Liza Bear's Beyond the Frame: Dialogues with World Filmmakers explores the world cinema of the past 25 years, and celebrates its range and diversity by paying detailed attention to the creative process. It contains roughly 50 interviews with, and short pieces on directors and other artistic collaborators from over twenty countries, primarily in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Liza Bear's incisive interviews provide immediate and rapid insights into directors' key themes and concerns. Her continual attention to bodies of work also allows the directors to explain what guided them in their respective movements towards and away from certain themes and genres. While directors are notorious for keeping their cards close to their chest, most of the interviews provided here have a stunning degree of openness and honesty, perhaps because many of these voices have had such a hard time getting heard in the first place. The dialogues examine, among other issues: the sources of the scripts, how the films get made and, where possible, the socioeconomic and cultural conditions under which the directors have worked, from Argentina to Iran to Romania. In addition to the interviews, there is an introduction by noted author Robin Andersen that elucidates recurrent themes arising out of the discussions, a foreword by Laurence Kardish, Film Curator at the Museum of Modern Art, filmographies, and numerous photographs.

Liza Bear's Beyond the Frame provides immediate insights into the modus operandi of many of the most intriguing figures of world cinema from the past 20 years. This lively collection consists of in-depth profiles reprinted from the cultural quarterly Bomb, and feature stories written for the mass media. Speaking here in their own voices are master directors such as Gillian Armstrong, Milos Forman, Takeshi Kitano, Wong Kar-wai, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jacques Rivette, Ousmane Sembene, Agnes Varda, and Zhang Yimou. The spontaneity of the exchanges cuts to the creative quick. What drives filmmakers? What are the sources of their scripts? How do art films get made? These and other questions explored in incisive interviews uncover a rich array of topics, from sociopolitical context and family collaborations to directorial choices of casting, location, and mise-en-scene. In addition to cinema veterans, the book focuses on debut features such as Alejandro Inarritu's Amores Perros, Shirley Barrett's Love Serenade, Samira Makhmalbaf's The Apple, and Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon. Other highly original films discussed include Infernal Affairs, Swimming Pool, and Princess Mononoke. Supplementary to the interviews is an introduction by noted author Robin Andersen that elucidates recurrent themes arising out of the discussions, a foreword by Laurence A. Kardish, Film Curator at the Museum of Modern Art, an index, and numerous photographs.

How artists' magazines, in all their ephemerality, materiality, and temporary intensity, challenged mainstream art criticism and the gallery system. During the 1960s and 1970s, magazines became an important new site of artistic practice, functioning as an alternative exhibition space for the dematerialized practices of conceptual art. Artists created works expressly for these mass-produced, hand-editioned pages, using the ephemerality and the materiality of the magazine to challenge the conventions of both artistic medium and gallery. In Artists' Magazines, Gwen Allen looks at the most important of these magazines in their heyday (the 1960s to the 1980s) and compiles a comprehensive, illustrated directory of hundreds of others. Among the magazines Allen examines are Aspen (1965–1971), a multimedia magazine in a box—issues included Super-8 films, flexi-disc records, critical writings, artists' postage stamps, and collectible chapbooks; Avalanche (1970-1976), which expressed the countercultural character of the emerging SoHo art community through its interviews and artist-designed contributions; and Real Life (1979-1994), published by Thomas Lawson and Susan Morgan as a forum for the Pictures generation. These and the other magazines Allen examines expressed their differences from mainstream media in both form and content: they cast their homemade, do-it-yourself quality against the slickness of an Artforum, and they created work that defied the formalist orthodoxy of the day. Artists' Magazines, featuring abundant color illustrations of magazine covers and content, offers an essential guide to a little-explored medium.

*A timely window on the world of Middle Eastern cinema, this remarkable overview includes many essays that provide the first scholarly analysis of significant works by key filmmakers in the region.

In the vibrant heart of Kolkata, where the old-world charm meets the frenetic energy of modern life, two friends dared to dream. Rito and Sayan, united by their passion for cinema, embarked on a journey to create a film that would leave an indelible mark on the world. "Beyond The Frame" is their story tale of unwavering dedication, relentless struggles, and the triumph of creative spirit. This novel chronicles the tumultuous yet exhilarating journey of Rito and Sayan as they navigate the treacherous waters of filmmaking. From casting the perfect hero and heroine, grappling with budget constraints, and dealing with unforeseen political disturbances, to the emotional entanglements that threaten to derail their dream, every step of their journey is a testament to their resilience and passion.

Based on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Onscreen/Offscreen is an exploration of the politics and being of filmic images. The book examines contestations inside and outside the Tamil film industry over the question "what is an image?" Answers to this question may be found in the ontological politics that take place on film sets, in theatre halls, and in the social fabric of everyday life in South India, from populist electoral politics and the gendering of social space to caste uplift and domination. Bridging and synthesizing linguistic anthropology, film studies, visual studies, and media anthropology, Onscreen/Offscreen rethinks key issues across a number of fields concerned with the semiotic constitution of social life, from the performativity and ontology of images to questions of spectatorship, realism, and presence. In doing so, it offers both a challenge to any approach that would separate image from social context and a new vision for linguistic anthropology beyond the question of "language."

