Dorothy Arzner
Through dozens of interviews, a detailed chronology and filmography, and a selection of Dorothy Arzner's own writings--including her unfinished autobiography--Dorothy Arzner: Interviews offers major insights into and an in-depth examination of the life and career of one of the few women to direct films during Hollywood's Golden Age. A key figure in Hollywood for decades, she directed more studio films than any other woman in history. Her movies often focused on courageous women who must make difficult decisions to remain true to themselves--women not unlike Arzner herself, who once said that "all we can ever do in our work is write our own biography." Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) began her film career in 1919 as a script typist for the Famous Players-Lasky company, which later became Paramount Pictures. She quickly rose through the ranks to become a script supervisor, screenwriter, and editor before directing her first film, Fashions for Women, in 1927. After the release of her final Hollywood film, First Comes Courage, in 1943, Arzner changed directions in her professional life. She made several training films for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II and directed many television commercials for Pepsi-Cola in the 1950s. She concluded her career by serving as a filmmaking instructor at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts and UCLA, where she helped launch the first wave of college-trained moviemakers.
Performance of Absence in Theatre, Performance and Visual Art
This research project investigates the concepts of absence across the disciplines of visual art, theatre, and performance. Absence in the centre of an ideology frees the reader from the dominant meaning.
Producing Feminism
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In this deeply archival work, Jennifer S. Clark explores the multiple ways in which women's labor in the American television industry of the 1970s furthered feminist ends. Carefully crafted around an impressive assemblage of interviews and primary sources (from television network memos to programming schedules, production notes to executive meeting agendas), Clark tells the story of how women organized in the workplace to form collectives, affect production labor, and develop reform-oriented policies and philosophies that reshaped television behind the screen. She urges us to consider how interventions, often at localized levels, can collectively shift the dynamics of a workplace and the cultural products created there.
Dorothy Arzner
Through dozens of interviews, a detailed chronology and filmography, and a selection of Dorothy Arzner's own writings--including her unfinished autobiography--Dorothy Arzner: Interviews offers major insights into and an in-depth examination of the life and career of one of the few women to direct films during Hollywood's Golden Age. A key figure in Hollywood for decades, she directed more studio films than any other woman in history. Her movies often focused on courageous women who must make difficult decisions to remain true to themselves--women not unlike Arzner herself, who once said that "all we can ever do in our work is write our own biography." Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) began her film career in 1919 as a script typist for the Famous Players-Lasky company, which later became Paramount Pictures. She quickly rose through the ranks to become a script supervisor, screenwriter, and editor before directing her first film, Fashions for Women, in 1927. After the release of her final Hollywood film, First Comes Courage, in 1943, Arzner changed directions in her professional life. She made several training films for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II and directed many television commercials for Pepsi-Cola in the 1950s. She concluded her career by serving as a filmmaking instructor at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts and UCLA, where she helped launch the first wave of college-trained moviemakers.
American Disaster Movies of the 1970s
American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is the first scholarly book dedicated to the disaster cycle that dominated American cinema and television in the 1970s. Through examining films such as Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and The Swarm (1978), alongside their historical contexts and American contemporaneous trends, the disaster cycle is treated as a time-bound phenomenon. This book further contextualises the cycle by drawing on the longer cultural history of modernist reactions to modern anxieties, including the widespread dependence on technology and corporate power. Each chapter considers cinematic precursors, such as the 'ark movie', and contemporaneous trends, such as New Hollywood, vigilante and blaxploitation films, as well as the immediate American context: the end of the civil rights and countercultural era, the Watergate crisis, and the defeat in Vietnam.As Scott Freer argues, the disaster movie is a modern, demotic form of tragedy that satisfies a taste for the macabre. It is also an aesthetic means for processing painful truths, and many of the dramatized themes anticipate present-day monstrosities of modernity.
Accidental Genius: An Oral History of the Room
Accidental Genius features intimate and laugh-out-loud commentary from The Room cast and crew, including interviews from its star Greg Sestero. What a story indeed! A rollicking recollection of experiences from the legendary "so bad it's good" film. This comprehensively chronicled book offers a fascinating glimpse into the cultural phenomenon that brings together die-hard fans and newcomers alike.Everything you could have possibly wondered about The Room all in one book! Take a look at Tommy Wiseau's infamous 2003 release through the eyes of the people who made it. Get the low-down on bizarre audition calls, film set antics, and accounts from the very first fans who experienced The Room at its earliest screenings. Also including interviews focusing on the aftermath of the movie: Sestero's The Disaster Artist, where are they now, and its lasting legacy.Here you will get a glimpse of how it all began, why it remains popular, and just what audiences still get out of this unusual film that people love to hate.
