"Endangered life is often used to justify humanitarian media intervention, but what if suffering humanity is both the fuel and outcome of such media representations? Pooja Rangan argues that this vicious circle is the result of immediation, a prevailing documentary ethos that seeks to render human s
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uffering urgent and immediate at all costs. Rangan interrogates this ethos in films seeking to "give a voice to the voiceless," an established method of validating the humanity of marginalized subjects, including children, refugees, autistics, and animals. She focuses on multiple examples of documentary subjects being invited to demonstrate their humanity: photography workshops for the children of sex workers in Calcutta; live eyewitness reporting by Hurricane Katrina survivors; attempts to facilitate speech in nonverbal autistics; and painting lessons for elephants. These subjects are obliged to represent themselves using immediations-tropes that reinforce their status as the "other" and reproduce definitions of the human that exclude non-normative modes of thinking, being, and doing. To counter these effects, Rangan calls for an approach to media that aims not to humanize but to realize the full, radical potential of giving the camera to the other." (Publisher description)
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"This edited collection focuses on successful small and medium-sized film and television companies in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Using original interviews with company founders and other employees, contributors explore case studies of businesses that have made successfu
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l productions, both in terms of popularity and critical acclaim, for at least five years. The book gives an overview of the film and television sector in each of the four featured countries, followed by chapters that investigate particular companies and their relationship to a wider industrial context. The Introduction provides a theoretical and methodological discussion and the Conclusion draws together the common elements that may explain how these companies have been able to survive and thrive." (Publisher description)
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"Going to the cinema means going on a journey” reads one of the banners in Ouagadougou that have been put up to promote the legendary pan-African FESPACO film festival. Afrika Film Festival Köln has also been taking its guests on audiovisual journeys through African cinescapes for 25 years. More
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than 750 films from 45 African countries have been shown in Cologne since the first festival in 1992. They have showcased some hugely diverse and multi-faceted filmmaking talents from Africa and the global African diaspora [...] In addition to showing films relating to this year’s theme of “Land Grabbing and Migration”, one of the first ideas we came up with regarding the make-up of the festival programme was to present a retrospective with the highlights from the last 25 years. But this was soon scrapped due to the huge number of exciting new films that were submitted to FilmInitiativ in 2017 and the many discoveries at major festivals, such as those in Tunis, Ouagadougou and Durban. FilmInitiativ was ultimately again spoilt for choice, with more than 400 new features, documentaries and short films. We therefore decided to keep the focus on contemporary African cinema for the anniversary festival, and to complement the films with a small selection of classics." (Introduction)
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"This report captures of the findings of the “Youth on Screen” initiative, which was born out of a growing desire amongst youth civil society groups and broadcasters in the Southern Mediterranean Region to tackle the issue of youth representation on television head on. The report not only looks
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at the structural deficiencies which have meant that the voices of young people remain unheard within media broadcasters but also at representational issues, namely the paucity of television content which deals with youth-related matters." (www.med-media.eu)
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"On May 22nd 2014, The Kingdom of Thailand experienced its latest successful military coup. A few months later, in November 2014, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 was released in Thai cinemas sparking new protests using symbols from the series. With this article, I seek to examine the reception o
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f The Hunger Games series in Thailand by different interest groups in light of recent political developments. I present a system of shared reference that is based on Jonathan Cohen’s discussions of ‘identification’ and ‘spectatorship’ (2001) to illustrate the relationship between The Hunger Games series in Thailand, pro-democracy protesters, and the military junta. I aim to illuminate how the two opposing sides use and understand references from The Hunger Games as part of their actions in an ongoing tense political climate." (Summary)
