Film Clubs Research Articles

Historiografía del cine colombiano 1974-2015

Este artículo realiza un balance del estado actual de la investigación histórica sobre el cine colombiano. Con este fin, se buscó, leyó, reseñó y registró en una base de datos 96 trabajos entre artículos, capítulos de libro y libros, los cuales se dividieron en 9 grupos con características más o menos comunes: 1) historias “panorámicas”, 2) público y exhibición, 3) censura, crítica y cineclubes, 4) bio-filmografías, 5) representaciones cinematográficas de lugares o sujetos colectivos, 6) formatos y géneros, 7) cine mudo, 8) “primer cine sonoro”, y 9) cine de los sesenta y setenta. Finalmente, se enuncian algunos campos de investigación que consideramos promisorios, como lo son la historia tecnológica y económica, la historia de los públicos y la historia de la relación del cine con otros medios.

Film Clubs and the Politics of Film Culture in Spain and the GDR around 1960

This study provides a contrastive analysis of the film cultures in Francoist Spain and the German Democratic Republic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the context of this period of classic cinephilia, the article focuses on the institutional position of film clubs and on their function as ‘places of negotiation’ in which different forces and interests collided: more or less independent film activists acted within, against, or parallel to state organizations trying to implement certain cultural activities and discourses. The arguments are based on broad archival material from Spain and Germany (Archivo General de la Administración, Bundesarchiv Berlin etc.) and, specifically, on the analysis of two of these institutions in Barcelona and Leipzig. The initial hypothesis holds that in their reactions to these institutions, the Spanish and East German states present two different conceptions of state cultural policies (authoritarian and totalitarian). At the same time, the activities of the clubs (screenings, discussions, edition of magazines) can also be read as part of a broader attempt to redefine the film-cultural field along three axes (time, place and status), connecting them to other European film cultures of the time and enabling us to widen and differentiate the analysis of classical cinephilia within a broader international context.

Cineclubs y las políticas de la cultura cinematográfica en España y la RDA en torno a 1960

This study provides a contrastive analysis of the film cultures in Francoist Spain and the German Democratic Republic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the context of this period of classic cinephilia, the article focuses on the institutional position of film clubs and on their function as ‘places of negotiation’ in which different forces and interests collided: more or less independent film activists acted within, against, or parallel to state organizations trying to implement certain cultural activities and discourses. The arguments are based on broad archival material from Spain and Germany (Archivo General de la Administracion, Bundesarchiv Berlin etc.) and, specifically, on the analysis of two of these institutions in Barcelona and Leipzig. The initial hypothesis holds that in their reactions to these institutions, the Spanish and East German states present two different conceptions of state cultural policies (authoritarian and totalitarian). At the same time, the activities of the clubs (screenings, discussions, edition of magazines) can also be read as part of a broader attempt to redefine the film-cultural field along three axes (time, place and status), connecting them to other European film cultures of the time and enabling us to widen and differentiate the analysis of classical cinephilia within a broader international context.

Film criticism as a political weapon: theory, ideology and film activism in Nuestro Cinema (1932–1935)

This article focuses on the Spanish communist film journal Nuestro Cinema (1932–1935). It analyses its textual production as well as its role within a broader network of film activism that included left-wing film distribution, the founding of film clubs and the promotion of amateur cinema. The essay looks at its position as a product of the ideological radicalization that characterized the evolution of the European film avant-garde from the late 1920s onwards. Concerning the Spanish context, in many ways a later chapter of this international development, Nuestro Cinema is not only a good example of the impact the introduction of sound film and Soviet production’s shift towards socialist realist principles around 1929/1930 had on avant-garde circles, but also a reflection of the political openness under a new political regime (Second Republic, 1931–1936). Directed from Paris by the communist film critic Juan Piqueras, Nuestro Cinema’s astonishingly homogeneous textual production understood cinema as an ideological weapon in the political culturization of proletarian masses. At the same time, the theoretical-historical approach evident in many of its contents as well as its international focus impeded its proper reception and the implementation of its film cultural goals.

