Film History Research Articles

Make Film History: Opening Up the Archives to Emerging Filmmakers

This case study traces the evolution of the Make Film History project, an award-winning archival resource which gives emerging filmmakers and educators in the UK and Ireland access to 270 films for creative reuse on course-related projects. It explores the barriers to the creative reuse of audiovisual archive material in education; and how the project overcame these with the support of our project partners at the participating archives to create a new, sustainable model for creative reuse in a range of educational settings and in partnership with film festivals.

Music as an Element of Director’s Screen Language. Part 1. Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone: Creating a Musical Image as Basis for Creative Tandem

The purpose of the article is to determine the peculiarities of using music in the screen plane through the study of artistic tandems of director-composer. Research methodology. The methods of scientific analysis, comparison, and generalisation were comprehensively applied in the development of the topic. Analytical and systematic methods in their unity were used to consider the art historical aspect of the problem. The scientific novelty of the research is that the director's creativity is studied in the context of composers’ practices of creating music for audio-visual art; the appropriateness of using a systematic method in studying the peculiarities of composers' creativity in the context of audio-visual art and production has been proven. Conclusions. The materials presented in the article expand the arsenal of knowledge regarding the specifics of co-creation of a director and a composer in the screen arts and enable their application in educational courses, creation of educational and methodological literature on the theory and history of music, film and television, directing, and composition.
 Key words: musical art, composer, screen art, directing creativity, musical image, creative tandem, musical instruments.

The forgotten history of the Australian film musical: tracking the production and development of the genre in Australia

ABSTRACT While Australian film studies has located various genres, including horror, comedy, action/adventure, science fiction, and crime within the broader ‘Ozploitation’ discourse and the increase in Australian genre production in the 2010s, there has been little discussion of how a variety of song- and music-based Australian cinema operates in dialogue with the classical Hollywood musical and the global musical genre. Existing scholarship on the Austrlian musical has largely focused on singular well-known examples, including Strictly Ballroom (1992), The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (1994), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Bran Nue Dae (2009) and The Sapphires (2012). Specific film studies on successful musicals, particularly on Moulin Rouge! and The Sapphires, are often framed in popular and academic circles as ‘reviving’ the genre for Australian audiences, due in large part to their box office success. This does not account for the long history of Australian musical films, and their popularity. This article posits a theoretical re-evaluation of the Australian film musical genre through its unusual variations and lesser-known examples, including dance films, animations, and musical biopics. It traces the Australian film musical genre in detail, considering its rich history, numerous subgenres, and its interconnections with Australian national cinema and the global musical genre.

The Postcolonial Jamaican Outlaw Hero in Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come

Abstract: Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come (1972, Jamaica) shows the harsh realities of Jamaica, an island that, since colonization, has been a compartmentalized, divided world. This article looks at how Henzell represents postcolonial Jamaica as a small place where there are two distinct social classes inhabiting the same island in the sun. After a brief history of cinema, both filmed and shown, in Jamaica, this article uses The Harder They Come to show that postcolonial Jamaica is just colonial Jamaica going by a new name. It also looks at Ivan Martin as an outlaw hero who belongs in the pantheon of other Jamaican outlaw heroes and freedom fighters such as Queen Nanny, Apongo and Tacky, Sam Sharpe, and Paul Bogle. The article further shows that, as an outlaw hero, Ivan becomes a living idea: he becomes something that, even after the last reel, cannot be killed.

Frame Design in Visual Culture of Contemporary Filmmaking.

The purpose of the article is to define the artistic and aesthetic toolkit of frame design in the visual culture of auteur film directing. Research methodology. In developing the topic, an integrated approach was applied, in particular, the methods of systematisation, comparison, verification, comparative and textual analysis were used. The analytical method and the method of figurative and stylistic analysis in their unity were aimed to consider the art historical aspect of the problem. The scientific novelty of the research is that the director's creativity is studied in the context of the visual culture of frame design and for the first time became the subject of a special study. The appropriateness of using the systematic method in studying the features of the author's plastic film language has been proven. A comprehensive analysis has been conducted and the features of frame design in the author's film work have been revealed. Conclusions. The materials presented in the study expand the arsenal of knowledge about the specifics of the visual culture of the author's film language in various worldview models and enable their application in educational courses, the creation of educational and methodological literature on the theory and history of cinema and television, directing. Key words: visual culture, author's cinematography, director, frame, design, screen art, composition, colour.

