Description
Book SynopsisWhen a filmmaker makes a film with herself as a subject, she is already divided as both the subject matter of the film and the subject making the film. The two senses of the word are immediately in play - the matter and the maker-thus the two ways of being subjectified as both subject and object. Subjectivity finds its filmic expression, not surprisingly, in very personal ways, yet it is nonetheless shaped by and in relation to collective expressions of identity that can transform the cinema of 'me' into the cinema of 'we'. Leading scholars and practitioners of first-person film are brought together in this groundbreaking collection to consider the theoretical, ideological, and aesthetic challenges wrought by this form of filmmaking in its diverse cultural, geographical, and political contexts.
Trade ReviewGlobal in its reach, sensitive to the political valences of self-inscription, ground-breaking in its attention to new formats and technologies, The Cinema of Me offers unmistakable proof that the first person film is a vital strand of contemporary media production. Once thought to be the refuge of the privileged, self-absorbed Western-man, autobiography exists today as a ubiquitous act of self-expression and political agency. Spanning a breadth of modalities-including the essay film, i-movie, cinematic self-portrait, home movie remix, blog-The Cinema of Me testifies to the power of media practices that can transform private lives into social subjectivities. -- Michael Renov, University of Southern California
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Contributors Introduction, by Alisa Lebow Part 1. First Person Singular The Role of History in the Individual: Working Notes for a Film, by Michael Chanan The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Andres Di Tella Impersonations of Glauber Rocha by Glauber Rocha, by Jose Gatti The Self-portrait Film: Michelangelo's Last Gaze, by Laura Rascaroli Cycles of Life: El cielo gira and Spanish Autobiographical Documentary, by Efren Cuevas From the Interior: Space, Time and Queer Discursivity in Kamal Aljafari's The Roof, by Peter Limbrick Part 2. First Person Plural Jennifer Fox's Transcultural Talking Cure: Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, by Angelica Fenner Secrets and Inner Voices: The Self and Subjectivity in Contemporary Indian Documentary, by Sabeena Gadihoke In the Eye of the Storm: The Political Stake of Israeli i-Movies, by Linda Dittmar Part 3. Diasporic Subjectivity Looking for Home in Home Movies: The Home Mode in Caribbean Diaspora First Person Film and Video Practice, by Elspeth Kydd 'If I Am (Not) for Myself': Michelle Citron's Diasporic First Person(s), by Sophie Mayer The Camera as Peripatetic Migration Machine, by Alisa Lebow Part 4. Virtual Subjectivity Blogging Identity.com, by Peter Hughes The ME and the WE: A First Person Meditation on Media Translation in Three Acts, by Alexandra Juhasz Filmography Index
