Film Scenes Research Articles

Exploring Symbolic Competence: Constructing Meaning(s) and Stretching Cultural Imagination in an Intermediate College-Level French Class

Author(s): Etienne, Corinne; Vanbaelen, Sylvie | Abstract: This study, conducted in a 300-level college French class with15 students, builds on previous research on symbolic competence (Kramsch, 2009, 2011). Using a film scene and a “Semiotic Gap Activity,” we examine how students construct meaning. What do students prioritize? What do they bring from their past symbolic representations? Are they aware of their own perspectives? What do they gain from the activity? Students were divided into three groups. Each group worked on only one component of the scene (soundtrack and script; subtitles; or scene without sound) and stretched its imagination to answer a questionnaire about the meaning of the scene compensating for the semiotic gap. Groups shared their findings before they viewed the original scene with all components present. Finally, students responded to a Post-Viewing Questionnaire . Data originated from answers to the questionnaires and instructor’s notes. Findings showed students’ minute description of their component. However, when constructing meaning and filling the gap, they appealed to myths deeply rooted in their schema of French culture, which contradicted their actual observations. In doing so they often confidently positioned themselves as knowers of both cultures. We discuss pedagogical implications and make suggestions to continue developing students’ semiotic awareness and symbolic competence.

Effect of Viewing Smoking Scenes in Motion Pictures on Subsequent Smoking Desire in Audiences in South Korea.

BackgroundIn the modern era of heightened awareness of public health, smoking scenes in movies remain relatively free from public monitoring. The effect of smoking scenes in movies on the promotion of viewers’ smoking desire remains unknown.ObjectiveThe study aimed to explore whether exposure of adolescent smokers to images of smoking in fılms could stimulate smoking behavior.MethodsData were derived from a national Web-based sample survey of 748 Korean high-school students. Participants aged 16-18 years were randomly assigned to watch three short video clips with or without smoking scenes. After adjusting covariates using propensity score matching, paired sample t test and logistic regression analyses compared the difference in smoking desire before and after exposure of participants to smoking scenes.ResultsFor male adolescents, cigarette craving was significantly higher in those who watched movies with smoking scenes than in the control group who did not view smoking scenes (t307.96=2.066, P<.05). In the experimental group, too, cigarette cravings of adolescents after viewing smoking scenes were significantly higher than they were before watching smoking scenes (t161.00=2.867, P<.01). After adjusting for covariates, more impulsive adolescents, particularly males, had significantly higher cigarette cravings: adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3.40 (95% CI 1.40-8.23). However, those who actively sought health information had considerably lower cigarette cravings than those who did not engage in information-seeking: aOR 0.08 (95% CI 0.01-0.88).ConclusionsSmoking scenes in motion pictures may increase male adolescent smoking desire. Establishing a standard that restricts the frequency of smoking scenes in films and assigning a smoking-related screening grade to films is warranted.

The Occult Roots of MTV

This article provides a new exploration of the British underground film scene and its influence on, and relationship with, pop video tropes and techniques, and MTV. It considers the rich sub-cultural interrelations of the early 1980s that embraced esoteric ideas, queer occultism, punk, postmodernism, British art schools, Derek Jarman, William S. Burroughs, home video, Scratch Video, Video Nasties, Super 8, Michael Jackson, Grayson Perry, John Maybury, the Avebury Ring, Duran Duran, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Dr John Dee, Jean Cocteau, and Neneh Cherry. The article establishes the unique film and television context and culture in the UK at the turn of the 1980s which enabled experimental and underground film-making practices to reach a wider audience through innovative programming opportunities at Channel 4 and via the expanding medium of music video. It describes the powerful, exploratory nature of independent filmmaking that existed at this time and its basis in British art schools; several of the practitioners subsequently went on to major careers as pop video directors, demonstrating a two-tiered influence on both the industry, and moving image aesthetics over the next twenty years.This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

‘Mr Bond, I’ve been expecting you’: The Cinematic Inaugurations of a New James Bond

Due to their cultural longevity, James Bond films provide fertile ground for examinations of continuity and change. One of the crucial mechanisms through which Bond films have maintained a certain continuity whilst incorporating change is by replacing the actor in the role of Bond. Yet, despite the fact that many studies take each new central actor as a fresh starting point, or a break with days of old, continuities with the past provide an important organising role within the Bond film series. In order to fully understand the inauguration of each new actor in the role of Bond, we must understand both the novelty of the new alongside continuities with the past. Drawing on close formal analysis and a reception study of film reviews within the Fleet Street press, this paper diachronically examines each opening scene of a Bond film that introduces a new actor in the role to the audience. It argues that the interplay between film language and the star persona of a new Bond actor works to manage the expectations that circulate around Bond, modifying those expectations to point in a new direction fit for a new era at the same time as acknowledging the conventions of the past. Keywords: James Bond films; James Bond actors; reception studies; introduction scenes.

