{"title":"Elemental Documentary: Fire, Forensics and Pyro-Epistemologies","authors":"P. Smith","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines the interconnections between fire and Indigenous politics, geographies and epistemologies. More precisely, the article focuses on how different modes of emergent nonfiction media practice are engaging with the pyrological and interrogating its entanglements with Indigenous forms of existence and ecological-political struggle in a moment of escalating climate catastrophe and capitalist settler-colonial exploitation and extraction. The article explores how the pyrological and the ecological are framed and taken up in markedly contrasting discursive, visual and formal ways across these modes of nonfiction media practice. At a broader conceptual level, I examine these divergent engagements with pyro-ecologies to map out how countervailing currents in contemporary documentary practice differently approach conceptualisations of both the evidentiary and the epistemological in relation to Indigenous politics and ontologies. I argue that these engagements manifest differently across these works depending upon the degree to which they remain attentive to – and engaged with – Indigenous modes of ecologically-conscious land-based knowledge, pedagogy and evidence.","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123858083","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}
{"title":"Abbas Kiarostami, Global Art Cinema and the Material Imagination of Earth","authors":"Graig Uhlin","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10027","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines the multiform appearance of elemental earth in the 1990s films of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, including Life and Nothing More, Through the Olive Trees, Taste of Cherry, and The Wind Will Carry Us. Its aim is to consider the elemental aspects of global art cinema, arguing that art cinema treats elements intermedially. Art cinema’s alliance with the elemental has been comparatively overlooked given its associations with the cosmopolitan sites of global modernity, but this essay asserts that modernism is as much geophysical as geopolitical. I read Kiarostami’s films as staging encounters between human action and elemental agency; they set their characters in agonistic relation to the seismic movements and obdurate resistance of the earth. Drawing on elemental philosophy, this article demonstrates that the existential questions regarding life and death in Kiarostami’s filmmaking are oriented toward the earth (as ground, stone, and dust).","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130166812","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}
{"title":"Geoblocking the Sun: Solar Eclipses in Transnational Artists’ Film","authors":"S. Solomon","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10028","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The basis for works by such filmmakers as James Benning and Kevin Jerome Everson, the “Great American Eclipse” of August 2017 demonstrated the desire of artists’ film to capture the unique phenomenon of totality, when the moon completely obscures the sun for a period of several minutes. Beyond the borders of the United States, the transnational efforts of Lukas Marxt’s Double Dawn (2014) in Australia and J.P. Sniadecki’s The Yellow Bank (2010) in China also render the solar eclipse as a phenomenon of great cultural and ecological scope. While the astronomical event in each of these films itself provides a singular and contingent spectacle for the camera, this article argues that the eclipse’s mythical conjugation of the elemental forces of fire and earth also resonates unexpectedly with the diverse environments that fall under the moon’s shadow.","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117097396","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}
{"title":"Sovereign Bodies: From Turtle Island to Abya Yala","authors":"S. Shamash","doi":"10.1163/26659891-20220001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-20220001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Women’s bodies, spirits and struggles all intermingle, as underscored in a comparative, and intersectional analysis of a Brazilian and Canadian film. I put into dialogue the film Teko Haxy, Being Imperfect (2018) with the film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019). I investigate what these films communicate about their worlds; what alternative lifeways they propose; how these diverse women’s struggles interlink across ethnicities, cultures, and hemispheres. My focus is on the encounters, confrontations, and convergences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women; between two Indigenous women from distinct class backgrounds and between intersecting Indigenous women’s struggles. Both films are representative of distinct subject positions, geo-politics, colonial processes, and cinematically divergent languages, genres, and production budgets. Nonetheless, I discuss how both films creatively make use of documentary strategies to underscore the sovereignty of Indigenous and women’s bodies as sites of power and resistance to heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and settler colonialism.","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121642849","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}
{"title":"Ways of Seeing Netflix","authors":"R. Lobato","doi":"10.1163/26659891-02010001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-02010001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132570994","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}
{"title":"The Politics of Video on Demand Platforms in Iran: In Between Formal and Informal Distribution","authors":"Mahsa Salamati","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000A study of the global flow of US-based svod s, and their absence or presence within domestic media ecosystems, allows us to move beyond universalist approaches in platform studies. Starting with an analysis of the politics of Netflix’s absence from Iran’s media landscape, this article studies the contribution of domestic svod s to the diversification of the Iranian movie culture. It argues that filtering Netflix in Iran is part of a long history of content regulation and the state’s plan to support local platforms. The dynamic informal circulation networks in Iran also pose challenges for foreign svod s.\u0000Focusing on domestic platforms like Filimo, the article argues that they became part of a national project to battle piracy domestically. Iran’s laws as a non-signatory of international treaties on intellectual property, however, allow them to acquire foreign films through informal markets, situating these platforms in an ambiguous state in between formal and informal services.","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117323936","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}
{"title":"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Implications of Netflix’s Venture into Nollywood Seen From a Local Audience Perspective","authors":"O. Omoera, S. A. Ojieson","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Within the last decade alone different distribution platforms have emerged in the Nigerian movie industry. One of the most notable and potent among these is Netflix. Employing Disruptive Innovation Theory (dit) as notional scaffolding, this article uses key informant interviews (kii) and focus group discussions (fgd) to examine what Netflix’s engagement in Nollywood means in terms of the viability of other distribution outlets. It investigates the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ sides of the Nollywood-Netflix relationship from the Nigerian audience perspective to give an understanding that can contribute to Nollywood’s healthy expansion. The study argues that the emergence of Netflix leaves many Nollywood content creators (ncc s) begging for acceptance when their content is adjudged inconsequential. This must be creatively challenged and negotiated through ncc s and distributors using available technologies to improve production values, set up and collaboratively operate multiple online distribution platforms for the Nigerian audience’s satisfaction.","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126436141","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}
{"title":"Rajko Grlić:, One More for the Road: A Director’s Notes on Exile, Family, and Film","authors":"Janica Tomić","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122109808","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}
{"title":"Toward the Platformization of African Film Distribution? Netflix in Nigeria","authors":"Alessandro Jedlowski","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This essay provides an analysis of the impact of Netflix on the African screen media sector, by focusing on the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood). It follows the invitation to study Netflix in specific socio-historical and national contexts that several scholars have formulated over the past few years as a way to respond to the complexity of the emerging landscape of internet-distributed television. In order to achieve this objective, the essay focuses on the impact of Netflix’s involvement on the production and distribution of Nigerian content, offering also a few insights on the equally important topic of Netflix’s impact on African audiences. The overall aim is to historicize Netflix’s intervention, detailing the phases of its involvement in Nigeria, its specificities in relation to the intervention of previous local and international actors in the field of content production and distribution (on both streaming and digital television networks), and the controversies its arrival triggers among film professionals in the largest African screen media industry.","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"70 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115125304","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}
{"title":"Uday Bhatia, Bullets over Bombay: Satya and the Hindi Film Gangster","authors":"A. Magazine","doi":"10.1163/26659891-bja10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-bja10017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":377215,"journal":{"name":"Studies in World Cinema","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132024311","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}