Romy Schneider
The beautiful Austrian-born Romy Schneider was one of Europe's most popular film stars and a cult figure from the moment she played 'Sissi' (Empress Elisabeth of Austria) in the hugely popular Sissi trilogy in the mid-1950s. Although Schneider died in 1982, she continues to be one of the most popular stars in European cinema history. This book analyses her impressive career to place her within a range of European female stars, particularly Germanic and French, who defined cultural and ideological images of femininity on European screens. Schneider, who worked and was celebrated in Austria, Germany, Hollywood, and France, represents a fascinating case study to explore key questions of trans-European and transnational stardom, and Marion Hallet makes a valuable intervention in this growing field within star studies. Romy Schneider: A Star Across Europe shows how the representations of women stemming from Schneider's star image supported specific and shifting cultural and social agendas regarding femininity, from the 1950s to the 1980s. This book explores the significance of Schneider's image both when she was working and since, within Western European film culture and celebrity culture.
March of the Wooden Soldiers
March of the Wooden Soldiers, the 1934 Laurel and Hardy film originally titled Babes in Toyland, has been a holiday classic on TV since the early 1950s. The annual showing on WPIX in New York has kept this film alive in American popular culture, when for many years that film was all but unavailable anywhere else.The film exudes warmth, charm, happiness and a wish for love to conquer evil. The hundreds of people who contributed to making the movie certainly shared those emotions. But, as with any creative collaboration, there were conflicts.Behind the scenes, there were injuries, a divorce, a not-quite-legal marriage, a secret romance, a barroom fistfight, illnesses and a rift that nearly spelled the end of the Laurel and Hardy team. The film was made at great cost - and not just financial. The Laurel and Hardy film is an enduring classic, but it's only part of the fascinating story of Babes in Toyland.Featuring nearly 400 rare photographs, March of the Wooden Soldiers: The Amazing Story of Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland brings the whole story to life.
The Sustainable Legacy of Agn癡s Varda
Drawing especially on the encounters and relationships that defined her exceptional career, The Sustainable Legacy of Agn癡s Varda outlines a sustainable legacy for the celebrated director and visual artist. Over nine chapters, it unpacks how creation, connection, and environment form the core of Varda's artistry, which centers foremost on relationships with her family, with other artists, even with passersby she would meet in her travels around the world. Also celebrating her feminist legacy, the chapters cover a wide range, from the classic Cl矇o from 5 to 7 (1962) to documentaries The Beaches of Agn癡s (2008) and Faces Places (2017) as well as selected art installations. The book's final section is dedicated to teaching Varda's work; here, ten scholars from around the world consider how Varda's art and feminist pedagogies offer unique ways to bring crucial concepts into the classroom. By seeking a sustainable praxis to discuss and teach Varda's work, and by making pedagogical concerns an explicit part of this approach, this book argues that Varda's insights about the nature of creative work will inspire new generations of viewers and audiences.
The Ghost in the Shell Book
THE GHOST IN THE SHELL BOOKVOLUME 2: ANIM?A Critical Study by Jeremy Mark RobinsonThis is a study of the adaptations of Ghost In the Shell by Masamune Shirow (real name Masanori Ota, born in 1961, Kobe, Japan). Shirow is a Japanese artist best known for Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police. Masamune Shirow is one of the great creators in the world of Japanese manga and anim矇 - his works have been the basis of several important franchises, with Ghost In the Shell the most famous. Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), attractive warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous, sometimes arcane notes). The impact of the work of Masamune Shirow has been immense in anim矇 and manga: Ghost In the Shell alone led to not one but two classic movies, two outstanding TV series (plus a third, the Arise series), and spin-off movies. Add to that the live-action Ghost of 2017, and more Ghosties on the way. Then there's the Appleseed digital animations and Appleseed cel animation, plus Black Magic, Real Drive, Ghost Hound (Unseen World) and Dominion: Tank Police. It all adds up to a remarkable presence in TV and movies. In cinema, Masamune Shirow's influence is easy to spot in the Star Wars prequels, in the Matrix movies, in