The Effects of Diegetic and Nondiegetic Music on Viewers’ Interpretations of a Film Scene

Previous studies have shown that pairing a film excerpt with different musical soundtracks can change the audience’s interpretation of the scene. This study examined the effects of mixing the same piece of music at different levels of loudness in a film soundtrack to suggest diegeticmusic (“source music,” presented as if arising from within the fictional world of the film characters) or to suggest nondiegetic music (a “dramatic score” accompanying the scene but not originating from within the fictional world). Adjusting the level of loudness significantly altered viewers’ perceptions of many elements that are fundamental to the storyline, including inferences about the relationship, intentions, and emotions of the film characters, their romantic interest toward each other, and the overall perceived tension of the scene. Surprisingly, varying the loudness (and resulting timbre) of the same piece of music produced greater differences in viewers’ interpretations of the film scene and characters than switching to a different music track. This finding is of theoretical and practical interest as changes in loudness and timbre are among the primary post-production modifications sound editors make to differentiate “source music” from “dramatic score” in motion pictures, and the effects on viewers have rarely been empirically investigated.

Film scenes in interdisciplinary education: teaching the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining importance in education owing to its rapid development. This study addresses the importance of interdisciplinary education between technology and the humanities. The use of films as a teaching resource is suitable for interdisciplinary education because films represent creative forecasts and predictions on future human society, helping the public realize what could occur in the future. By utilizing films in instruction, students can be trained to understand the three key functions of IoT and acquire the ability to develop creative applications of IoT. An IoT teaching model using the films Minority Report (2002), Big Hero 6 (2014), Iron Man 3 (2013), Her (2013), and Transcendence (2014), all of which depict various applications of IoT that could be helpful in the teaching of the functions and concepts of IoT, is suggested; an interdisciplinary class is carried out for 15 weeks following the model. The effectiveness of the class is measured using quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and reflection journals. The findings show that students developed interdisciplinary capacity through education using films.

Transmission Behaviors and Prevalence of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea Among Adult Film Performers.

Adult film work involves multiple sex partners, unprotected intercourse and frequent oral/rectal contact. Data on sexual networks and sexual behaviors of adult film performers (AFP) are limited. From August 2012 to May 2013, AFPs in Los Angeles, CA, seeking care at 2 clinics that provide sexually transmitted infections (STIs) testing to performers were offered urogenital, pharyngeal, and rectal chlamydia/gonorrhea testing. Participants were 18 years or older and performed in at least 1 adult film scene within the past year. A Web-based survey was used to collect sexual behavior information. A total of 360 AFPs were enrolled; 75% (n = 271) were women, and the median age was 25 years (interquartile range, 22-31 years). Most reported a main partner (73%), 23% reported non-film transactional partners, and only 6% reported always using condoms on-set. Overall, 24% (n = 86) tested positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea; 15% for chlamydia (n = 54) and 11% for gonorrhea (n = 41). Prevalence of chlamydia/gonorrhea varied by time as a performer (median, year 2 vs year 3; P = 0.06), and days of adult film-work in the past 30 days (median, 6 days vs 4 days; P = 0.02). In multivariable analyses, age (adjusted odds ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.96) and type of scene (adjusted odds ratio for double vaginal = 2.89; 95% confidence interval, 1.29-6.48) were associated with chlamydia/gonorrhea positivity. Adult film performers had a high prevalence of STIs and reported low levels of condom use in the context of most sexual partnerships. Targeted intervention strategies-both in and outside the workplace-are needed to limit the spread of STIs.

Tears Falling on Goosebumps: Co-occurrence of Emotional Lacrimation and Emotional Piloerection Indicates a Psychophysiological Climax in Emotional Arousal.

This psychophysiological study is the first to examine the relationship between emotional tears and emotional piloerection (i.e., goosebumps). Although both phenomena have been related to peak states of being moved, details about their temporal occurrence and the associated levels of physiological arousal have remained unknown. In our study, we used emotionally powerful film scenes that were self-selected by participants. Our findings show that even within peak moments of emotional arousal, a gradation of intensity is possible. The overlap of tears and goosebumps signifies a maximal climax within peak moments. On the side of the stimulus, we found that displays of prosocial behavior play a crucial role in the elicitation of tears and goosebumps. Finally, based on the results of a formal film analysis of the tears-eliciting clips provided by our participants, as compared to randomly extracted, equally long control clips from the same films, we show how the technical and artistic making of the clips was optimized for the display of social interaction and emotional expressions.

