in their industrial, critical, cultural and historical contexts. Researched and written with evident pleasure, he provides us with an innovative paradigm for thinking about screen media in the twenty-first century.'' Andrea Noble, Durham UniversityTable of ContentsFigures vii Preface viii Introduction: Mexican Screen Fiction 1 Jump Cut 1: Y tu mamá también 7 PART I SETTING SCENES 13 1 Revising Mexican Cinema 15 2 Following Festivals 30 Jump Cut 2: Perfume de violetas, Frida 47 PART II AUTEURS AND GENRES 53 3 A Case Study in Transnational Gay Auteurism: Julián Hernández’s A Thousand Clouds of Peace Encircle the Sky, Love, Your Being Love Will Never End 55 4 A Case Study in Genre and Nationality: Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth 64 Jump Cut 3: 21 Grams, Battle in Heaven, KM 31 78 PART III MARGINAL SUBJECTS 87 5 Youth Culture in Mexico: Rebel, I’m Gonna Explode 89 6 Lady Killers in TV Fiction: Women Murderers, The Aparicio Women 120 Jump Cut 4: We Are What We Are, Leap Year 152 PART IV TALES OF INSECURITY 159 7 Film Fictions of Violence: Hell, Saving Private Pérez, Miss Bala 161 8 TV Histories of Violence: In the Sewers, Cries of Death and Freedom 191 Jump Cut 5: The Prize, Windows to the Sea 220 Conclusion: Between Cinema and Television 224 Appendix: Interviews with Five Media Professionals (Jesús Mario Lozano, Daniela Michel, Alejandro Ramírez, Roberto Fiesco, Leticia López Margalli) 227 Bibliography 256 Index 266

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