Avatar, in Minority Report, in the Avengers series, and in many a superhero flick. The Ghost In the Shell Book: Volume 2: Anim矇 includes a biography; chapters on the two films of Shirow's signature work, Ghost In the Shell, of 1995 and 2004; a chapter on film director Mamoru Oshii; chapters on the TV series of 2002-2005 - Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (plus the spin-off movies); chapters studying every episode of the TV series; chapters on the Arise and the 2045 series (and spin-off movie); a chapter on the 2017 live-action movie; appendices; resources; and filmography. Fully illustrated in colour, including images from Masamune Shirow's Ghost In the Shell manga, all of the adaptations, from the 1995 movie to the live-action version of 2017 and the 2045 series of 2020. The Ghost In the Shell Book is published in two volumes: Volume 1: MangaVolume 2: Anim矇Hardcover - full color laminate cover. Bibliography, resources and notes. 580 pages.www.crmoon.com
The Lost Decade
Provides an analysis of Hollywood from a fresh viewpoint that shows the careers of Robert Altman, Francis Coppola, William Friedkin, and others in the 1980s as far from conforming to a monolithic pattern of decline, but rather as diverse and complex responses to political and industrial changes. The 1980s are routinely seen as the era of the blockbuster and of 'Reaganite entertainment, ' whereas the dominant view of late 1960s and early 1970s American film history is that of a 'Hollywood Renaissance', a relatively brief window of artistry based around a select group of directors. Yet key directors associated with the Renaissance period remained active throughout the 1980s and their work has been obscured or dismissed by a narrow, singular model of American film history. This book deals with industrial contexts that conditioned these directors' ability to work creatively, but it is also very much about the analysis of individual films, bringing to light a range of unheralded work, from the visual experimentation of One from the Heart (Coppola, 1981) to the experimental production contexts of Secret Honor (Altman, 1984) and the stylistic 矇lan of To Live and Die in L.A. (Friedkin, 1985). Behind the homogenous picture of the decline of the auteur in 1980s American cinema are films and careers that merit greater attention, and this book offers a new way to perceive individual films, American film history, and the viability of sustained authorial creativity within post-studio era Hollywood.
The Extreme Cinema of Eastern Europe
The Extreme Cinema of Eastern Europe examines extreme, transgressive cinema which developed following a post-2000 wave in filmmaking that aestheticised violence on audio-visual, narrative and thematic levels.Batori investigates the ways in which contemporary national trends from within Eastern Europe correspond to the global stream of transgressive filmmaking and shock aesthetics that have become the dominant markers of world cinema. Do these art productions intend to reveal and criticise aggressions in domestic landscapes or are they part of a contemporary global visual discourse? With a specific focus on gender, this book highlights both nation-specific features of these films and their relationship to global extreme art films.
Exotic Cinema
Exotic Cinema is the first systematic analysis of decentred exoticism in contemporary transnational and world cinema. By critically examining regimes of visuality such as the imperial, the ethnographic and the exotic gaze, which have colonised our minds and ways of looking, Daniela Berghahn makes an important contribution to the urgent agenda of decolonising film studies. Berghahn demonstrates that decentred exoticism's aesthetic versatility and alluring alterity are uniquely relevant for understanding the transnational appeal of world cinema. She addresses prevalent controversies surrounding exoticism and illustrates that, in contemporary world cinema, it is utilised to draw attention to new ethical and socio-political goals. Global in scope and transnational in perspective, Exotic Cinema invites students and researchers to reassess this prominent mode of cultural representation.
Stardust Memories
"Stardust Memories: Chronicles of Hollywood's Finest Era" is a deep dive into the shimmering world of Hollywood during its Golden Age. Robert Opnig weaves a captivating tapestry, threading together iconic stars, legendary directors, groundbreaking films, and the events that made Hollywood the world's film capital. As readers navigate through the highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies, they'll be transported back to a time when the silver screen glowed with unparalleled brilliance. A must-read for every film lover and history buff, this book is a nostalgic journey through the moments that defined cinematic history.