A Mediterranean gap in the national canon? Paul Carpita’s anti-colonial cinema between militant amateurism and New Wave

A new Marseille cinema, focusing on the city’s everyday culture, emerged in the 1980s with directors such as René Allio and Robert Guédiguian. Even though some of their films received considerable recognition, an important part of the history of this cinematic representation has remained largely unaccounted for: the work of Paul Carpita (1922–2009). His films of the 1950s and 60s are strongly linked to the cultural history of the labour and peace movement. A former member of the Resistance, he created just after World War II Le Rendez-vous des quais/Meeting on the Docks (1953–55), a full-length film shot in the popular quarters of Marseille, thematising the dockers’ protest against the Indochina War. The film was censored before its release and only restored in the 1980s. This article situates the film within the regional and national French cinema of the post-war era, and analyses its hybrid aesthetics, comprising cinematic realism, militant cinema and amateur film. By referring to Carpita’s more intimate and reflexive short films, the article argues that his marginal status within French film history can be traced to the political and amateurish character of his films, but also to the fact that his artistic activity was located in Marseille, at the periphery of the national film scene and academia.

The Hollywood turn: persistence, reflexivity, feedback

During the past two decades the study of Hollywood, both contemporary and classical, has undergone a significant division. On the one hand Hollywood history has been rewritten from an economic and market-oriented perspective, taking note of three interconnected factors: the economic revival of Hollywood since the 1980s founded on the blockbuster as a multipurpose product and marketing concept, able to capture global audiences and recapture the domestic family audience (previously lost to television); the managerial transformation of Hollywood due to finance capitalism, its mergers and takeovers, and the new business model of multiple platforms of large and small screens; and, finally, the challenges and opportunities arising from the introduction of digitization in production, postproduction, distribution and exhibition (special effects, DVD bonuses, director’s cuts). On the other hand Hollywood hermeneutics has also developed reading strategies that go beyond, or altogether bypass, the auteurist approach of the 1960s, the critical vocabulary of the 1970s and the feminist readings of the 1980s. Cultural studies, gender and queer studies, star discourse and the revival of genre studies typify the contemporary scenes of reading Hollywood films.

“there is some shit I will not eat”: Indignation in &lt;em&gt;Indignation&lt;/em&gt; and its Film Adaptation

James Schamus's 2016 film adaptation of Philip Roth's 2008 novel Indignation stands out among adaptations of Roth novels in that it is actually a good film. Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint, American Pastoral, The Human Stain, The Dying Animal, and The Humbling have all made it to screen, and while some adaptations have been better than others, none has exactly set world alight. Schamus's film, by contrast, received almost unanimous critical praise. The actors, led by relative newcomers Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon, put in strong performances, direction is assured, and script, written by Schamus, manages to keep much of Roth's distinctive dialogue. As previous sentence makes clear, I am no film critic. And so what follows is not a review or critique of film, but rather a look at how film's sense of Marcus Messner's story differs from Roth's novel, and how those differences might illuminate our understanding of both book and movie.Robert Stam, in his essay Beyond Fidelity, argues that when we ask if a cinematic adaptation is faithful to its literary source, we fall into a black hole of further, unanswerable questions:Fidelity to what? Is filmmaker to be faithful to plot in its every detail? [. . .] Should one be faithful to physical descriptions of characters? [. . .] Or is one to be faithful to author's intentions? But what might they be, and how are they to be inferred? [. . .] Or is adapter-filmmaker to be true to style of a work? To its narrative point of view? Or to its artistic devices? (57-58)The problem is not just that there's no there there-that there is no reading of source text to be faithful to-but that it is unclear what a faithful adaptation in a different medium would look like. How can a story told with images, sound, actors, and special effects be same as one told only with words? And if it's inevitably different, how different can it be and still be faithful?Among other possibilities, Stam suggests translation, rather than fidelity, as a more appropriate trope to describe adaptation. He writes, the trope of adaptation as suggests a principled effort of intersemiotic transposition, with inevitable losses and gains typical of any translation (62). This strikes me as an accurate description of what most adapters are up to when they undertake what we might call a mainstream Hollywood adaptation: I'm going to do my best to translate this novel to screen, but I understand that final product is going to end up a different animal.But when discussing Schamus's adaptation of Roth's Indignation as a translation, it's worth keeping in mind distinction between two kinds of translating he must undertake. The from one medium (a book) to another (a film) can be discussed separately from from one genre (a literary novel) to another (a Hollywood movie). Not all possibilities of books are available to every genre of book; likewise, Hollywood movies have conventions that restrict filmmakers above and beyond restrictions imposed by medium of film.Stam calls attention to one of essential differences between films and books as media, the synthetic multiplicity of signifiers available to versus book's single material of expression, written word (62, 59). The cinema has a much greater capacity for specificity, simply because filmmaker has so many more tools at his disposal than novelist. Early in Roth's novel, book's protagonist, Marcus Messner, and his father argue in their family home; only visual description in five-page scene is a sentence that indicates in passing that house has a back door (9-14). The same scene in Schamus's film includes interior of a number of rooms in a specific house (complete with furniture, window dressing, and pictures on wall), low lighting, sound effects, and actors Logan Lerman and Danny Burstein. …

