Pub Date : 2023-03-23DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2192110
Qi Ai, Liao Zhang
ABSTRACT Held annually during late July in Xi’ning in northwest China, the FIRST International Film Festival (hereafter FIRST) is an exhibition event and cultivation platform for new emerging Chinese filmmakers developing at home and expanding overseas visibility. It is probably the only festival in the country that persevered with offline activities over three years from 2020 to 2022, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted in July 2022, this interview focuses upon Mr. Wen Song and Mr. Yinglong Tong, the founder and the Head of Publicity of the festival, respectively. It contains three parts and through these conversations, readers can learn about the festival’s core tenets and industry positioning, the impact of the pandemic on the festival’s programmes and on its operation. More important, this primary information reveals how Chinese film festivals in general and FIRST in particular survived and sustained itself in the pandemic period (2020) and the post-pandemic period (after 2020). It offers a lens through which readers can see the cultural landscape of the Chinese film industry in this uncertain period.
{"title":"The FIRST international film festival and its operation under the COVID-19 pandemic: an interview with Wen Song and Yinglong Tong","authors":"Qi Ai, Liao Zhang","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2192110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2192110","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Held annually during late July in Xi’ning in northwest China, the FIRST International Film Festival (hereafter FIRST) is an exhibition event and cultivation platform for new emerging Chinese filmmakers developing at home and expanding overseas visibility. It is probably the only festival in the country that persevered with offline activities over three years from 2020 to 2022, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted in July 2022, this interview focuses upon Mr. Wen Song and Mr. Yinglong Tong, the founder and the Head of Publicity of the festival, respectively. It contains three parts and through these conversations, readers can learn about the festival’s core tenets and industry positioning, the impact of the pandemic on the festival’s programmes and on its operation. More important, this primary information reveals how Chinese film festivals in general and FIRST in particular survived and sustained itself in the pandemic period (2020) and the post-pandemic period (after 2020). It offers a lens through which readers can see the cultural landscape of the Chinese film industry in this uncertain period.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81326464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2185381
L. Freijo
ABSTRACT This article aims to realise a methodological de-Westernisation of the Western film genre through a comparative analysis of Chloé Zhao's The Rider and Lisandro Alonso's Jauja. Through the Derridean concepts of sous rature, différance, the trace and hauntology, several conventions of the Western genre are discussed and analysed, including the landscape, masculinity and the denial of climactic endings. The search for meaning is present in the two main male characters, but whereas Brady (Brady Jandreau) crafts a gentle approach to a cowboy masculinity in the twenty-first century through both riding and a sense of belonging to the landscape, captain Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) in Jauja finds himself lost because of his rigid colonial approach to the Patagonian landscape. The endings of the two films are deferred, indicating, in The Rider, the continuity of the search for meaning beyond the conventions of the Western, and the disjuncture of time as a result of colonial violence in Jauja. Ultimately, this article proposes that this Derridean methodology, when suffused with a World Cinema perspective, can debunk established notions of centrality and ownership in relation to genre studies.
{"title":"Tabula rasa: the Western under erasure in The Rider and Jauja","authors":"L. Freijo","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2185381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2185381","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims to realise a methodological de-Westernisation of the Western film genre through a comparative analysis of Chloé Zhao's The Rider and Lisandro Alonso's Jauja. Through the Derridean concepts of sous rature, différance, the trace and hauntology, several conventions of the Western genre are discussed and analysed, including the landscape, masculinity and the denial of climactic endings. The search for meaning is present in the two main male characters, but whereas Brady (Brady Jandreau) crafts a gentle approach to a cowboy masculinity in the twenty-first century through both riding and a sense of belonging to the landscape, captain Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) in Jauja finds himself lost because of his rigid colonial approach to the Patagonian landscape. The endings of the two films are deferred, indicating, in The Rider, the continuity of the search for meaning beyond the conventions of the Western, and the disjuncture of time as a result of colonial violence in Jauja. Ultimately, this article proposes that this Derridean methodology, when suffused with a World Cinema perspective, can debunk established notions of centrality and ownership in relation to genre studies.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85437668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2184921
A. Spicer
{"title":"Cinema and Soft Power: Configuring the National and Transnational in Geo-Politics","authors":"A. Spicer","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2184921","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2184921","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87189242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2170762
Luisela Alvaray
ABSTRACT This essay focuses on the way streaming services participate in the production and distribution of films and series in Argentina. It is part of a more general attempt to comprehend ways in which multinational media corporations are altering the Latin American audiovisual space, given that global/local interactions have become ever more integrated. Thus, the series El marginal and El reino offer evidence to analyse the interfaces between public and private, foreign and domestic organizations that negotiated the creation and distribution of both series. They also illuminate certain aspects of the narratives (genre tropes, universalized content) that may have contributed to their international success. Substantial foreign funding and ease of availability through streaming platforms have placed otherwise obscure series at the centre of global attention. But there are foreign corporations that come to Latin America just to take advantage of inexpensive production opportunities. While they create job alternatives for local audiovisual workers, some critics are asking whether there is an audiovisual sovereignty that needs to be reclaimed, in view of the foreign intervention. Reframing such question, this work proposes that constructing a national culture through the audiovisual industry does not entail being alienated from global currents – development may depend on negotiation and integration.