How Coppola Became Cage
An in-depth look at one of the film industry's most audacious working actors In 1982, a gangly teenager named Nicolas Coppola made his film debut and changed his name to Nicolas Cage, determined to distance himself from his famous family. Once he achieved stardom as the rebel hunk of 1983's Valley Girl, Cage began a career defined by unorthodox risks and left turns that put him at odds with the stars of the Brat Pack era. How Coppola Became Cage takes readers behind the scenes of the beloved cult movies that transformed this unknown actor into an eccentric and uncompromising screen icon with a wild-eyed gift for portraying weirdos, outsiders, criminals-and even a romantic capable of seducing Cher. Author Zach Schonfeld traces Cage's rise through the world of independent cinema and chronicles the stories behind his career-making early performances, from the method masochism of Birdy to the operatic torment of Moonstruck and abrasive expressionism of Vampire's Kiss, culminating with the astonishing pathos of Leaving Las Vegas. Drawing on more than 100 new interviews with Cage's key collaborators--including David Lynch, Martha Coolidge, John Patrick Shanley, and Mike Figgis--How Coppola Became Cage offers a revealing portrait of Cage's wildly intense devotion to his performances behind the scenes and his creative self-discovery as he drew on influences as far-flung as silent cinema and German Expressionism. These were all crucial ingredients in the creation of a singular acting style that rejects the limits of realism. Brimming with previously untold stories and insights, How Coppola Became Cage both revels in and demystifies Cage's onscreen eccentricities. No other modern actor has explored such profound creative extremes while bending the boundaries of good taste. Here is the origin story of an actor who truly is wild at heart and weird on top.
Agn癡s Varda: Director's Inspiration
A visual tribute to Agn癡s Varda's three lives as a photographer, filmmaker and artist, with previously unseen archival materials, texts and personal reflections from Jane Birkin, Martin Scorsese, JR and moreFrench filmmaker Agn癡s Varda was a trailblazer who broke new artistic and cinematic ground for nearly seven decades. Although closely associated with the French New Wave, Varda established her groundbreaking visual style in her 1955 debut film La Pointe Courte, well before other milestones such as Fran癟ois Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. Varda impacted cinema from her first feature film through her final works, with an expansive oeuvre that includes Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and the Academy Award-nominated Faces Places (2017).Agn癡s Varda: Director's Inspiration presents the first English-language visual showcase for Varda's inspirations, art and personal life, incorporating original materials from her personal archive on rue Daguerre. The book covers Varda's "three lives"--as photographer, filmmaker and visual artist--and features a previously unpublished interview Varda gave to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on the eve of receiving her Honorary Oscar in 2017. Essays by author Sasha Archibald and film critic Peter Debruge examine facets of Varda's creative lives, and personal reflections by friends and colleagues illustrate what it was like to collaborate with and be inspired by Varda.Agn癡s Varda (1928-2019) was a French filmmaker, photographer and visual artist, sometimes called the grandmother of the French New Wave. In 2018, her film with the French photographer and muralist known as JR, Faces Places, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, and that same year she received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.
Breaking Into the Movies
This classic guide to Hollywood screenwriting, written by two of the industry's most influential figures, is a must-read for aspiring writers and film historians alike. Loos and Emerson provide valuable insights into the technical, creative, and business aspects of writing for the movies, drawing on their own experiences as successful screenwriters and producers. This is an essential book for anyone interested in the history of American cinema.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
The Crisis
A thrilling silent film from 1916 based on the Civil War novel of the same name by Winston Churchill. The movie follows a wealthy plantation owner and his son as they fight for the Confederacy, all the while grappling with questions of morality and patriotism. The film was praised for its sweeping cinematography and groundbreaking special effects.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Screen Acting
This instructional guide offers practical advice and insights for aspiring screen actors. Written by two experienced professionals and endorsed by the New York Institute of Photography, the book covers topics such as auditioning, performing on camera, and developing a successful acting career. Packed with useful tips and real-world examples, this is an essential resource for anyone interested in pursuing a career in screen acting.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Through a Nuclear Lens
The Franco-Japanese coproduction Hiroshima mon amour (1959) is one of the most important films for global art cinema and for the French New Wave. In Through a Nuclear Lens, Hannah Holtzman examines this film and the transnational cycle it has inspired, as well as its legacy after the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. In a study that includes formal and theoretical analysis, archival research, and interviews, Holtzman shows the emergence of a new kind of nuclear film, one that attends to the everyday effects of nuclear disaster and its impact on our experience of space and time. The focus on Franco-Japanese exchange in cinema since the postwar period reveals a reorientation of the primarily aesthetic preoccupations in the tradition of Japonisme to center around technological and environmental concerns. The book demonstrates how French filmmakers, ever since Hiroshima mon amour, have looked to Japan in part to better understand nuclear uncertainty in France.
Is Harpo Free?
Examines how philosophical concepts like free will, personal identity, and goodness are given an artistic life in films and television programs.Is Harpo Free? is a lively appreciation of film and television's ability to artistically explore concepts typical of philosophical metaphysics, such as free will, causality, and personal identity. Rather than using films and television programs as vehicles for philosophical arguments, the book instead celebrates the artistic ways in which they give life to various metaphysical concepts and how the artistic expression of these concepts and ideas helps us understand ourselves, the world, and our place within it. Through close analysis of a varied selection of works and their use of narrative, form, and style, Is Harpo Free? exemplifies a novel approach to appreciating the philosophical substance of films and television programs. Films and television programs discussed include A Night at the Opera; Run, Lola, Run; Shane; Harvey; Three Colours: Blue; The Americans; Dark; and Fargo.