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"Die folgende kleine Bibliographie versammelt Arbeiten, die sich mit den Dramaturgien und Konzeptionen der Altersdarstellung in Film und Fernsehen befassen. Es finden sich keine Untersuchungen zum rezeptivven oder produktiven Mediengebrauch Älterer. Die zahlreichen bis heute vorliegenden Inhaltsana
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lysen kommunikationswissenschaflicher Art habe ich nur in Ausnahmefällen dokumentiert, weil sie zwar Blicke auf Stereotypisierungen, die Präsenz älterer Akteure in Spiel- und Reality-Formaten vor allem des Fernsehens und – allerdings meist nur grobe – Charakteristiken der Altersrollen ermöglichen, für das kulturologische Verständnis der sinnhaften Konstruktion von „Alter“ weder in soziologischer noch psychologischer Hinsicht aber nur selten aufschlussreich sind. Auch die inzwischen mehrfach bearbeitete Phänomenologie der Veränderung der Schauspielstile einzelner Akteure sowie die Entwicklung von Alter-Images von Schauspielern spielen in diesen Untersuchungen so gut wie keine Rolle. Beigeben ist ein Verzeichnis der mir bekannt gewordenen Filmographien zum Alter im Film. Viele der Einträge sind annotiert (meist mithilfe der den Artikeln beigegebenen Abstracts), so dass auch ein erstes Verständnis der Forschungsfragen und Methoden der jeweiligen Untersuchungen möglich ist." (Seite 1)
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"Children, defined internationally as under-18s, account for some 40 per cent of Arab populations and the proportion of under-fives is correspondingly large. Yet studies of children's media and child audiences in the region are as scarce as truly popular locally produced media content aimed at child
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ren. At the very time when conflict and uncertainty in key Arab countries have made local development and diversification of children's media more remote, it has become more urgent to gain a better understanding of how the next generation's identities and worldviews are formed. This interdisciplinary book is the first in English to probe both the state of Arab screen media for children and the practices of Arabic-speaking children in producing, as well as consuming, screen content. It responds to the gap in research by bringing together a holistic investigation of institutions and leading players, children's media experiences and some iconic media texts. With children's media increasingly linked to merchandising, which favours US-based global players and globalizing forces, this volume provides a timely insight into tensions between differing concepts of childhood and desirable media messages." (Publisher description)
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"Der Dokumentarfilm gilt in Indien als kommerziell schwer auswertbares Genre - und stellt dennoch ein Feld dar, in welchem Experimente entstehen können. Angesichts der gegenwärtigen gesellschaftlichen Umbrüche untersucht Ulrike Mothes den aktuellen indischen Dokumentarfilm hinsichtlich seiner fil
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mästhetischen Form und betrachtet seine Positionierung zwischen lokalen und globalen Bezugnahmen, politischem Diskurs und kulturellem Ausdruck. Ihr besonderes Augenmerk liegt dabei auf der Beschreibung offener Erzählstrategien, welche die Annahme von Wahrheit als solcher hinterfragen und mehrere Deutungen eines Themas zulassen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The fortieth anniversary of the independence of the African countries colonized by Portugal presents a valuable opportunity to reassess how colonialism has been «imagined» through the medium of the moving image. The essays collected in this volume investigate Portuguese colonialism and its filmic
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and audio-visual imaginaries both during and after the Estado Novo regime, examining political propaganda films shot during the liberation wars and exploring the questions and debates these generate. The book also highlights common aspects in the emergence of a national cinema in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. By reanimating (and decolonizing) the archive, it represents an important contribution to Portuguese colonial history, as well as to the history of cinema and the visual arts." (Publisher description)
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"Latin American women filmmakers have achieved unprecedented international prominence in recent years. Notably political in their approach, figures such as Lucrecia Martel, Claudia Llosa and Bertha Navarro have created innovative and often challenging films, enjoying global acclaim from critics and
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festival audiences alike. They undeniably mark a 'moment' for Latin American cinema. Bringing together distinguished scholars in the field - and prefaced by B. Ruby Rich - this is a much-needed account and analysis of the rise of female-led film in Latin America. Chapters detail the collaboration that characterises Latin American women's filmmaking - in many ways distinct from the largely 'Third Cinema' auteurism from the region - as well as the transnational production contexts, unique aesthetics and socio-political landscape of the key industry figures. Through close attention to the particular features of national film cultures, from women's documentary filmmaking in Chile to comedic critique in Brazil, and from US Latina screen culture to the burgeoning popularity of Peruvian film, this timely study demonstrates the remarkable possibilities for film in the region. This book will allow scholars and students of Latin American cinema and culture, as well as industry professionals, a deeper understanding of the emergence and impact of the filmmakers and their work, which has particular relevance for contemporary debates on feminism." (Publisher description)