“Fight the Power”: Hip Hop and Civil Unrest in Spike Lee's &lt;em&gt;Do the Right Thing&lt;/em&gt;

A pivotal scene in Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated film Do the Right Thing (1989) happens when the protagonist Mookie, played by Lee, throws a garbage can through Sal's Famous Pizzeria following the death of his friend Radio Raheem, who has been strangled by three white policemen. The action made by Mookie incites a riot and causes a race war in the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, neighborhood. Hip-hop, a cultural movement spawned from the Black Arts and Power Movements that articulates social awareness, consciousness of one's identity, social enjoyment, and creativity, drives Lee's narrative. The signature song Fight the Power, performed by Public Enemy, is heard throughout the film and dominates characters' dialogue with one another. Most notably, Radio Raheem utilizes the song as a protest speech against the lack of racial diversity and respect among Sal, Pino, and Vito, who work at and own Sal's Famous Pizzeria—a business at which Black youth congregate frequently. This article contends that hip-hop drives the narrative of Do the Right Thing in which Lee places at the center a racial uprising that embarks on a historical trajectory of Black Americans challenging American democracy and inequality.

Trabajadores consumidos - cuerpos discapacitados: la formación del conocimiento histórico tras el giro cultural

Algunos estudios recientes de la Organización para la Cooperación Económica y el Desarrollo (OECD) hablan de la aparición de nuevos síntomas psicosomáticos en el ámbito del trabajo. Nos encontramos con la paradoja de que a pesar de que el estado de salud y de bienestar crece en la sociedad, las tasas del síndrome de burnout, junto con la ansiedad, adicción y disfunción cada vez son más altas. Uno de cada cinco trabajadores padece algún tipo de enfermedad mental, como depresión o ansiedad, y muchos otros luchan para enfrentarse a ella. Una lectura atenta nos permite ver que el modelo socio-médico domina la investigación, a pesar de que en los últimos 15 años el modelo cultural ha ido cobrando cada vez más importancia. Sin embargo, existen dos puntos relevantes para el conocimiento histórico que necesitan mayor desarrollo: por un lado, existen pocos estudios sobre el trabajo que usen las herramientas de los estudios culturales y, por otro, los estudios sobre discapacidad basados en el modelo cultural raramente abordan el ámbito del sujeto trabajador. Partiendo de este punto de análisis, este artículo pretende estimular la reflexión sobre la formación del conocimiento histórico en el ambito del trabajo. La perspectiva epistemológica de este estudio es la del modelo cultural de la discapacidad: la metodología está basada en los giros espacial, visual y lingüístico. A través del estudio de artefactos históricos como las escenas de películas o las definiciones jurídicas podemos llegar a conocer mejor la manera en que conceptualizamos a los seres humanos. La tesis de este artículo es que durante el siglo XX, la cambiante “microfísica del poder” (Foucault) produjo nuevas formas de subjetivación: bien los trabajadores intentaron ajustarse a los “ritmos de la maquina”, o bien expresaron sus necesidades en forma de “desacuerdo interiorizado”. En el texto se pone de manifiesto que la centralización del cuerpo y la mente parece encontrarse en el corazón de la transformación postfordista. El artículo finaliza subrayando la posibilidad de leer los cuerpos como fuente histórica, un enfoque que Bryan S. Turner ha teorizado en su artículo “Disability and the Sociology of the Body”.