Piloting film-based intervention on santri’s perception towards striving for academic success: findings from Kampung Santri, Kudus Regency

This study is performed based on concerns that knowledge dichotomy in traditional Islamic boarding schools has not received the serious attention it deserves. In contrast to modern pesantren where santri receives both religious and non-religious knowledge, most traditional pesantren in Jekulo, Kudus regency only emphasizes religious knowledge as their core curriculum. Our preliminary study in 2022 suggested that the majority of student santri in Jekulo, Kudus regency showed unfavorable perceptions towards pursuing higher education despite being offered financial aid and academic mentorship. Our current task is to introduce film-based intervention and document its effect on santri’s perception change towards academic success. Although the use of film-based intervention to change perception and reduce stigma has been profound in the field of clinical psychology, its application in a nonclinical setting is still understudied. Using Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954) as our analytical framework, we propose that historical film can be introduced as an alternative point of reference for our subject. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling (n=20). Pre- and post-studies are provided to document santri’s perception change toward striving for academic success. The results of this study confirm that film intervention can act as positive stimuli in the process of perception changes among santri by presenting relatable cinematic historical experiences as an alternative social reference. However, a lack of a role model and a shared perception toward academic success in santri’s immediate environment can hinder the process

A new history of documentary film(3rd edition)By Betsy A.McLane. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, pp. 464. ISBN: 1501385151.

A new history of documentary film(3rd edition)By Betsy A.McLane. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, pp. 464. ISBN: 1501385151.

Representation of mythological images in Russian cinema (on the example of the film "A Visitor to a Museum")

The article shows that cinema is one of the components of mass culture, which has not only an entertaining function, but also broadcasts mythological images and has its modern developed mythology. Popular culture uses traditional myths, adding its own interpretation to them. Some images may be easily recognizable, and although they may have several semantic layers, these images are perceived at the level of the collective unconscious. The author considers the elements of myth, transmitted in films, as a mythologeme. The materials of the article can be useful in the course on the History of Art, Cinema, and Cultural Studies.

The Changing Role of Marginalised Women in Hindi Cinema: A Shift from Cinematic Negotiations to Empowerment

Men are shown the most dominant humans in societies and film industries, while women are confined to being the best homemakers, kind mothers and sisters. On the one hand, women have always been marginalised; on the other hand, there is no end to the plights of marginalised women. Dalit women, one section of the marginalised, have been suffering in the patriarchal society of India. Their representation in cinema is not free from flaws. The representation of Dalit women has been grossly victimised in the history of Indian cinema. As Dalit filmmakers have entered the film industry, the role of Dalit women on the screen has changed. However, it is slow-paced. Based on Gayatri Spivak’s theory of ‘Can the subaltern speak’, the present study attempts to understand and analyse the representation of the marginalised. By qualitatively analysing the films— Achhut Kanya, Sujata, Ankur, Sadgati, Bandit Queen, Bawandar, Chauranga, 200 Halla Ho, Madam Chief Minister, Geeli Pucchi and Jhund, the research work tries to navigate the timeline study of the changing roles of marginalised women, Dalit women.

Film Preservation in the Digital Era: Pitfalls and Potentials

This paper highlights the pitfalls and potentials of digitization of film heritage in the archival domain. The largest issue encountered by the global archive community would be the recent transition from analog to digital technology in the capture, post-production, and distribution of cinematographic works. Due to the emergence of new platforms for access and the fact that digital copies are not susceptible to the same wear and tear as analogue film elements, digitization of historical films has the potential of enabling access on a larger scale. The conflict between the necessity to preserve originals and the need to offer access has been somewhat lessened by digitization. By acting as stand-ins for quick access or as backup copies in case original materials are lost or damaged, digital versions serve preservation functions. Also, negatives that are losing their information value can be preserved by digitization in order to extend access to them and preserve their content. The value of digitization as a preservation tactic has been hotly contested. Despite the benefits of digitization, there are significant technological, legal, financial, and curatorial obstacles or pitfalls that must be addressed in order to realize the potentials.

Film bleu: the development of cinematic aesthetics and disavowal of cultural traditions in Hong Kong crime cinema

ABSTRACT This essay revisits a period (from the early 1980s to early 2000s) in the history of Hong Kong film through the perspective of ‘film bleu’ and traces a brief and roughly chronological history of Hong Kong film bleu. In the early stages of the development of the film bleu aesthetic in local cinema, red was nearly as prominent as blue, whereas the blue–red scheme has largely been replaced by a monochromatic blue tone in more recent ‘bluish’ films. This essay reveals how a blue–red color and lighting scheme gradually gave way to a blue-dominated one and how blue was developed as a generic and cinematic convention in Hong Kong crime films. It propounds that, in addition to efforts to develop idiosyncratic generic conventions, the film bleu aesthetic in post-Handover Hong Kong cinema reflects a detached attitude toward and even a disavowal of both contemporary and traditional Chinese cultures.

