Study Of Films Research Articles

Unveiling the Other: Animals, Oppression, and Visual Culture through Nanook of the North

This article critically examines early 20th-century exploration cinema, focusing onthe portrayal of nonhuman animals and indigenous peoples, using Nanook of theNorth (1922) as a representative example. The study highlights how these films,emerging during a period of intense Western exploration, established enduringvisual conventions that depicted nonhuman animals and indigenous humans ascultural Others. By moving beyond the aesthetic achievements of these films,such as Robert Flaherty's innovative use of long shots, the article brings attentionto the ethical concerns related to speciesism and anthropocentrism that haveoften been overlooked. It explores how the exploitation of nonhuman animalsboth on-screen and behind the scenes reflects broader speciesist powerdynamics, while also challenging the dichotomy between culture and nature asseen in indigenous hunting and gathering societies. The article argues for a reexaminationof these films through a multicultural and intersectional lens,bridging the gap between cinema studies and critical animal and media studies,and ultimately seeks to raise public awareness about the protection of animalrights by emphasizing the sentience and moral consideration due to nonhumananimals.

Precarity in Portuguese cinema

ABSTRACT Although perhaps not clear for someone unfamiliar with the history and the aesthetics of Portuguese cinema, the title of this paper is polysemic and thus refers to several layers of meaning. Indeed, this research will provide a historical overview and deal with precarity in two different ways that coexist and coincide in Portuguese cinema: the intra-cinematic, i.e. the representation of precarity on screen; and the extra-cinematic, i.e. the material circumstances that have characterised the Portuguese film production milieu. On the one hand, this paper will analyse the history of Portuguese films through the lens of precarity to uncover the different approaches its representation received, from the musical comedies of the 1940s to the peripheral-city dramas of the 1990s. On the other hand, we will provide an account of the evolution of the conditions in which Portuguese cinema subsisted. As this paper will argue these two situations are not entirely dissociated; the material circumstances that have determined the lifecycle of the Portuguese film production are, to a certain degree, related to the versions of precarity addressed. The point this paper proposes by bringing the topic of precarity to the fore intends to add to the literature on Portuguese cinema studies and help frame Portuguese cinema within the subarea of precarity studies.

Special joint issue of Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema and Culture of Ukraine (Kul’tura Ukrainy)

Special joint issue of Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema and Culture of Ukraine (Kul’tura Ukrainy)

The Interaction Between Literature and Commercial Films: A Case Study of Hong Kong Cinema

This paper explores the interaction between literature and commercial films, focusing on Hong Kong cinema. In modern society, as the economy develops and people s spiritual needs increase, the integration of literature and commercial films has become a new cultural phenomenon. With its unique cultural background, Hong Kong cinema has successfully blended literary works with commercial films, creating a distinctive artistic style. The paper analyzes how literary works provide creative inspiration for films and how films, through commercialization, promote the dissemination of literature. Through case studies, the paper examines the impact of different types of literature on films, the reciprocal influence of films on literary creation, and how writers adapt to and cater to public demands in the face of commercialization. The paper aims to uncover the inherent rules of integration and development between literature and commercial films, encouraging the use of more excellent literary works in the film and television industry.

Film Programming in the ussr: A Case Study of Moscow Cinemas (1946–1955)

Abstract This article presents a database on film programming in Moscow cinemas between 1946 and 1955. It outlines the place of this research at the intersection of new cinema history and academic debates on film distribution in the field of Soviet history. The article describes the data collection, the coding to present the data, and the structure of the database, which consists of the three datasets on Moscow film programming (1946–1955), Moscow cinemas (1946–1955), and the 1952 film calendar. Concluding remarks summarize the knowledge obtained from the database and introduce the Soviet case into the international context of digital data collections for historical cinema studies.

Approaching a National Film History through Data. Network Analysis in German Film History

The present paper is an attempt at importing network analysis as a method and applying it to a field that has hitherto been examined in different ways: the study of national cinema. The approach was motivated by the perceived conundrum in the existing studies of German cinema that filmhistorical and political history usually do not match. The aim is to open up another perspective on the problem of periodization by looking at the data of film production, more specifically of collaboration. By using a comprehensive data set which is made availavable by the Filmportal, the central internet platform on German film, the approach in this paper is to look at the key creatives involved in the production of a film in the period from 1919 to 1939 and to conceptualize collaboration and connectivity in a (national) film culture through the use of network research methods.