{"title":"Of how streaming platforms are changing the audiovisual space in Latin America","authors":"Luisela Alvaray","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2170762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2170762","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay focuses on the way streaming services participate in the production and distribution of films and series in Argentina. It is part of a more general attempt to comprehend ways in which multinational media corporations are altering the Latin American audiovisual space, given that global/local interactions have become ever more integrated. Thus, the series El marginal and El reino offer evidence to analyse the interfaces between public and private, foreign and domestic organizations that negotiated the creation and distribution of both series. They also illuminate certain aspects of the narratives (genre tropes, universalized content) that may have contributed to their international success. Substantial foreign funding and ease of availability through streaming platforms have placed otherwise obscure series at the centre of global attention. But there are foreign corporations that come to Latin America just to take advantage of inexpensive production opportunities. While they create job alternatives for local audiovisual workers, some critics are asking whether there is an audiovisual sovereignty that needs to be reclaimed, in view of the foreign intervention. Reframing such question, this work proposes that constructing a national culture through the audiovisual industry does not entail being alienated from global currents – development may depend on negotiation and integration.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75782968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2184568
Anamarija Horvat
ABSTRACT This article examines Srđan Dragojević’s film The Parade (Parada), a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Monte Negro, Slovenia and the Council of Europe, analysing how it engages with both queer rights and nationalist memory narratives. The Parade was released in 2011, a year after an anti-gay riot led to more than 100 people being injured at Belgrade Pride. In spite of these events, Dragojević’s comedy-drama and its depiction of an unlikely friendship between a homophobic criminal and a gay veterinarian became a box-office hit both in Serbia and in neighbouring countries. This popularity is all the more interesting due to how the film depicts not only LGBTQI activism, but also the history of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the question of transnational solidarity. In doing so, The Parade is emblematic of other queer films produced in the region, with works such as the Croatian Fine Dead Girls and The Constitution, the Bosnian Go West and the Slovenian Guardian of the Frontier also thematising homophobic prejudice in conjunction with nationalism and memories of war. Drawing on this, this article examines how The Parade and other films in the region such as Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution address queer identity, memory and (trans)nationalism.
{"title":"Bring on The Parade: queer cinema, memories of war and transnationalism in Srđan Dragojević’s Parada (2011)","authors":"Anamarija Horvat","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2184568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2184568","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines Srđan Dragojević’s film The Parade (Parada), a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Monte Negro, Slovenia and the Council of Europe, analysing how it engages with both queer rights and nationalist memory narratives. The Parade was released in 2011, a year after an anti-gay riot led to more than 100 people being injured at Belgrade Pride. In spite of these events, Dragojević’s comedy-drama and its depiction of an unlikely friendship between a homophobic criminal and a gay veterinarian became a box-office hit both in Serbia and in neighbouring countries. This popularity is all the more interesting due to how the film depicts not only LGBTQI activism, but also the history of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the question of transnational solidarity. In doing so, The Parade is emblematic of other queer films produced in the region, with works such as the Croatian Fine Dead Girls and The Constitution, the Bosnian Go West and the Slovenian Guardian of the Frontier also thematising homophobic prejudice in conjunction with nationalism and memories of war. Drawing on this, this article examines how The Parade and other films in the region such as Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution address queer identity, memory and (trans)nationalism.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74617845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2180201
Isabel Seguí, Marina Cavalcanti Tedesco, Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha, D. Shaw
ABSTRACT Conference panels allow for free-flowing conversation with panellists and the audience. They lead to insights that come through thinking together with people that can bring complementary knowledge to the discussion. Yet these exchanges can also be ephemeral with ideas evaporating as we engage with the next paper or panel discussion. We address this in a search for a lasting contribution to debates in this write up of a panel on women and cinema, for the conference ‘Women and Cinema in Ibero-America: Politics, Histories, Representations, Intersectionality’, at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in September 2022. We agreed that the topics and the discussion at our panel were of broad interest and provide food for thought for academics wanting to adopt a decolonial feminist approach. Topics that we discussed included, how to approach archival research in women’s film and video, and how to ‘depatriarchalise’ the archives, and democratise access to them, as fundamental to offering a feminist perspective in archival research; how to challenge a Western androcentric paradigm and auteurist perspectives that too often erase women’s contribution to film cultures; and, how to challenge epistemological barriers that deny women creators voices. In addition, the panel presented a first-hand perspective of eurocentrism and the experience of European academia for a researcher from Brazil and discuss how a decolonial feminist film curator/programmer can be a gate-opener rather than a gate-keeper.