Membuka Pintu Hiburan di Era Kolonial: Sejarah Perkembangan Bioskop di Batavia, 1900-1942

This research aims to discuss the history of cinema in Batavia from entertainment before the existence of cinemas, the background of the beginning of cinemas to Chinese involvement in the cinema industry. Of course, in the past, watching in theaters already existed during the Dutch colonial period. Movie theaters have existed in Batavia since 1900. The culture of watching this movie began to enter in the early 20th century where the indigenous people at that time called the moving image "Ideop Picture". The method used in this research is the historical method in which there are heuristics, internal and external criticism, interpretation, and historiography. From the results of this study, it is hoped that it can provide insight to the public about the history of cinema, not only exist to be enjoyed at this time but also can be remembered and remembered how the history of cinema in Batavia opened the gateway to entertainment in Indonesia.

Film history, market and State in the work of Jean-Claude Bernardet

The article deals with Jean-Claude Bernardet's reflection on the history of relations between Brazilian production, the market and the State. The thought about Brazilian cinema and its insertion in the market has a long tradition that dates back to the 1920s. From the 1950s onwards, this was an important vein for the development of the first researches on the history of Brazilian cinema. It is in this tradition that Jean-Claude Bernardet's concerns were initially inscribed. However, from the interrogation of certain problems, mainly the ties between filmmakers and the State, Bernardet poses a series of questions in order to reinvent the tradition.

A Relevance-Theoretic Approach to the Subtitle Translation of Farewell My Concubine

This paper investigates the subtitle translation of the film Farewell My Concubine from a relevance-theoretic perspective. The Chinese film Farewell My Concubine has been well-received in China as well as in other parts of the world and marked a milestone in Chinese film history. Its subtitle is rich in Chinese culture-loaded words, which may pose difficulties for both the translator to translate and for the oversea audience to understand. To explore the reasons for the warm reception of the subtitle translation of Farewell My Concubine among international audiences, this paper takes a relevance-theoretic approach to analyze the translation of culture-loaded expressions in the film, including mainly three types: Beijing Opera jargon, the Beijing dialect, and Chinese idioms. Through a detailed case study, this paper finds that the translator flexibly uses different translation strategies, such as domestication and foreignization, for different texts and contexts to cater to the audience’s cognitive environment. Meanwhile, the translator also takes into account the features of subtitles, which are often limited by time and space, and accordingly makes reasonable omissions of the translated texts. From the perspective of relevance theory, the translator realizes optimal relevance and delivers the subtitle information accurately to the target audience. This paper also proves that relevance theory, as a cognitive pragmatic approach to communication, is a useful tool for translation studies.

Celluloid Colony: Locating History and Ethnography in Early Dutch Colonial Films of Indonesia by Sandeep Ray (review)

Celluloid Colony: Locating History and Ethnography in Early Dutch Colonial Films of Indonesia by Sandeep Ray (review)

Amphibious Media Histories

Abstract Film and media circulation between India and cities on the Persian Gulf can be traced back to the 1940s. This article excavates the histories of media goods that made their way to the strictly regimented and highly taxed regimes of India, examining how these mobilities were enacted and what networks were activated in the movement of these goods. The article explores the dhow as an important media infrastructure for the acceleration of media modernity, and it analyzes infrastructure as a poetic object. It takes up and revitalizes infrastructure as aesthetic form, and it subjects visual texts ranging from mainstream commercial movies to independent cinema and photographic projects to closer analysis, through the assembly of infrastructure and aquatic elements. Combining textual analysis with accounts from divergent sources such as customs department personnel, distributors of audio and video, shipping agents, and contemporary periodicals, the article resurrects a history of confluence of media technologies, ocean movement, and coastal media markets. Through tracing such practices and the infrastructural narratives of the dhow, this article argues for a history of film and media in the Indian Ocean littoral that is more than the flow of texts.