This forward-looking exploration of contemporary American film across the last 40 years identifies and examines the specific movies that changed the film industry and shaped its present and future. Since the mid-1970s, American cinema has gone through enormous changes, such as the birth of the modern summer blockbuster, the rise of the independent film industry, ongoing technological advancements in special effects, and the ever-evolving models for film distribution. Written by a professional film critic and film buff, this book tells the story of contemporary American cinema in a unique and engaging way: by examining 25 key movies that demonstrated a significant creative, technological, or business innovation that impacted the industry at large. Each chapter in this chronological survey of contemporary film is divided into two sections: "The Film," which offers a critical overview of the film in question; and "The First," which describes the specific innovation achieved by that film and places that achievement in the larger historical context. Two additional appendices in each chapter explore other significant aspects of both the film and its groundbreaking nature. The broad coverage—ranging from action movies to horror films to science fiction favorites—ensures the work's appeal to all film fans.

From struggles over identity politics in the 1990s to current concerns about a clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity, culture wars play a prominent role in the twenty-first century. Movies help to define and drive these conflicts by both reflecting and shaping cultural norms, as well as showing what violates those norms. In this pathfinding book, Daniel S. Cutrara employs queer theory, cultural studies, theological studies, and film studies to investigate how cinema represents and often denigrates religion and religious believers—an issue that has received little attention in film studies, despite the fact that faith in its varied manifestations is at the heart of so many cultural conflicts today. Wicked Cinema examines films from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, including Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Circle, Breaking the Waves, Closed Doors, Agnes of God, Priest, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Dogma. Central to all of the films is their protagonists' struggles with sexual transgression and traditional belief systems within Christianity, Judaism, or Islam—a struggle, Cutrara argues, that positions believers as the Other and magnifies the abuses of religion while ignoring its positive aspects. Uncovering a hazardous web of ideological assumptions informed by patriarchy, the spirit/flesh dichotomy, and heteronormativity, Cutrara demonstrates that ultimately these films emphasize the "Otherness" of the faithful through a variety of strategies commonly used to denigrate the queer, from erasing their existence, to using feminization to make them appear weak, to presenting them as dangerous fanatics.

Presents an updated account of Hong Kong and its culture two decades after its reversion to China. In Found in Transition, Yiu-Wai Chu examines the fate of Hong Kong’s unique cultural identity in the contexts of both global capitalism and the increasing influence of China. Drawing on recent developments, especially with respect to language, movies, and popular songs as modes of resistance to “Mainlandization” and different forms of censorship, Chu explores the challenges facing Hong Kong twenty years after its reversion to China as a Special Administrative Region. Highlighting locality and hybridity along postcolonial lines of interpretation, he also attempts to imagine the future of Hong Kong by utilizing Hong Kong studies as a method. Chu argues that the study of Hong Kong—the place where the impact of the rise of China is most intensely felt—can shed light on emergent crises in different areas of the world. As such, this book represents a consequential follow-up to the author’s Lost in Transition and a valuable contribution to international, area, and cultural studies. “This is a wide-ranging and worthy sequel to Chu’s Lost in Transition. By juxtaposing a series of critical issues—urban development, self-writing, language education, and cultural production, among others—that have confounded those who care deeply about this former British colony, Chu offers his readers an intelligent and sensitive guide to connect and make sense of the various debates, and he places the conundrums Hong Kong faces in the contexts of both the limits of neoliberal capitalism and the ‘Age of China.’” — Leo K. Shin, author of The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands

The world of cinematography has changed more in the last few years than it has since it has in 1929, when sound recording was introduced. New technology, new tools and new methods have revolutionized the art and craft of telling stories visually. While some aspects of visual language, lighting and color are eternal, shooting methods, workflow and cameras have changed radically. Even experienced film artists have a need to update and review new methods and equipment. These change affect not only the director of photography but also the director, the camera assistants, gaffers, and digital imaging technicians. Cinematography: Theory and Practice covers both the artistry and craftsmanship of cinematography and visual storytelling. Few art forms are as tied to their tools and technology as is cinematography. Take your mastery of these new tools, techniques, and roles to the next level with this cutting-edge roadmap from author and filmmaker Blain Brown. Whether you are a student of filmmaking, just breaking into the business, currently working in the industry and looking to move up to the next level, or an experienced professional who wants to update their knowledge of tools and techniques, this book provides both a basic introduction to these issues as well as more advanced and in-depth coverage of the subject. The companion website features additional material, including lighting demonstrations, basic methods of lighting, using diffusion and other topics. Topics Include: Visual language Visual storytelling Continuity and coverage Cameras and digital sensors Exposure techniques for film and video Color in-depth Understanding digital images Waveform monitors, vectorscopes, and test charts Using linear, gamma, and log encoded video Image control and grading on the set The tools and basics of film lighting ASC-CDL, ACES and other new methods Optics and focus Camera movement Set operations Green screen, high speed and other topics