The Work and Role of Extracurricular Clubs in Fostering Student Creativity

Extracurricular activities play an important role in the educational process as they provide students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and develop various skills, meet their creative needs and acquire the culture of free time. They also provide space for a closer relationship between the club coordinators and students, for students’ spontaneous behaviour, and freedom in organizing and performing activities. Such activities abandon the traditional teacher-centred teaching what makes them conducive for fostering student creativity. The purpose of this research was to determine the role of literary, poetry recitation, drama, journalist (radio) and film clubs in fostering the student creativity. First, by reviewing the 2014/2015 curricula of primary and secondary schools in Osijek (Croatia), the paper identifies: (1) the types of clubs that are active in the schools, (2) the most common types of clubs and (3) their representation in Osijek primary and secondary schools. Then, based on informational semi-structured interviews and active observation, the work of 21 extracurricular clubs related to Croatian language and literature teaching is described and analysed in an attempt to determine to which extent the clubs influence the literary, poetry recitation, drama, journalist and film related creative work of students. The research revealed that clubs in the focus of research were very popular in primary and secondary schools in Osijek, especially literary, poetry recitation, drama and journalist clubs. More importantly, it was shown that they do foster student creativity which was confirmed by the concrete examples in practice, i.e. students’ creative results.

Film Clubs in Psychiatric Education: the Hidden Curriculum.

Film Clubs in Psychiatric Education: the Hidden Curriculum.

So Close to God, So Close to Hollywood: Catholics and the Cinema in Argentina

This article reconstructs and discusses the experience of Catholic laity in influencing the production, distribution and exhibition of films in Argentina. The clergy and laity connected with Argentine Catholic Action developed many important strategies towards cinema at both the national and local levels, principally between the decades of the 1930s and 1960s; these endeavoured not only to control the distribution of specific films but at the same time to promote others, to define alternative spaces and to build audiences. In Argentina Catholics were pioneers in rating films according to age, in the organisation of film clubs and in the setting up of debates around film, and had a decisive influence on State intervention in controlling scripts, cutting films and prohibiting the showing of certain films. These two lines, of promotion and prohibition, developed under the influence of the different experiences of North American and European Catholics, co-existed for much of the time before they finally separated. But as a whole, Catholic militants from different points of view shared the rejection of the idea of cinema as an entertainment industry aimed exclusively at profit and promoted debates about art, mass communication, education and leisure.

Cinemeducation: using film as an educational tool in mental health services

This feature looks at the benefits of using film as an educational tool for mental health. In particular, it presents two case studies outlining how two health library services successfully implemented film clubs for the purposes of teaching and learning for mental health. H.S.

Chinese film spaces: the social locations and media of urban independent screen consumption

Drawing upon rich detailed data collected through ethnography in the capital city of Beijing, China, this article examines the social locations and media used for watching Chinese independent films. Three key research questions frame the article. (1) Who are the audiences of Chinese independent films? (2) Under what circumstances do they watch the films? (3) What are the broader social consequences of watching independent films in China? Empirically, I focus on two particular locations of consumption – film clubs and independently organized film festivals, and two media of viewing – DVDs and the Internet. Analytically, I argue that consumption enables the production of Chinese independent films in two ways. First, literally, by providing knowledge, resources and personal networks for independent film production. Second, metaphorically, by making Chinese independent films become social reality by providing opportunities for circulation and exhibition of the officially illegal cultural product. I conclude the article by reflecting upon the utility of the emerging concept of prosumption for analysing film consumption in China.

An Active-Learning Course Model to Teach Pharmacotherapy in Geriatrics

To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of a geriatric pharmacotherapy elective course emphasizing a patient-centered approach and active, self-directed learning strategies. The course content included fundamental concepts in aging, geriatric syndromes, activities involving assessment of medically complex older adults, presentation of controversies in clinical geriatrics, book and film clubs, an Adopt-a-Patient project, and scientific and reflective writing. Students participated in site visits to interview and interact with older adults. Student evaluation of the course was assessed with the teaching evaluation tool, an end-of-semester survey, a follow-up P4 survey, and reflective writings. Students strongly agreed that course goals were achieved. Learning how to communicate with older adults and assess complex medication regimens were the areas of highest importance to students. P4 students strongly agreed that skills learned in the course were important to their success in advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). A pharmacotherapy course emphasizing active and self-directed learning in geriatrics through innovative teaching was adaptable to doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students at various stages of their training and improved students' perceptions of aging.