{"title":"Decolonising and depatriarchalising research cultures: a conversation with RAMA, the transnational Latin American women’s audiovisual research network","authors":"Isabel Seguí, Marina Cavalcanti Tedesco, Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha, D. Shaw","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2180201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2180201","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Conference panels allow for free-flowing conversation with panellists and the audience. They lead to insights that come through thinking together with people that can bring complementary knowledge to the discussion. Yet these exchanges can also be ephemeral with ideas evaporating as we engage with the next paper or panel discussion. We address this in a search for a lasting contribution to debates in this write up of a panel on women and cinema, for the conference ‘Women and Cinema in Ibero-America: Politics, Histories, Representations, Intersectionality’, at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in September 2022. We agreed that the topics and the discussion at our panel were of broad interest and provide food for thought for academics wanting to adopt a decolonial feminist approach. Topics that we discussed included, how to approach archival research in women’s film and video, and how to ‘depatriarchalise’ the archives, and democratise access to them, as fundamental to offering a feminist perspective in archival research; how to challenge a Western androcentric paradigm and auteurist perspectives that too often erase women’s contribution to film cultures; and, how to challenge epistemological barriers that deny women creators voices. In addition, the panel presented a first-hand perspective of eurocentrism and the experience of European academia for a researcher from Brazil and discuss how a decolonial feminist film curator/programmer can be a gate-opener rather than a gate-keeper.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81080746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2178610
Fernando Sánchez López
ABSTRACT Under Francoist Spain, the National Interest awards became the state strategy to determine the films which best mirrored the national spirit, as understood by the dictatorship. However, the flaws of this logic were evident when Surcos/Furrows managed to win in 1951. In this essay, I argue that José Antonio Nieves Condes’ film destabilized the concept of national cinema on two different fronts: formally and politically. First, Furrows presents a mix of aesthetics, genres and ideological discourses that is irreconcilable with the rigid mode of cinema proposed by the Francoist state. The interwoven discursive confluence in the film problematizes the narrow criteria set by the National Interest awards, something that can be seen in Furrows’ conservative but dissident ideology and its foreign cinematic influences. Second, the award reveals the internal tensions within the state – as it was the state film institute itself that heralded a film that undercut the nationalist discourses favored by Franco’s regime.
{"title":"Destabilizing Spanish National Cinema: Surcos/Furrows (1951) as a ‘Film of National Interest’","authors":"Fernando Sánchez López","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2023.2178610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2023.2178610","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Under Francoist Spain, the National Interest awards became the state strategy to determine the films which best mirrored the national spirit, as understood by the dictatorship. However, the flaws of this logic were evident when Surcos/Furrows managed to win in 1951. In this essay, I argue that José Antonio Nieves Condes’ film destabilized the concept of national cinema on two different fronts: formally and politically. First, Furrows presents a mix of aesthetics, genres and ideological discourses that is irreconcilable with the rigid mode of cinema proposed by the Francoist state. The interwoven discursive confluence in the film problematizes the narrow criteria set by the National Interest awards, something that can be seen in Furrows’ conservative but dissident ideology and its foreign cinematic influences. Second, the award reveals the internal tensions within the state – as it was the state film institute itself that heralded a film that undercut the nationalist discourses favored by Franco’s regime.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78944379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2022.2141459
Dona M. Kercher
The San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF), the longest running festival in the Spanish-speaking world, celebrated its 70th anniversary edition on September 16–24, 2022, screening some 200 movies. The annual SSIFF is classified as a category A competitive festival by FIAPF (International Film Producers Association). When SSIFF began in the 1950s, it was the obligatory fourth stop in the festival calendar after Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Hitchcock premiered both Vertigo and North by Northwest at San Sebastián. As currently organized, SSIFF consists of eight competitive divisions: The Official Competition, New Directors, Horizontes Latinos/Latin Horizons for films from Latin America, and Zabatelgi Tabakalera for experimental or ‘heterogenous’ films, Zinemira for Basque cinema, WIP Latam (Works in Progress from Latin America), WIP Europe and Nest for film school products, mostly shorts. In addition, there are showcase sections, whose films still can compete for some non-categorical prizes: Made in Spain and Perlas/Pearls for films which already debuted at other major festivals this year. Further, there are non-competitive sections unique to SSIFF: a retrospective of one classic director for which the festival publishes an academic