Revisiting Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956–1963

This article looks back at the context in which Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956–1963 was written, the issues it addressed and some of the influences on it. It then considers some of the criticisms it has received and assesses its contribution to the study of British cinema of this period.

Periodismo y Cine: contenidos, audiencias, docencia, nuevos formatos y espacios de exhibición [Presentación del monográfico

This monographic issue addresses the relationships between journalism and cinema. It includes ten research papers, nine of which focus on cinema about journalism, that is, films and television series that center around the media and the work of journalists. These studies approach the topic from various perspectives, such as film noir, humor, feminism, ethics, and different geographical contexts like Colombia, Spain, or the United States of America. Based on their main findings, it is observed that in this type of cinema, which has been evolving since the early 20th century, negative stereotypes about the journalism profession persist. Additionally, this issue features a study about film journalism, a specialty that, despite its social impact, consolidation, and evolution, has been scarcely addressed by academia in recent years. We trust that this monograph will contribute to arousing scientific interest in this type of cultural journalism and also expand the scope of the study of cinema about journalism.

Bak, M. A. (2020). Playful Visions: Optical Toys and the Emergence of Children’s Media Culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Review by Eva Van de Wiele

Optical devices and their domestic variants are housed in exhibition venues ranging from museums of cinema (such as the National Museum of Cinema in Turin) to toy museums (such as the Spielzeugmuseum in Nuremberg). My visit to that German toy museum this summer, while spending a research stay at the International Children’s Library in Munich, coincided with the reading of Meredith Bak’s Playful Visions. Her book reveals how optical toys fundamentally impacted the evolution of material culture for children and offers fruitful ground for research beyond (pre)cinema studies. She argues for scholarly attention to children in media studies, as they ‘became central figures around whom new media culture revolved’ (Bak, 2020, p. 11).

Was Sultan Abdülhamid II suspicious of the cinema? A study of cinema in the Hamidian era (1876–1908)

ABSTRACT Due to Sultan Abdülhamid II’s authoritarian regime and his alleged suspicion of modern technologies, Turkish film historians have often viewed the Hamidian era as an obstacle to the development of cinema in Turkey. However, this article aims to move beyond the simplistic characterizations of Abdülhamid’s reign as mere despotism and paranoia, especially concerning cinema. It explores government regulations, censorship, and prohibitions to gain a deeper understanding of how the Hamidian regime perceived, regulated, and influenced the development of cinema in the Ottoman Empire. By analyzing the motivations and measures taken by the Hamidian regime, this article demonstrates that the regime not only attempted to control cinema’s perceived negative impacts on public safety, morality, and state policies but also used cinema for political, economic, and cultural purposes. It argues that while the Hamidian regime was aware of cinema’s potential risks, it also recognized that, under strict control, cinema could offer significant benefits.

Sino-international film collaboration and co-production: policy and practice

ABSTRACT In light of the shift from the first phase to the second phase of transnational cinema studies, this volume examines a set of practices of transnational cinema that have been taking place between China and its counterparts. In exploring transnational cinema activities in the form of film collaborations and co-productions, this volume puts the spotlight on critical trends in transnational cinemas that are not limited to Western spheres of influence. Focusing on practical applications of case studies between China, Arab countries, Denmark and the U.S. it contributes to the debates on the definition and practical applications for research on film collaboration and co-production and transnational cinema studies.