Japan's hollywood boycott movement of 1924

On July 1, 1924, major movie exhibitors in Japan initiated a boycott of Hollywood films. This boycott was one of the manifestations of the anti-American movement, triggered in response to the 1924 ...

The Roman Catholic Church and Film Exhibition In Belgium, 1926–1940

More than ever nowadays an extended and careful vigilance is necessary, inasmuch as the dangers of moral and religious shipwreck are greater for inexperienced youth. Especially is this true of impi...

Home movie-making and Swiss expatriate identities in the 1920s and 1930s

' D ie ganze Schweiz in Feststimmung ...' All Switzerland en fete this was the slogan Kodak chose for the Zurcherlllustrierte in June 1931 to advertise their Cine-Kodak, a 16mm clockwork camera for home movies. The first amateur cameras and projectors had been launched in Europe and the US in the early twenties. There had been earlier experiments with home cinema equipment. At least 70 different cameras were developed in the US alone in the 'pioneering phase' of amateur filmmaking from 1895 to 1923. But the substantial breakthrough was not made until 1923, when formats were standardised and reversal safety film stock was introduced. Pathe's 9.5mm and Kodak's 16mm formats both came on the market that year. Kodak added the more reasonably priced regular 8mm film stock in 1932, and this largely replaced 16mm film in the home movie field after the Second World War.2 'All Switzerland en fete' catches the feel of the wholesome home movie world, a modern middleclass idyll, free of worries and problems, all joy and happiness. Early home movies (i.e. self-made films intended for domestic viewing) were largely specimens of the comedie bourgeoise. Film clubs specifically for workers had sprung up even during the first amateur film movement in the twenties and thirties, but it was largely the middle-classes who owned cameras and captured themselves on film. They were the 'happy few' who could afford this treat. But factors other than money helped to decide who bought film equipment and who didn't. One of the requirements was a sense of belonging to a particular family, linked with a need to assert one's own social status. Examining the surviving Swiss home movies of the twenties and thirties shows something else as well: a significant number of the films still in existence were made by Swiss expatriate families. Using three families' privately owned collections of motion pictures, I investigate how these Swiss expats made use of narrow-gauge film equipment. Swiss family G. lived in Genoa, Italy, 1928-1938 and left a collection of 177 'Pathe Baby' 9.5mm cartridges, of which 122 are home movies shot by family members; 55 films were purchased from the Pathe Baby Filmatheque. The second family, F., emigrated to the American state of New Jersey in the 1920s. They shot some seven hours of 16mm (and later Super 8) between 1927 and 1970, about half of which predates from WWII. The T. family lived in different places in Japan, and shot 14 reels (almost five hours) of 16mm film during 1928-30. Home movie-making as a cultural practice can be understood through the analysis of specific films

Holocaust and Hollywood: An Annotated Filmography

This paper offers a list of Hollywood movies pertaining to the Holocaust. Its aim is to facilitate the access of individuals, libraries, foundations, film clubs, and Holocaust-related study groups to this powerful material. These movies enhance empathy and knowledge regarding the Holocaust and thus serve an important psychoeducational function for all, but especially for those not directly affected by this great human tragedy.

Disruptive Histories: Toward a Radical Politics of Remembrance in Alain Resnais's Night and Fog

produced a long series of problems that reverberated in the European press for the next two years. The film was Alain Resnais's Night and Fog (1955), a thirty-two minute documentary on the Holocaust. Banned from the festival because of German protests, the film made public a whole process of historical repression. The initial complaint pressed by the German foreign office claimed that the film would incite anti-German hatred. A combination of these protests, cold war anxiety, and the French government's own reservations about archival material in the film (showing French policemen helping with the deportation of prisoners) all helped to get the film removed from the festival. In a weak attempt to assert a moral economy of retribution, the festival organizers also threw out a German film as a token of appeasement. While the German foreign office did anticipate the reaction of other European nations to their protests, truly unexpected was the reaction within Germany. Night and Fog became a site of contention for a wide range of issues. Within months it was being shown at film festivals and film clubs in the major German cities. Willy Brandt, then the president of the Berlin House of Commons, came out with a statement explicitly supporting the film.1 Likewise Paul Bausch, the chairman of the Federal Bureau for the Press, Film, and Radio, released a statement proposing that the government should support free screenings of the film to all civil servants.2 A

Cinema in Democratizing Germany: Reconstructing National Identity after Hitler.

