Search

"All the President's Men" is a film analyzed by Christian Keathley and Robert B. Ray in their book. The authors argue that the film focuses on the experience of disorientation and uncertainty rather than the outcome of the investigation. The film, which follows the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they investigate the Watergate scandal, recreates the feeling of being lost in a maze of clues and information. The book provides a close reading of the film's narrative structure, mise-en-scène, and cinematography, and argues for its status as an American classic. The authors also discuss the blend of art movie, classical studio-era, and New Hollywood elements in the film, as well as the deliberate choice to obscure and omit relevant story information. The book offers valuable insights for students of close reading methods and scholars of Hollywood history and style. [Extracted from the article]

Adam Lowenstein's book, "Horror Film and Otherness," explores the social relevance and transformative power of horror cinema. Lowenstein argues that horror films can teach us about otherness and illuminate the ongoing evolution of social norms and identities. He challenges Robin Wood's analysis of American horror cinema, offering a more nuanced understanding of the genre's exploration of trauma, alienation, and displacement. Lowenstein engages with theorists and historians to examine the themes of aging, the body, gender, and sexuality in horror films from the 1970s to the present. While the book is comprehensive, it lacks coverage of trans people, which would further contribute to the exploration of otherness. Overall, "Horror Film and Otherness" is a landmark text that highlights the importance of horror in understanding society and the self. [Extracted from the article]

Approaching the writing of a scene in this way, the authors argue, makes character motivations clear, creates tension and leaves room for either additional obstacles or resolution. Which points to another fundamental premise that Perry and Sanders believe in, namely that every scene needs to have both a goal and an obstacle. I SceneWriting: The Missing Manual for Screenwriters i by Chris Perry and Eric Henry Sanders is an essential primer on the important foundational structure and elements that make a scene - and by extrapolation, a story - work. [Extracted from the article]

"Black Women and the Changing Television Landscape" by Lisa M. Anderson is a book that examines the portrayal of Black women on television throughout history. Anderson, an associate professor of women and gender studies, builds on her previous work to explore the complex and evolving representations of Black women in media. Using a semiotic approach and drawing on the work of Black feminist scholars, Anderson analyzes specific television shows and personalities from the 1950s to the present. The book goes beyond simplistic judgments and aims to understand the historical and cultural contexts in which these representations exist, as well as the agency of Black women in shaping them. It is a valuable resource for scholars in cultural, media, and television studies. [Extracted from the article]

Throughout the book it is addressed that the field of digital filmmaking and especially mobile and smartphone filmmaking as a unique form of creative practice is fast-developing, with new emerging techniques, forms and methods. The author establishes mobile and smartphone filmmaking as a unique film form and introduces his filmmaking modes as a theoretical approach for analysis. The positioning of smartphone filmmaking in a wider framework is challenging in its own right. [Extracted from the article]

What the book proposes, in sum, are I new cinema history i perspectives on early cinema history. The study of early cinema - understood as the study of projected moving photographic images (and related media) up to 1915 - is one of the liveliest and most fascinating subdisciplines in the field of cinema and media studies. New Perspectives on Early Cinema History: concepts, approaches, audiences: MARIO SLUGAN and DANIËL BILTEREYST (eds.). [Extracted from the article]

This institutional history provides information on how the pursuits of sexology converged with mainstream film pedagogy and preservation in the 1950s and 1960s. Using new research from the Kinsey archives, it details the relationship between Paul Gebhard, John Gagnon, and the Institute for Sex Research with several figures as they attempted to expand their cinematic collections and gain exposure to film history through private screenings: Gideon Bachmann of the New York based magazine Cinemages, famous cultural critic Herman Weinberg, and James Card of the George Eastman House. Not only does reveal the relationship of the ISR with the more 'respectable' side of film collection, but it also demonstrates the ways in which their shift towards monitoring mainstream commerce had its roots in late the organization's 1950s collecting practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines and contrasts differing conceptions of the social significance of the development of television. The observations are taken from the 1937 Paris, France, World's Fair and the 1939 World's Fair held in New York City. Both events took place well before the widespread use of the medium. The introduction of television technology and broadcasting at the Paris event was the province of the French and German exhibits. The latter were controlled by the Nazis, but both were state-sponsored, official displays. The American event emphasized the technological innovation of the process and in contrast to the governmental nature of European television, U.S. broadcasting was aimed at private enterprise and consumerism.

The article focuses on the screening of cable access television programming in informal, public settings to showcase the work of community television producers and to promote the use of Manhattan's public access channels. On August 22, 1996 a handful of independent video producers and public access television enthusiasts gathered at the Downtown Community Television center on Lafayette Street in New York City's Chinatown. The occasion: "An Evening of Community Video." That evening's program was the last of a four-part summer screening series that visited neighborhoods of the Lower East Side, Chelsea and Washington Heights. Throughout the year, Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN): the non-profit organization responsible for administering public access television channels in the borough of Manhattan; screens cable access television programming in informal, public settings to showcase the work of community television producers and to promote the use of Manhattan's public access channels. The summer series featured programming made possible by MNN's Individual Production and Revolving Fund Grants.

Describes the incorporation of television into various exhibits around the New York World's Fair in the year 1939. Participation of Radio Corp. of America in fair; Inauguration of first regular television service; Importance of the consumer in the production and distribution focal exhibit.

Features documents from the Rockefeller Archive in New York on the progression of Siegfried Kracauer's study of German wartime communication through film. Background on Kracauer; Rockefeller Foundation's grant to the Kracauer project; Release of films held in Ottawa to the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art; English synopsis and summary appraisal of the `Hitlerjunge Quex'.