Movies of the '90s
The 1990s was an amazing decade for movies, witnessing the release of dozens of incredible films, including The Matrix, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Fargo, Jurassic Park, and so many more. Despite this embarrassment of riches, author Riley Webster believes this decade has never received as much praise or as many kudos as it deserves-until now. Whether you're a serious cinephile, a casual viewer, or merely seeking a heavy dose of 1990s nostalgia, this is the book for you.
Movies of the '90s
The 1990s was an amazing decade for movies, witnessing the release of dozens of incredible films, including The Matrix, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Fargo, Jurassic Park, and so many more. Despite this embarrassment of riches, author Riley Webster believes this decade has never received as much praise or as many kudos as it deserves-until now. Whether you're a serious cinephile, a casual viewer, or merely seeking a heavy dose of 1990s nostalgia, this is the book for you.
Indie Filmmaking in the Real World
Have you ever wondered what happens in the REAL WORLD of independent filmmaking?Indie Filmmaking in the REAL WORLD looks into the production of independent motion pictures - Not big budget Hollywood films, but films that are made for the LOVE of filmmaking. Kevin B. DiBacco - with his thirty years in the business - gives you a tour of what really happens on a film set when you have to constantly solve problems without throwing money at them. This is a fascinating look at behind the scenes in the independent filmmaking process.
Cameos
Cameos is a beautiful book showcasing a collection of cameos from ancient to modern times. The book is written by Cyril Davenport and includes stunning illustrations and descriptions of each cameo. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in art and its history.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Moses and Egypt
This fascinating book provides an in-depth look at the making of the classic Hollywood epic, The Ten Commandments. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with filmmakers and actors, it offers a detailed account of the creative process and the challenges involved in bringing the biblical story to the big screen.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Television and Radio Writing
This comprehensive guide to television and radio writing covers everything from developing ideas and creating characters to writing dialogue and editing your work. Field draws on his extensive experience as a television and radio writer to provide practical advice and insider tips for aspiring writers. Whether you're interested in writing for sitcoms, dramas, or news programs, this book has something for you. Packed with examples from popular TV shows and radio programs, this is an essential resource for anyone interested in a career in television or radio writing.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Federal Motion Picture Commission
A report on the establishment and mission of the Federal Motion Picture Commission, which was created to regulate and promote the burgeoning film industry in the United States.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Raising the Dead
George A. Romero never intended to become a master of horror, but Night of the Living Dead made him a legend of the genre. Raising the Dead dives into the expansive, extraordinary body of work found in Romero's archive, going beyond his iconic zombie movies into a deep and varied collection of writings that never made it to the big screen. From the early 1960s until his death in 2017, Romero was a hugely prolific writer, producing scripts in every conceivable genre, from arty medieval allegories to wacky comedies to grand-scale science fiction epics. Though he had difficulty funding non-horror projects, he continued to write in whatever mode his imagination dictated, and he rarely abandoned his ideas. Themes, story ideas, and even characters were re-purposed for new scripts, evolving and transforming with each new iteration and, sometimes, finding a home in a horror film. But in order to accommodate ideas that began in such different contexts, Romero would have to change the horror genre itself: a zombie movie could become a savage satire of consumerism or an excoriating critique of militaristic or capitalist hierarchies. The horror genre became what Romero made of it. Based on years of archival research, the book moves between unfilmed scripts and familiar classics, showing the remarkable scope and range of Romero's interests and the full extent of his genius. Raising the Dead is a testament to an extraordinarily productive and inventive artist who never let the restrictions of the film industry limit his imagination.
Bay Lodyans
In Haitian Creole, bay lodyans means to tell stories to an audience, and more generally, to entertain. This book is the first to analyze popular contemporary Haitian films, looking especially at how they respond to the needs and desires of Haitian audiences in and beyond Haiti. Produced between 2000 and 2018 and largely shot with digital cameras and sometimes cellphones, these films focus on the complexities of community, nostalgia, belonging, identity, and the emotional landscapes of exile and diaspora. They reflect sociopolitical and cultural issues related to family, language, im/migration, religion, gender, sexuality, and economic hardship. Using storytelling and other less traditionally "academic" techniques, C矇cile Accilien advances Haitian epistemological frameworks. Bay Lodyans integrates terms and concepts from Haitian culture, such as jerans and kafou (derived from the French words for "to manage" and "crossroads," respectively) and includes interviews with Haitian filmmakers, actors, and scholars in order to challenge the dominance of Western theoretical approaches and perspectives.