Heide Fehrenbach analyzes the important role cinema played in the reconstruction of German cultural and political identity between 1945 and 1962. Concentrating on the former West Germany, she explores the complex political uses of film--and the meanings attributed to film representation and spectatorship--during a period of abrupt transition to democracy. According to Fehrenbach, the process of national redefinition made cinema and cinematic control a focus of heated ideological debate. Moving beyond a narrow political examination of Allied-German negotiations, she investigates the broader social nexus of popular moviegoing, public demonstrations, film clubs, and municipal festivals. She also draws on work in gender and film studies to probe the ways filmmakers, students, church leaders, local politicians, and the general public articulated national identity in relation to the challenges posed by military occupation, American commercial culture, and redefined gender roles. Thus highlighting the links between national identity and cultural practice, this book provides a richer picture of what German reconstruction entailed for both women and men.

Towards a film literacy canon: identification and multicultural analysis of the contents used in film education with pre-university students in Spain

In the absence of a state film education plan in Spain, there are numerous initiatives operating in the field of both formal and non-formal education, the aim of which is pedagogy through cinema and about cinema. The European Commission has established the identification of a pantheon of authors of which knowledge is compulsory (canonical competence) as one of the four necessary competencies of this film literacy. This article aims to identify this canon promoted by the entities operating outside the formal curriculum and within the different contexts of non-formal education with early, primary and secondary education students in Spain. For this purpose, 65 entities (N=65) –educational centers, regional programs, museums, film libraries, film clubs, festivals, associations and foundations– have been catalogued and consulted for the first time in the different provinces of Spain. Among the results, 194 film titles and 142 names of directors used by those entities involved in image pedagogy in Spain have been collected. From a multicultural point of view, the analysis of the results points to the promotion of a biological approach to the history of universal cinema, in which national cinematography does not find a place. The primacy of North American and French productions is observed, as well as the absence of images with which to work on historical memory in Spain.

Cineclubs y las políticas de la cultura cinematográfica en España y la RDA en torno a 1960

This study provides a contrastive analysis of the film cultures in Francoist Spain and the German Democratic Republic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the context of this period of classic cinephilia, the article focuses on the institutional position of film clubs and on their function as ‘places of negotiation’ in which different forces and interests collided: more or less independent film activists acted within, against, or parallel to state organizations trying to implement certain cultural activities and discourses. The arguments are based on broad archival material from Spain and Germany (Archivo General de la Administración, Bundesarchiv Berlin etc.) and, specifically, on the analysis of two of these institutions in Barcelona and Leipzig. The initial hypothesis holds that in their reactions to these institutions, the Spanish and East German states present two different conceptions of state cultural policies (authoritarian and totalitarian). At the same time, the activities of the clubs (screenings, discussions, edition of magazines) can also be read as part of a broader attempt to redefine the film-cultural field along three axes (time, place and status), connecting them to other European film cultures of the time and enabling us to widen and differentiate the analysis of classical cinephilia within a broader international context.

Work Print: A College English Department and Films

ENGLISH teachers have talked quite a little about the motion picture as a new art form' and of their responsibility in regard to it.2 And while we've talked the students have brought movies to the campus in extracurricular film series and film clubs.3 Courses in the motion picture will, I think, become a part of most college curricula before many more years elapse, but here is an account of what an English instructor, and then an English department, did to speed along the inevitable and to provide solid film fare for a campus and a community in the interim. Of the five movie houses in the college town all but one was owned by a large and unenlightened chain. They pursued a vicious sort of programming, relying heavily on repeated showings of Man-Eater of Kumaon and avoiding even the Hollywood product which had received slight praise for intelligence and taste. (Mourning Becomes Electra was canceled to permit a full week's run of Mother Was a Freshman.) A solid minority of the townspeople didn't go to entertainment movies because of religious scruples, but turned out in hundreds for free public library show-