The Auditory Kuleshov Effect: Multisensory Integration in Movie Editing.

Almost a hundred years ago, the Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov conducted his now famous editing experiment in which different objects were added to a given film scene featuring a neutral face. It is said that the audience interpreted the unchanged facial expression as a function of the added object (e.g., an added soup made the face express hunger). This interaction effect has been dubbed "Kuleshov effect." In the current study, we explored the role of sound in the evaluation of facial expressions in films. Thirty participants watched different clips of faces that were intercut with neutral scenes, featuring either happy music, sad music, or no music at all. This was crossed with the facial expressions of happy, sad, or neutral. We found that the music significantly influenced participants' emotional judgments of facial expression. Thus, the intersensory effects of music are more specific than previously thought. They alter the evaluation of film scenes and can give meaning to ambiguous situations.

The language of dubbing and its comprehension by learner-viewers. A resource for second language acquisition?

Recent research on L2 acquisition has been stressing the potential of audiovisual translation as a tool for boosting foreign language competence. Whereas most studies have concentrated on subtitled input, less attention has been devoted to dubbing, which is nevertheless the main audiovisual translation modality in several countries. Being the outcome of a translation process, dubbed dialogue is subject to translation universals, including simplification, explicitation and standardisation. These strategies may contribute to the greater accessibility of dubbed vis-à-vis original, non-translated products to non-native viewers. With a view to exploring the role of dubbing in ultimately fostering second language acquisition, an empirical study on the comprehension of different types of audiovisual input by learner-viewers was designed. The study moves from the assumption that input comprehension is a necessary prerequisite for acquisition proper and compares the degree of comprehension of dubbed vs. non-translated film scenes among intermediate-level learners of L2 Italian. Quantitatively and qualitatively comparable film scenes were selected and dialogue comprehension was assessed through closed and timed questions administered after exposure to each scene. Findings show that dubbed audiovisual input results in better comprehension than non-translated film dialogue independently of viewers’ L1 and audiovisual texts’ individual features. The study thus paves the way for further research on the acquisitional impact of dubbed dialogue, especially among learners at lower proficiency levels.

Mirrors of movement: Aina , Afzal Chowdhury’s cinematography and the interlinked histories of cinema in Pakistan and Bangladesh

In 1977 a film was released in Pakistan that broke all box-office records. Running continuously for five years in a Karachi cinema hall, Aina/Mirror (Nazrul Islam, 1977) was a massive hit. The story of a society girl and her devoted lover, the narrative offered little innovation; similar tales were, and are, a staple of South Asian film industries. It was the film’s other attractions that commanded the huge volume of repeat viewing, such as its glamorous actors, catchy soundtrack and spectacular photography of Karachi.1 How might we place Aina within the historical trajectories of Urdu cinema in Pakistan? Released well after East Pakistan became Bangladesh and West Pakistan became Pakistan, I suggest that the film’s innovations and attractions should nonetheless be seen as an outcome of the longstanding collaborations between and movement by film personnel across the two wings of Pakistan before 1971. The histories of cinema in Pakistan and Bangladesh are mostly told as separate stories, despite the fact that for twenty-four formative years the two wings existed in the one country.2 The larger issue that this essay attends to is the long-term impact of the interactions between East and West Pakistan on the histories of cinema in Pakistan and Bangladesh. I have argued elsewhere that these two trajectories are complexly interlinked,3 and here I want to suggest that our accounts of the cinema in both Bangladesh and Pakistan would benefit from an understanding of this intersection. The period between 1947 and 1971 is significant for the subsequent development of cinema in Pakistan and Bangladesh. When studying this period in either country, the integrated nature of the national film scene, stretching across both provinces, should be taken seriously. Key secondary resources, such as those by Mushtaq Gazdar and Alamgir Kabir, fail to do so, instead imposing the nation-state’s own account of itself onto the material of cinema’s history.4 While it might be easy to accept the teleological narratives that the nation-state writes for itself (either erasing East Pakistan as a part of contemporary Pakistan or positing it as a proto-Bangladesh), such a perspective obscures more than it reveals. Instead, the approach I take here is to ‘follow the thing’ (or people, lives, metaphors, and so on).5 A methodological crutch for anthropologists wanting to write multi-sited ethnographies, its premises are helpful for breaking the nation-shaped moulds for researching the cinema in South Asia. Following the cinema ‘thing’, we can trace projects or individuals as their life histories traverse a series of boundaries and borders.