Television and Radio Writing
This comprehensive guide to television and radio writing covers everything from developing ideas and creating characters to writing dialogue and editing your work. Field draws on his extensive experience as a television and radio writer to provide practical advice and insider tips for aspiring writers. Whether you're interested in writing for sitcoms, dramas, or news programs, this book has something for you. Packed with examples from popular TV shows and radio programs, this is an essential resource for anyone interested in a career in television or radio writing.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Documentary Film
This classic work by Paul Rotha is a pioneering study of documentary film. Rotha was a prominent British film-maker and critic, and this work is still considered a milestone in the history of cinema. The book discusses the potential of documentary film to creatively interpret and represent social reality.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Documentary Film
This classic work by Paul Rotha is a pioneering study of documentary film. Rotha was a prominent British film-maker and critic, and this work is still considered a milestone in the history of cinema. The book discusses the potential of documentary film to creatively interpret and represent social reality.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Moses and Egypt
This fascinating book provides an in-depth look at the making of the classic Hollywood epic, The Ten Commandments. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with filmmakers and actors, it offers a detailed account of the creative process and the challenges involved in bringing the biblical story to the big screen.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
The Moving Picture World, Volume 18, Issues 1-7
The Moving Picture World was a trade journal for the American film industry. It was published from 1907 to 1927, and for its first ten years, was the most influential trade paper in the American motion picture industry.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Nonfiction Filmmaking for the Screen
With essays and interviews from nonfiction filmmakers, this book explores the business side of nonfiction media creation. Written for undergraduates and graduates studying filmmaking and media production, as well as aspiring nonfiction media creators and documentary filmmakers, it will help readers purse their own career.
Analysing Blindness as an adaptation of An Essay on Blindness
This book aims to analyse the film directed by Fernando Meirelles (1955) and scripted by Don McKellar, Blindness, released in 2008, as an adaptation of Jos矇 Saramago's (1922-2010) book, Ensaio sobre a cegueira, published in 1995. To do this, we will first contextualise the book and the film in the artistic production of their respective creators, in order to make clear the differences between them, since the adapter of a literary work does not share the same point of view, aesthetic concern or historical moment with its author. We will then present various critical opinions on the relationship between literature and cinema, placed chronologically, to show the intrinsic relationship that one art form has with the other. In the end, we'll be able to see clearly how the study of Literature and Cinema views a film adaptation. A film based on a literary work is neither seen nor analysed as a mere transposition of the book into another medium.
Television Publics in South Asia
Television has a prime role to play in the formation of discursive domains in the everyday life of South Asian publics. This book explores various television media practices, social processes, mediated political experiences and everyday cultural compositions from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The Othering of Women in Silent Film
In The Othering of Women in Silent Film: Cultural, Historical, and Literary Contexts, Barbara Tepa Lupackexplores the rampant racial and gender stereotyping depicted in early cinema, demonstrating how those stereotypes helped shape American attitudes and practices. Using social, cultural, literary, and cinema history as a focus, this book offers insights into issues of Othering, including discrimination, exclusion, and sexism, that are as timely today as they were a century ago. Lupack not only examines the ways that dominant cinema of the era imprinted indelible and pejorative images of women--including African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and New Women/Suffragists--but also reveals the ways in which a number of pioneering early filmmakers and performers attempted to counter those depictions by challenging the imagery, interrogating the stereotypes, and re-politicizing the familiar narratives. Scholars of film, gender, history, and race studies will find this book of particular interest.