book, this year on Claude Sautet; and Culinary Cinema, whose films are accompanied by hotly sought after ticketed dinners prepared by top global chefs, most often from Asia and Latin America, featured in or related to the respective movies. This year Virgilio Martínez of Lima, Peru’s Central, the number 4 ranked restaurant in the world, prepared the dinner that was paired with the film Virgilio about him and his wife, Pia León, and their rapidly expanding restaurant empire. This section underscores San Sebastián’s tourist status as the top gastronomical destination in the world, according to The Times of London. There is an ongoing joke that people come to SSIFF for the food. Finally, SSIFF bestows two lifetime career awards, called Donostia Awards in gala events, one to a filmmaker and another to an actor. David Cronenberg and Juliette Binoche were so honored for 2022. Since SSIFF has a lower budget than most other category A festivals, it is less able to attract major Hollywood stars or English language titles, though some are included out of competition with special promotions such as this year’s ‘surprise film’ Blonde, or the closing gala film, Neil Jordan’s Marlowe, starring Liam Neelson, which had been filmed in Barcelona. These were disappointing offerings. Instead, SSIFF focuses more strongly and successfully on Asia, Europe and Latin America. This year, for example, the veteran Chinese filmmaker Chao Wang won the Silver Shell for best screenplay for A Woman. It
{"title":"Review of San Sebastián International Film Festival 2022","authors":"Dona M. Kercher","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2022.2141459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2022.2141459","url":null,"abstract":"The San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF), the longest running festival in the Spanish-speaking world, celebrated its 70th anniversary edition on September 16–24, 2022, screening some 200 movies. The annual SSIFF is classified as a category A competitive festival by FIAPF (International Film Producers Association). When SSIFF began in the 1950s, it was the obligatory fourth stop in the festival calendar after Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Hitchcock premiered both Vertigo and North by Northwest at San Sebastián. As currently organized, SSIFF consists of eight competitive divisions: The Official Competition, New Directors, Horizontes Latinos/Latin Horizons for films from Latin America, and Zabatelgi Tabakalera for experimental or ‘heterogenous’ films, Zinemira for Basque cinema, WIP Latam (Works in Progress from Latin America), WIP Europe and Nest for film school products, mostly shorts. In addition, there are showcase sections, whose films still can compete for some non-categorical prizes: Made in Spain and Perlas/Pearls for films which already debuted at other major festivals this year. Further, there are non-competitive sections unique to SSIFF: a retrospective of one classic director for which the festival publishes an academic book, this year on Claude Sautet; and Culinary Cinema, whose films are accompanied by hotly sought after ticketed dinners prepared by top global chefs, most often from Asia and Latin America, featured in or related to the respective movies. This year Virgilio Martínez of Lima, Peru’s Central, the number 4 ranked restaurant in the world, prepared the dinner that was paired with the film Virgilio about him and his wife, Pia León, and their rapidly expanding restaurant empire. This section underscores San Sebastián’s tourist status as the top gastronomical destination in the world, according to The Times of London. There is an ongoing joke that people come to SSIFF for the food. Finally, SSIFF bestows two lifetime career awards, called Donostia Awards in gala events, one to a filmmaker and another to an actor. David Cronenberg and Juliette Binoche were so honored for 2022. Since SSIFF has a lower budget than most other category A festivals, it is less able to attract major Hollywood stars or English language titles, though some are included out of competition with special promotions such as this year’s ‘surprise film’ Blonde, or the closing gala film, Neil Jordan’s Marlowe, starring Liam Neelson, which had been filmed in Barcelona. These were disappointing offerings. Instead, SSIFF focuses more strongly and successfully on Asia, Europe and Latin America. This year, for example, the veteran Chinese filmmaker Chao Wang won the Silver Shell for best screenplay for A Woman. It","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78264545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2022.2144929
Wikanda Promkhuntong
ABSTRACT This article explores the subject known in the Anglophone context as ‘runaway’ film productions through examining records by peripheral film workers and the legacy associated with a specific film location in Thailand. Considering the post-Cold War period when ‘foreign’ filmmaking had just taken off and the more recent (post)-COVID-19 labour movement within the country, the article proposes a revisit to film production history via a consideration of on-the-fringe paratexts, sporadically circulated in the public domain, as a way to explore discourses associated with this kind of transnational film productions. The article draws on two key written records associated with the making of The Killing Fields (1984) namely a set diary by the late Sompol Sungkawess, a writer/translator who worked as a local assistant director for the film; and a published monologue by the late Spalding Gray, a playwright/performer who took a minor role in the movie. By conducting a ‘palimpsestuous reading’ of these accounts along with various site-specific traces, the article explores past and present conditions and practices with the aim to project alternative imaginaries of transnational screen service industry from a global South standpoint.