&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;To be or not to be&lt;/i&gt; nas malhas híbridas do suporte digital &lt;i&gt;YouTube&lt;/i&gt;: práticas de leitura, linguagens e o sujeito

Neste artigo, observa-se e reflete-se sobre as práticas de leitura de um curta-metragem de animação da cena de Hamlet, To be or not to be, no suporte digital YouTube. Partimos da premissa de que mudanças relativas ao suporte podem promover alterações nos procedimentos de leitura e, consequentemente, produzir efeitos de sentido que reverberam na constituição dos sujeitos discursivos, especialmente no que se refere à autoria. A reflexão sustenta-se na Análise do Discurso de ‘linha’ francesa e na Psicanálise lacaniana, em que os postulados ocupam-se da determinação histórica dos processos de significação, ao considerar que os sentidos são construídos de forma singular, na relação com o outro e em seu ambiente, e, para isso, o sujeito tem que se apropriar do campo da linguagem. Com base nesses pressupostos, o corpus configura-se na narrativa virtual do curta-metragem de animação no site Mabinogi: Hamlet - To be, or not to be, Scene One, o qual faz um recorte da obra clássica literária Hamlet de Shakespeare. Os resultados apontam para gestos de leitura múltiplos, híbridos, em que os sentidos e as possibilidades de coautoria podem reverberar no trabalho do sujeito adolescente, que se constitui por meio da/na linguagem e do questionamento sobre si mesmo.

Abnormal Scenes in a Blood Film

Examination of peripheral blood smear is a vital step in assessment of overall health status of the individual. Blood smear examination is part of standard hematologic profiles and as a part of the diagnostic evaluation of apparently ill patient. In addition to differential leucocyte count, blood smear examination may reveal a variety of information of diagnostic value, for instance defective RBC morphology suggests chronic blood loss, endogenous or exogenous intoxication, vascular disorders or immune mediated disorders. Pathomorphological changes in WBCs are the first signs of inflammatory conditions and may be diagnostic for certain inherited conditions and leukemias that can be only are detected through microscopic evaluation of peripheral blood smears. In some cases, infectious agents pathognomonic cellular inclusions, and neoplastic cells are observed on blood films, yielding an immediate, definitive diagnosis. Every complete blood count (CBC) should be followed by blood smear evaluation that provides morphologic confirmation of hematologic parameters, assurance of the quality of values obtained from automated analyzers, and additional important information not given by automated methods. It is very easy and inexpensive to prepare a blood smear and one can acquire experience readily in evaluation of blood smear with regular practice supported by adequate background information.

The Art of the Possible: Making films on sex work migration and human trafficking

Fiction films and documentaries increasingly bring the themes of sex work migration and human trafficking to the big screen. The films often focus on women who have experienced a range of abusive conditions within the sex industry, experiences which in the films typically are all labelled ‘trafficking’ and narrated through the capture of innocents and their rescue. Images of ‘sex slaves’ have thus entered the film scene as iconic figures of pain and suffering, and ‘traffickers’ have emerged as icons of human evil. Building upon the substantial scholarly critique of such films and representations, this article discusses the possibilities of making films about migrant sex workers (some of whom may be trafficked) that do not fall into misleading and sensationalised representations. I draw upon two films about women migrant sex workers that I have worked on as an anthropologist and filmmaker—Trafficking (2010) and Becky’s Journey (2014). The point of departure is that there are a range of other aspects that can influence the filmmaking process rather than merely a one-dimensional perspective on sex work and trafficking. While analysing the making of these two films I look at the reasons—both theoretical and practical—for certain production decisions and the ways in which films in the context of multiple challenges are often the result of the art of the possible.

Gains and losses of watching audio described films for sighted viewers

Abstract Audio description (AD) is a unique form of communication that guarantees access to audiovisual material for blind people through an additional verbal commentary that describes relevant visual cues. In spite of its original purpose and target audience, some scholars and some guidelines maintain that AD can be useful for other sectors of the population, and suggest that sighted viewers could usefully listen to AD when ‘watching’ a film with blind people. In order to determine whether AD affects the sighted viewer’s cognitive performance and appreciation of the film, and whether AD can be exploited as an integration tool allowing blind and sighted users to mingle when ‘watching’ a film, we assessed the effect of AD on sighted viewers (n = 125, 18-28 years) empirically. Results suggest that the addition of AD to films does not negatively affect the cognitive aspects of the viewing experience (i.e., general understanding and film scene recognition), nor does it dramatically affect its overall enjoyment, whereas listening to AD without the visuals poses some challenges to sighted viewers.