Death by Laughter
Winner, 2025 Limina Award for Best International Film Studies Book, Cin矇ma & Cie Shortlisted, 2025 Modernist Studies Association Book Prize Shortlisted, 2025 Eiffel Award - Cinema Interpretation, Eiffel Foundation Finalist, 2024 Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate--or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries would have us believe. How could laughter be fatal, and what do these reports of women's risible deaths tell us about the politics of female joy? Maggie Hennefeld reveals the forgotten histories of "hysterical laughter," exploring how women's amusement has been theorized and demonized, suppressed and exploited. In nineteenth-century medicine and culture, hysteria was an ailment that afflicted unruly women on the cusp of emotional or nervous breakdown. Cinema, Hennefeld argues, made it possible for women to laugh outrageously as never before, with irreversible social and political consequences. As female enjoyment became a surefire promise of profitability, alarmist tales of women laughing themselves to death epitomized the tension between subversive pleasure and its violent repression. Hennefeld traces the social politics of women's laughter from the heyday of nineteenth-century sentimentalism to the collective euphoria of early film spectatorship, traversing contagious dancing outbreaks, hysteria photography, madwomen's cackling, cinematic close-ups, and screenings of slapstick movies in mental asylums. Placing little-known silent films and an archive of remarkable, often unusual texts in conversation with affect theory, comedy studies, and feminist film theory, this book makes a timely case for the power of hysterical laughter to change the world.
Death by Laughter
Winner, 2025 Limina Award for Best International Film Studies Book, Cin矇ma & Cie Shortlisted, 2025 Modernist Studies Association Book Prize Shortlisted, 2025 Eiffel Award - Cinema Interpretation, Eiffel Foundation Finalist, 2024 Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate--or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries would have us believe. How could laughter be fatal, and what do these reports of women's risible deaths tell us about the politics of female joy? Maggie Hennefeld reveals the forgotten histories of "hysterical laughter," exploring how women's amusement has been theorized and demonized, suppressed and exploited. In nineteenth-century medicine and culture, hysteria was an ailment that afflicted unruly women on the cusp of emotional or nervous breakdown. Cinema, Hennefeld argues, made it possible for women to laugh outrageously as never before, with irreversible social and political consequences. As female enjoyment became a surefire promise of profitability, alarmist tales of women laughing themselves to death epitomized the tension between subversive pleasure and its violent repression. Hennefeld traces the social politics of women's laughter from the heyday of nineteenth-century sentimentalism to the collective euphoria of early film spectatorship, traversing contagious dancing outbreaks, hysteria photography, madwomen's cackling, cinematic close-ups, and screenings of slapstick movies in mental asylums. Placing little-known silent films and an archive of remarkable, often unusual texts in conversation with affect theory, comedy studies, and feminist film theory, this book makes a timely case for the power of hysterical laughter to change the world.
The Art of DreamWorks Trolls Band Together
The Art of DreamWorks Trolls Band Together celebrates the much-anticipated latest chapter in DreamWorks Animation's blockbuster musical franchise. Following beloved Trolls Poppy and Branch on an action-packed, rainbow-colored family reunion, this insider's guide showcases hundreds of character designs and concept art from the making of the movie, along with exclusive interviews from the writers, artists, and filmmakers who brought this psychedelic joy-bomb to life. This beautiful coffee table book is a gift to animation fans.
Code of Honor
This book lavishly illustrated with photos and other rare memorabilia, examines the controversies surrounding the films, the problems experienced in their production, and the drama or comedy-that occurred among the real life cast and crew members.
Copyright Vigilantes
Copyright Vigilantes: Intellectual Property and the Hollywood Superhero explains superhero blockbusters as allegories of intellectual property relations. In movies based on characters owned by the comics duopoly of DC and Marvel, no narrative recurs more often than a villain's attempt to copy the superhero's unique powers. In this volume, author Ezra Claverie explains this fixation as a symptom of the films' mode of production. Since the 1930s, the dominant American comics publishers have treated the creations of artists and writers as work for hire, such that stories and characters become company property. Thus, publishers avoided sharing the profits both from magazine sales and from licensing characters into other media. For decades, creators have challenged this regime, demanding either shares of profits or outright ownership of their creations. Now that the duopoly rents, licenses, and adapts superheroes for increasingly expensive franchises, and for growing international audiences, any challenge to intellectual property relations threatens a production regime worth billions of dollars. Duopoly movies, therefore, present any attempt to break the superhero's monopoly on their powers as the scheme of terrorists, mad scientists, or space Nazis--assuaging studio anxieties and revealing the fears of those who benefit most from the real-world ownership of superheroes. Weaving together legal analysis, Marxist political economy, and close readings of movies, Copyright Vigilantes explains the preoccupations of Hollywood's leading genre.