Exploring critical reception and thematic trends: A corpus-based analysis of critic reviews for 'While You Were Sleeping'

This study presents a corpus-based analysis of 51 critic reviews of the romantic comedy "While You Were Sleeping", sourced from RottenTomatoes, to explore the linguistic nuances, thematic focuses, and sentiment orientation in film criticism. Employing corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, the study systematically examines the language and thematic patterns in these reviews, aiming to understand the broader dialogue about cinema and its cultural impact. The analysis reveals several key themes: the balance between charm and credibility, the significance of lead performances, narrative plausibility versus genre conventions, cultural and seasonal context, divergent perspectives on humor and tone, the importance of cinematic style and directorial choices, reflections on the romantic comedy genre, and audience engagement and emotional resonance. These findings highlight the complex and multifaceted nature of film criticism, particularly in the romantic comedy genre, where films are evaluated not just for entertainment but also for narrative structure, character development, and adherence to genre norms. The study underscores the importance of external factors such as cultural context and timing in film reception and emphasizes the impact of lead performances and casting decisions on audience engagement and film perception. It contributes to a deeper understanding of film criticism, extending beyond mere entertainment to encompass cultural, narrative, and stylistic considerations. The insights gained can inform future film productions, critiques, and academic discussions in cinema studies.

Powerful or Powerless? Women’s Power Levels in Contemporary Chinese Films

This article aims to achieve an experiential study of cinematic representations of females in Chinese films through quantitative narrative analysis. Applied to a census of 360 Chinese films across various genres produced across 18 years (2001–2018) systematically selected on Mtime, we ask to what extent female characters in Chinese films are empowered? How is their power exercised? And what socio-cultural implications can be detected from the cinematic representations of women in the contemporary Chinese gender discourse? We aim to fill in the gap in Chinese cinema studies in which most scholarships focused on pre-2000 works, adopted qualitative textual and narrative analysis to interpret the representations of women in a particular genre or in typical cases, leaving the quantitative approach, particularly focusing on the post-2000 films, all but absent. We develop a systematic set of typologies, including 4 major power-level categories (power-over, power-to, power-with, and no-power) and 12 deuterogenic ones, which can be applied for future research on Chinese film and media studies. While women’s career success has been articulated with empowerment, independence, subjectivity, and ambition in the neoliberal rhetoric, our research reflects a more intricate relationship between cultural representations of women and power in contemporary Chinese films.

Instagram as a narrative platform

Even though Instagram has been the subject of numerous studies, none of them have systematically investigated its potential as a narrative medium. This article argues that Instagram’s narrative capabilities are comparable to those of literature and film. To support our claims, we analyze a number of prominent female Instagram creators and demonstrate how they employ the platform’s diverse features, functionalities, and interface to create multi-year biographical narratives. Furthermore, we discuss the applicability of theories developed in literary and film studies in analyzing Instagram’s narrative capabilities. By employing Bakhtin’s influential chronotope concept, we examine in depth how these narratives make specific use of space and time. Additionally, we compare time construction in film and Instagram narratives using the cinema studies’ theory of narrative time in movies.

Representation of intersectional and cultural identities in Taiwanese-language port city cinema

This article contributes to two relatively under-researched areas in the existing literature of Taiwanese popular culture and film studies – Taiwanese-language films (taiyupian) and port city cinema. We compare five case studies in Taiwanese-language port city cinema: Anping zhuixiang qu (Nostalgic Song of Anping) (Chen Yang 1969), Huilai anping gang (Back to Anping Harbor) (Wu Feijian 1972), Fenggui lai de ren (The Boys from Fengkuei) (Hou Hsiao-Hsien 1983), Haijiao qi hao (Cape No.7) (Wei Te-Sheng 2008) and角頭 Jiao tou (Gatau) (Li Yunjie 2015). Across each case, we analyse how the cinematic representation of port cities may have reflected social and cultural developments, changing (and unchanged) Taiwanese intersectional and cultural identities from the 1960s to the twenty-first century.

American indie cinema between DIY cultures and global Hollywood: Exploring the paradigm of Slacker

A landmark of the 1990s independent cinema and emblem of Generation X, Slacker (1991) is a significant event in the genealogy of Austin, Texas DIY scenes, with a long-lasting impact on the city's film industry and cultural history. The article applies research on DIY to the realm of American independent cinema, using Richard Linklater's iconic film to define indie cinema as a complex idea, linking the global media industries to cult performers emerging from intense subcultural contexts. After touching upon the history of American independent cinema, the film's content is read against its production networks, suggesting the historical role of DIY media ecologies in the value chain of Hollywood. The flexible career pathways emanating from Slacker chart various fates that creative labour undergoes in today's media industries. This methodological perspective reinforces a relational approach to the study of independent cinema, suggesting possible lines of inquiry for future research.