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"Funding original children’s television has never been easy because this is rarely a commercially attractive proposition unless you target a global audience and tap into ancillary revenues from licenced merchandise. As a case of market failure, policy makers who wish to ensure the production of a
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diverse range of quality content for children have therefore pursued a range of interventions to ensure sustainable levels of local content in the face of strong competition from US-owned media services. The aim of this article is to evaluate different funding options for public service children’s content in a more challenging and competitive multiplatform media environment in countries with a strong tradition of public service content for children. Focussing on interventions that go beyond public service broadcasting (PSB) (quotas, alternative funds), it assesses the extent to which these interventions reflect a future-oriented approach, or one that is mired in the status quo and vested interests." (Abstract)
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"Free-to-air channels for Arabic-speaking children expanded alongside the emergence of a few Arab national regulatory agencies with varying degrees of independence from government and powers that could potentially influence children’s channels. Even so, the rationales that inform production and ac
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quisition of children’s screen content in the region remain far from transparent, beyond rhetoric about protecting children from material that ‘breaches cultural boundaries and values’. Drawing on theoretical literature that highlights regulation’s effect on policy, and links the principles of provision, protection and participation in relation to children’s media, this article compares regulatory discourses and practices revealed in the documents and speeches of Arab regulators, broadcasters and independent production companies. It finds that, with some exceptions, only the latter advocate measures that look beyond a narrow interpretation of ‘protection’. A dominant consensus around the narrow vision seems to stand in the way of developing more stimulating approaches to regulation." (Abstract)
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"The stories in this volume were gathered as part of a Writeshop held in Nairobi on 9–10 November, in the context of the Access Agriculture Week 9–13 November, 2015. People are story-tellers as well as creatures who walk and make tools. Stories are important to us. Statistics tell us what happen
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ed; stories tell us why. These stories celebrate the creativity of the many organisations involved in making, translating, distributing, and screening videos, as well as those that do follow-up studies, especially the MSc and PhD students that Access Agriculture supports. We learn what it feels like to be involved in one of the more creative efforts in international development and communication. We read, for example, about the radio producer who began to make videos because his father, a Kenyan farmer, said that farmers wanted to see the images, as well as the words. We learn why farmers in Malawi find videos from West Africa more convincing than learning from lead farmers in their own villages. We read about the journalist in Benin who is so inspired by the videos that he has become a farmer himself. We learn what it’s like to translate a video script into an African language, and other personal experiences of getting videos and DVDs into the hands of farmers." (Foreword)
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"Combining approaches from the social sciences and the humanities, the book provides an interdisciplinary perspective while outlining a transnational history of films that either document or fictionalise the favelas, shantytowns, Elendsviertel, gecekondu, barrios populares or chawls of our diverse '
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planet of slums', exploring the way accelerated urbanisation has intersected with an increasingly interconnected global film and media culture. From Jacob Riis's How The Other Half Lives (1890) to Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008), the volume provides a number of close readings of slum representations of different historical periods and regions to outline how contemporary film and media practices relate to their past predecessors. It focuses thereby particularly on the way filmmakers, both north and south of the equator, have repeatedly grappled with, rejected or continuously modified documentary and realist modes of representation to convey life in our 'planet of slums'." (Publisher description)
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