{"title":"‘Runaway’ foreign film productions from a global South perspective: film workers’ memories and site-specific traces from Thailand","authors":"Wikanda Promkhuntong","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2022.2144929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2022.2144929","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the subject known in the Anglophone context as ‘runaway’ film productions through examining records by peripheral film workers and the legacy associated with a specific film location in Thailand. Considering the post-Cold War period when ‘foreign’ filmmaking had just taken off and the more recent (post)-COVID-19 labour movement within the country, the article proposes a revisit to film production history via a consideration of on-the-fringe paratexts, sporadically circulated in the public domain, as a way to explore discourses associated with this kind of transnational film productions. The article draws on two key written records associated with the making of The Killing Fields (1984) namely a set diary by the late Sompol Sungkawess, a writer/translator who worked as a local assistant director for the film; and a published monologue by the late Spalding Gray, a playwright/performer who took a minor role in the movie. By conducting a ‘palimpsestuous reading’ of these accounts along with various site-specific traces, the article explores past and present conditions and practices with the aim to project alternative imaginaries of transnational screen service industry from a global South standpoint.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91380480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-23DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2022.2107685
Yael Friedman, Maryam Ghorbankarimi
ABSTRACT The 21st century resurgence of the political thriller genre was informed by two factors: the post 9/11 geo-politics and the new global landscape of film and television. Tehran (Kan, 2021-), the recent political thriller series from Israel on Apple TV+, offers an illuminating example of the transnationalisation of the genre. By analysing the series along with discussions on its production context and reception in Israel, Iran and internationally, we demonstrate the complex and shifting relationship between the entertainment and the political elements, which typify the genre and its global travel. Revolving around the topical geo-political issues, the series’ action-based plot delineates an Israeli military operation to neutralise the Iranian nuclear reactor, while deeper layers of the narrative point to its political aim: countering negative representations of Iran and provoking a critique of Israel’s own forms of oppression and its internal identity crisis. Placing at its centre a young Israeli female agent, whose complexity is rooted in her hybrid identity as a migrant Iranian-Jew, the series renders visible suppressed histories of Iranian-Jewry’s fractured relationship with Zionism. This, we claim, is the core of the series’ political critique, which despite its potential subversion was largely lost in the reception space.
{"title":"The politics of the political thrillers: de-othering Iran in Tehran (Kan, 2021-)","authors":"Yael Friedman, Maryam Ghorbankarimi","doi":"10.1080/25785273.2022.2107685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2022.2107685","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The 21st century resurgence of the political thriller genre was informed by two factors: the post 9/11 geo-politics and the new global landscape of film and television. Tehran (Kan, 2021-), the recent political thriller series from Israel on Apple TV+, offers an illuminating example of the transnationalisation of the genre. By analysing the series along with discussions on its production context and reception in Israel, Iran and internationally, we demonstrate the complex and shifting relationship between the entertainment and the political elements, which typify the genre and its global travel. Revolving around the topical geo-political issues, the series’ action-based plot delineates an Israeli military operation to neutralise the Iranian nuclear reactor, while deeper layers of the narrative point to its political aim: countering negative representations of Iran and provoking a critique of Israel’s own forms of oppression and its internal identity crisis. Placing at its centre a young Israeli female agent, whose complexity is rooted in her hybrid identity as a migrant Iranian-Jew, the series renders visible suppressed histories of Iranian-Jewry’s fractured relationship with Zionism. This, we claim, is the core of the series’ political critique, which despite its potential subversion was largely lost in the reception space.","PeriodicalId":36578,"journal":{"name":"Transnational Screens","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78037126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：