Refocus: The Films of Annemarie Jacir
This book offers a transnational, internationalist-feminist approach to the oeuvre of award-winning director, writer, and curator, Annemarie Jacir.Palestinian film culture is unique due to its geopolitical circumstances, including continued colonialism and occupation, and the refugeeship of its citizens. The scholarship on the politics of film and its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - including activist work, international solidarity films, and work on Palestinian documentaries - is usually defined by historical overviews of geopolitical events and developments. In contrast, this book offers an auteur-focused study of a global artist influenced by but not limited to the political discourse surrounding the Occupied Palestinian Territories.Jacir is a Palestinian woman whose work is recognised globally as innovative, politically challenging, and genre-crossing. The book offers an in-depth study of her films and other works by locating it in a geospatial, sociocultural, and critical theoretical framework. It critically analyses Annemarie Jacir's development as an artist, filmmaker, and curator of film.
Copyright Vigilantes
Copyright Vigilantes: Intellectual Property and the Hollywood Superhero explains superhero blockbusters as allegories of intellectual property relations. In movies based on characters owned by the comics duopoly of DC and Marvel, no narrative recurs more often than a villain's attempt to copy the superhero's unique powers. In this volume, author Ezra Claverie explains this fixation as a symptom of the films' mode of production. Since the 1930s, the dominant American comics publishers have treated the creations of artists and writers as work for hire, such that stories and characters become company property. Thus, publishers avoided sharing the profits both from magazine sales and from licensing characters into other media. For decades, creators have challenged this regime, demanding either shares of profits or outright ownership of their creations. Now that the duopoly rents, licenses, and adapts superheroes for increasingly expensive franchises, and for growing international audiences, any challenge to intellectual property relations threatens a production regime worth billions of dollars. Duopoly movies, therefore, present any attempt to break the superhero's monopoly on their powers as the scheme of terrorists, mad scientists, or space Nazis--assuaging studio anxieties and revealing the fears of those who benefit most from the real-world ownership of superheroes. Weaving together legal analysis, Marxist political economy, and close readings of movies, Copyright Vigilantes explains the preoccupations of Hollywood's leading genre.
Steven Spielberg All the Films
A first-of-its-kind deep dive into Steven Spielberg's decades-long career, covering everything from early short films and television episodes to each of his more than 30 feature length-films. Organized chronologically and covering every short film, television episode, and blockbuster movie that Steven Spielberg has ever directed, Steven Spielberg All the Films draws upon years of research to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of how each project was conceived, cast, and produced; from the creation of the costumes to the search for perfect locations; details about Spielberg's work with longtime collaborators like George Lucas, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and composer John Williams; and of course, the direction of some of Hollywood's most memorable scenes. Spanning more than fifty years, this book details the creative processes that resulted in numerous classic films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Color Purple, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan (to name just a few). Newer work like Lincoln, The Post, and The Fabelmans is also featured alongside awards stats, original release dates, box office totals, casting details, and other insider scoops that will keep fans turning pages. Featuring hundreds of vivid photographs that celebrate one of cinema's most iconic artists, Steven Spielberg All the Films is the authoritative guide to the man who invented the Hollywood blockbuster.
Show
"A devastating chronicle of an aborted series." Publishers Weekly For every hit TV show, there are a hundred misses...thousands if you include the ones that never made it past their pilot, the sample episode of the proposed series.This is the inside story of one of those doomed TV pilots, a would-be 1990 sitcom about presidential speechwriters first titled E.O.B., then The War Room, and finally Word of Mouth, developed by the acclaimed writer/producer team of Bruce Paltrow, Tom Fontana, and John Tinker, fresh off of their Emmy award-winning success St. Elsewhere and in huge demand by the networks. The producers granted journalist Daniel Paisner unprecedented access, revealing for the first time exactly how television gets made... and how it doesn't.SHOW is a ground-breaking book about television that hasn't lost its impact or relevance with the passage of time...remaining unmatched for its insights into the pilot production process. Now it's back in print with the author's new introduction and an afterword by Phoef Sutton, the multiple Emmy award winning writer/producer of Cheers and Boston Legal.Praise for Show "Regardless of its age and changes to the industry over the past 30 years, SHOW gives one of the best glimpses behind the curtain at how TV gets made that I've read." Rob Owen, TribLive"Paisner takes us through the process from inception to turn-down, documenting in almost day-to-day detail the messy mechanics behind the high gloss of network television. What it shows best is the screwball randomness of network television, where the unlikeliest premise can command enormous resources and generate a monster hit--or not." Los Angeles Times"Show has made me re-live the many pilots I have worked on... and even though much has changed, much has remained the same. I don't know whether to thank you for that or curse you!" Phoef Sutton, from his Afterword"If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, successful TV shows, on the evidence of the cautionary tale at hand, almost have to be accidents of nature..." Kirkus Reviews Originally published as Horizonal Hold: The Making and Breaking of a Network Television Pilot
