"The article presents the main results of the investigation, ‘Current Situation and Prospects of Spanish Cooperation in Culture and Communication with the Rest of Ibero-America, 1997–2007’. The text offers an overview of the initiatives which took place during the period studied, by country, c
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ultural and media sectors, agents involved, and type of activity. Spain’s role in terms of cooperation in culture and communication is analysed, and a reflection on the possibility of building an Ibero-American cultural space appropriate to the new digital scene is also included. Although Ibero-America has traditionally been a privileged geopolitical space for Spanish cooperation policy, this was not developed until well into the new millennium, evolving from simplistic and rhetorical visions based on instrumental conceptions of culture and communication to a gradual recognition of the fact that cooperation is much more than the classical actions of dissemination and promotion of Spanish cultural products." (Abstract)
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"The article deals with two recent Iranian films, al-Masih (Teh Messiah) by Nader Talebzadeh and Maryam al-Muqaddasah (Holy Mary) by Shahriar Bahrani. Both movies are about religious characters shared by Islam and Christianity: Zechariah, Mary and Jesus. The article explores the way the filmmakers h
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ave made use of both Islamic and non-Islamic sources to tell their story, and it analyses the stylistic and narrative means they have employed. Are these films contributing to the mutual religious understanding of Christians and Muslims? If so, how? And if not, why not?" (Abstract)
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"This anthology aims to portray the “soft” power of Bollywood, which makes it a unique and powerful disseminator of Indian culture and values abroad. The essays in the book examine Bollywood's popularity within and outside South Asia, focusing on its role in international relations and diplomacy
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. In addition to contributions that directly engage with the notion of soft power, a number of essays in the volume testify to the attractiveness of Bollywood cinema for ethnically diverse groups across the world, probe the reasons for its appeal, and explore its audiences' identification with cinematic narratives." (Publisher description)
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"Dialogue Through Film is a unique initiative bringing together young Armenians from Nagorny Karabakh and Azerbaijanis to make short films about the conflict that divides them. Over 30 young film-makers have taken part, and thousands of Armenians and Azeris have watched their films. This handbook of
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fers information, guidance and resources for you to organise your own screenings and discussions of a selection of these films. Our aim is to encourage and facilitate independent debate in Armenian and Azerbaijani societies about each other, the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, and the many challenging issues confronting Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation and the peaceful resolution of the conflict." (Foreword)
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"This reckoning of the academic work that has been published on Nigerian and Ghanaian video films does not include theses and dissertations, of which many have been written. I have included as many books on the subject as possible whatever their character, but in order to make the project manageable
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,when dealing with articles I have had to try to maintain various distinctions: between academic and other kinds of writing, between academic publication and web postings of lectures and conference proceedings, and between articles that have the films as a primary focus and those that merely mention them. I thank the friends and colleagues who have corrected some of my omissions, especially Carmen McCain, Sam Kafewo, Osakue Omoera and Matthias Krings, and beg forgiveness for the rest." (Abstract)
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"It has not been uncommon in the history of Jesus in film for commercial movies of Jesus' life to be conscripted for Christian evangelism around the world. Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927), John Krish and Peter Sykes' Jesus (1979), better known today as The Jesus Film, and Mel Gibson's Th
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e Passion of the Christ (2004) are but three notable examples. Each of those movies, however, was first produced in America for American audiences. In the case of Karunamayudu (1978), a Telugu commercial movie of Jesus' life, the target audience was South Indian viewers raised on a steady diet of mythological and social films and immersed in a pluralistic religious environment unlike any Western society at the time. In this essay I explain how and why this film, with its unique production history, was co-opted by evangelicals for Christian witness in India." (Abstract)
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"Das Lexikon Filmsprache von A bis Z bietet verständliche Definitionen von wichtigen Begriffen zur Filmsprache und zum filmischen Erzählen für den schulischen und universitären Gebrauch. Die Zusammenstellung der Artikel ist aber auch für die filmische Praxis am Set und für den Einsatz in medie
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npädagogischen Projekten geeignet. Nicht zuletzt sollen auch alle Filmfans angesprochen werden, die einmal einen Blick hinter die Kulissen des Filmemachens werfen wollen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Be they musicals or melodramas, war movies or animation, Russian films have a long and fascinating history of addressing the major social and political events of their time. From Sergei Eisenstein’s anti-tsarist drama, Battleship Potemkin, to socialist realism, to the post-glasnost thematic explo
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sion, this volume explores the socio-political impact of the cinema of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Introductory essays establish key players and situate important genres within their cultural and industrial milieus, while reviews and case studies analyze individual titles in considerable depth." (Back cover)
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"Seit dem Ende der Kulturrevolution 1976 hat das festlandchinesische Kino verschiedene Phasen durchlaufen und erstaunliche Entwicklungen vollzogen. Im Zentrum dieses Buchs stehen Analysen herausragender Spielfilme der Vierten bis Sechsten Generation sowie wichtiger Werke der Neuen Dokumentarfilmbewe
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gung. Angesprochen werden darin Fragen zur filmischen Raumkonstruktion, zum schwierigen Erbe des Maoismus und des Konfuzianismus, zur Politik des «post-sozialistischen Realismus», zum Genderdiskurs in der Medienkultur und zur filmischen Darstellung der urbanen Metropolen. Sie werden ergänzt durch kritische Sichtungen chinesischer Filmtheorie und Bildgeschichte." (Klappentext)
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"The media intervention programs and training initiatives for Arabs reflect hegemonies and dependencies. Taking into consideration the absence of a public cinema infrastructure in the Arab World and thus the lack of institutional representation or backing for film-makers leads one to question to wha
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t degree the director can control her/his story. Or in other words, to what extent the films, which are read as national works, can reflect debates or atmospheres in their country of origin at all? The decoding of films, not only from the Middle East, is in many cases national, as the case of Paradise Now showed. Critics’ reactions to Waltz with Bashir suggest that the reading of the film is connected to the actual political experience within the region versus political assumptions about it, a rather regional reading. An aspect entirely missing in the Western decoding process of films from the Middle East is the question who was involved in the encoding. The critics, who translate the film to the wider audience, focus on the films’ subjects or manipulations, rather than on the economic and institutional backing of the creation and thus interests behind it. After completing the film it is solely the director who has to defend the work as a statement from and about her/his country. Regardless of formal ownership and the involvement of co-producing states these films are marketed as documents from and about the country in which the story takes place. The majority of co-productions by directors from the Middle East, like the majority of films produced at all, get little attention. It is the films with international recognition, be it by box office numbers or debates that are remembered. One could easily assume that Paradise Now will become part of a Palestinian collective memory. Yet, without physical archives in the Arab countries, and Palestine not even being a state, how long will the co-produced movies be accessible as part of cultural heritage? In French and German archives the film rolls will be stored and made accessible, it is in Europe where Arabs will still have to look for their cultural memory in the distant future." (Conclusion, page 11-12)
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