Hoisting the Mexican Death Totem: Macario (dir. Gavaldón, 1960) and the Projection of mexicanidad

Though commercially successful at home and widely recognized abroad, Roberto Gavaldón’s 1960 film Macario has been underexamined by critics and scholars due to its effortful artistic pretensions, strategies for exalting popular nationalist culture, connections to foreign cultural products, and place within Mexican film history’s narrative of post–golden age decline. In alignment with recent scholarship questioning the role of tastemakers and their verdicts on popular Mexican cinema, this article draws on Andrew Higson’s theorization of national films as strategic interventions within the heterogenous and even contradictory symbolic field of national-identity discourses. Through film analysis and informed by Claudio Lomnitz’s understanding of Mexico’s three national totems, this study demonstrates how Gavaldón’s Macario promotes popular death culture by embedding it within key preexisting discourses tied to Mexican identity. In so doing, this article illuminates Macario’s significance within Mexican cinema history as the most prominent filmic contributor to the hoisting of Mexican death culture as the symbol of mexicanidad. Moreover, this study posits Gavaldón’s film as an indispensable precursor for understanding how Mexican death culture today operates matter of factly as metonym for the nation in audiovisual mediums consumed globally.

Building history awareness through Kartini Film (2017) in History Subject learning at the high school

A problem that often occurs during the process of learning history at the high school level is the tendency to receive information that is only delivered from teachers to students. The main goal in history learning is to build students' historical awareness individually or in groups achieved through a learning process. History subject learning in schools is more likely to use the lecture method so that history is often analogous to memorizing an event or figures in history. This kind of method pays less attention to intellectual skills and understanding of history awareness for the students. Therefore, a learning strategy is needed to build historical awareness for students so that history is no longer seen as mere rote knowledge. Currently, Generation Z is still in high school. Their general nature tends to be practical, which makes them ignorant of history. Historical films, especially Kartini film (2017), can invite students to understand the importance of historical awareness about past events that affect the present. In this study, the authors used a qualitative approach where this research is descriptive. This study aims to find out or describe the reality of the events under investigation to find out and understand how to build historical awareness through the Kartini film for generation Z. Results of this study show that students can realize historical events through the Kartini film and even able to explain in detail about the problems that occurred at that time and bring it to today's modern issues. Students can build historical values through film because film involves all the emotions within themselves. Learning history is no longer just sharing information from teachers to students but can be through the feelings presented in historical films.

Frequency and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Bacteria Isolated in Patients with Blepharitis

Objective: To determine the frequency and antibiotic susceptibility of bacteria isolated in patients with blepharitis. StudyDesign: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Ophthalmology, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Oct 2019 to Oct 2021. Methdology: 160 cases of blepharitis, during a period of 2 years, who were not using topical or systemic antibiotics were recruited in this cross-sectional study. After detailed history and slit-lamp examination of eyelids and tears film each patient underwent sample collection under aseptic conditions, from the eyelid margin. The samples were inoculated in a culture of blood agar and chocolate agar (Biomeriux) , Then the susceptibility of the identified bacteria to common systemic and topical antibiotics were tested using the disc diffusion method (Rosco Neo-Sensitab). Results: In 160 patients,118(73.7%) were males and 42(26.3%) were females. According to type of blepharitis, 98(61.3%) had posterior blepharitis and 62(38.7%) had anterior blepharitis.Culture of eyelid sample of 77(48.1%) patients showed growth of coagulase-negative staphylococcus Coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CoNS) show greater resistance towards Penicillin 77(100%), Ciprofloxacin 55(72.5%) and Erythromycin 33(42.8%) however more susceptibility was shown towards Linezolid (CoNS). 71(45%) had Staphylococcus aureus isolated from their culture. 77(100%),Vancomycin 77(100%), Gentamycin 66(85.8%), Chloramphenicol 56(74.5%) and Cotrimoxazole 55(72.5%).Staphylococcus aureus show greater resistance towards Penicillin 72(100%),Ciprofloxacin 41(56.9%) and Tetracyclins 30(41.6%) however more susceptibility was found towards Gentamycin 72(100%), Linezolid 72(100%),Vancomycin 72(100%) and Chloramphenicol 61(84.7%). Conclusion: Coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CoNS) and Staphylococcus aureus have been the main isolated organisms in blepharitis. These bacteria have been shown to be resistant to Penicillin,

Gaming I, II, and III: Arcades, Video Game Systems, and Modern Game Streaming Services

This paper aims to create a shorthand for video game history – from video games’ infancy to the current subscription model that is dominating gaming. In this essay, I will apply the practices of historical media scholarship that have helped parse out television history (e.g., TV I, TV II, TV III, and TV IV) and film history (e.g., Cinema 1, 2, and 3.0) to define the various shifts in video game history. Gaming I represents the arcade and home system boom up until the 1983 video game Crash, Gaming II describes the post-Crash console period, and finally, Gaming III materializes due to the arrival of modern video game subscriptions. Rather than constructing an exhaustive account of video game history, this essay means to generate more studies on what video game history can mean in the context of the established academic studies on visual media.