КОЛИЧЕСТВЕННЫЙ АНАЛИЗ ЖЕСТОВ В СОВЕТСКОМ КИНО НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ МУЛЬТИМЕДИЙНОГО КОРПУСА НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО КОРПУСА РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКА

This article is dedicated to exploring the correlation between the emotional tone of gestures and their localizati on through the conduct of content analysis of gestures presented in the multimedia subcorpus of spoken Russian language, annotated by E. A. Grishina and including video fragments of Soviet and late Soviet cinema. The paper aims at determining the prevailing tonality of a gesture depending on its localization. Corpus linguistic analysis, multimodal sentiment analysis and correlational analysis are presented in the paper to state the possible connection between the active organ of gesture realization with its tonality. The article reflects the relevance of the research, covers the history of works devoted to the study of cinema as a polycode test and describes the methods used to analyze the film discourse. Based on the analysis, a comparative table of gestures and a matrix demonstrating the correlation of their tonalities are presented.

New Forms of Genocide Documentaries: The Duel and the Quiet Interview

This essay aims, first, to put forth two new forms of genocide documentaries: The Duel and the Quiet Interview (my terms). These forms emerged from two of the major non-Western catastrophes of twentieth-century Communism — the Cambodian autogenocide and the Chinese Maoist Revolution (respectively). In both the Duel and the Quiet Interview, the directors search for historical truth, which, in both societies, has been silenced, taboo-ized and censored for circa 40 years. Second, despite the obvious differences between their historical-traumatic-cultural contexts, and their addressees, I contend that both forms shed light on the failure of post-Holocaust Western paradigmatic literature – initiated most prominently by Felman and Laub (1992), Hilberg (1993), LaCapra (2001), Felman (2002) and Wieviorka (2006) - to recognize these non-Western catastrophes as an immanent part of the Age of Testimony. I further contend that both forms expand the ethical boundaries of trauma, trauma cinema studies and related fields of research. Finally, dealing with collaboration as an undertheorized subject position in the West, this essay calls for the constitution of collaboration studies alongside perpetrator studies.

Automated Saliency Prediction in Cinema Studies

Abstract In visual cognition research, saliency refers to the prominence of specific elements in a scene. Moreover, saliency guidance is part of a filmmaker's toolset to build narratives and guide the audience into emotive responses. This article compares two Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) saliency mapping models with viewers’ eye-position mapping to investigate the potentiality of automated saliency mapping in moving image studies by analyzing saliency's role during cinema's transition from one-shot to multiple-shot. Although the exact moment when montage and editing methods appeared cannot be identified with precision, findings suggest one of the reasons for this transition was saliency guidance, hence its preponderance.

BEYOND DOMESTICITY AND WOMEN’S AGENCY IN MANIPURI CINEMA: AN ANALYSIS OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ARIBAM SYAM’S FILM

The representation of women in cinema has been a longstanding concern in the field of cinema studies. Historically, female characters have often been relegated to submissive and domestic roles on screen. However, recent years have witnessed a significant shift in the portrayal of women in cinema, with an increasing number of films depicting female characters in active, occupational, and self-determining roles. This article delves into this transformative narrative trend by focusing on two Manipuri films, Imagi Ningthem (1981) and Ishanou (1990), directed by Aribam Syam Sharma. These films feature resilient female protagonists who challenge and defy the traditional domestic roles assigned to women in cinematic narratives. Using textual analysis, this article explores the nuanced portrayal of these female characters and the agency they exhibit in shaping their destinies. Drawing from the framework of feminist film theory, this study critically examines how these characters navigate societal expectations and patriarchal norms within the context of their narratives. The films serve as compelling narratives that shed light on the evolving representation of female agency in cinema where women character challenges conventional gender roles and offer a fresh perspective on women's identity within the cinematic realm. By interrogating the textual and societal dimensions of these films, this study gives a broader discourse on gender representation in cinema and highlights the importance of female agency in shaping contemporary narratives.