"This is simply the most significant analysis of contemporary Mexican cinema to date, and it will make an incalculably important contribution to the field.... Rashkin's incisive analyses and brilliant juxtaposition of cultural and socio-political determinants will become the new standard that other scholars will seek to emulate." -- Ana M. Lo pez, Associate Professor of Film Studies and Communication, Tulane University

Women filmmakers in Mexico were rare until the 1980s and 1990s, when women began to direct feature films in unprecedented numbers. Their films have won acclaim at home and abroad, and the filmmakers have become key figures in contemporary Mexican cinema. In this book, Elissa Rashkin documents how and why women filmmakers have achieved these successes, as she explores how the women's movement, film studies programs, governmental film policy, and the transformation of the intellectual sector since the 1960s have all affected women's filmmaking in Mexico.

After a historical overview of Mexican women's filmmaking from the 1930s onward, Rashkin focuses on the work of five contemporary directors-- Marisa Sistach, Busi Corte s, Guita Schyfter, Mari a Novaro, and Dana Rotberg. Portraying the filmmakers as intellectuals participating in the public life of the nation, Rashkin examines how these directors have addressed questions of national identity through their films, replacing the patriarchal images and stereotypes of the classic Mexican cinema with feminist visions of a democratic and tolerant society.

This book develops the idea of the "Eastern" as an analytically significant genre of film. Positioned in counterpoint to the Western, the famed cowboy genre of the American frontier, the "Eastern" encompasses films that depict the eastern and southern frontiers of Euro-American expansion. Examining six films in particular-Gunga Din (1939), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Heat and Dust (1983), A Passage to India (1984), Indochine (1992), and The English Patient (1996)-the author explores the duality of the "Eastern" as both aggressive and seductive, depicting conquest and romance at the same time. In juxtaposing these two elements, the book seeks to reveal the double process by which the "Eastern" both diminishes the "East" and Global South and reinforces ignorance about these regions' histories and complexity, thereby setting the stage for ever-escalating political aggression.

This book relates the unique experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) people in Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian churches. Grounded in the theoretical contributions of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Lewis Coser, and others, the book exposes the discursive 'battleground' over the 'truth' of sex which underlies the participants' stories. These rich and complex narratives reveal the stakes of this conflict, manifested in 'the line' - a barrier restricting out LGBTQ+ people from full participation in ministry and service. Although some participants related stories of supportive-if typically conservative-congregations where they felt able to live out an authentic, integrated faith, others found they could only leave their formerly close and supportive communities behind, 'counter-rejecting' the churches and often the faith that they felt had rejected them.

This book reflects and analyzes the relationship between media and genre, focusing on both aesthetics and discursive meaning. It considers genres as having a decisive impact on media cultures, either in film, on TV, in computer games, comics or radio, on the level of production as well as reception. The book discusses the role of genres in media and cultural theory as a configuration of media artifacts that share specific aesthetic characteristics. It also reflects genre as a concept of categorization of media artifacts with which the latter can be analyzed under terms depending on a specific historical situation or cultural context. A special focus is placed on trans-media perspectives. Even as genres develop their own traditions within one medium, they reach beyond a media-specific horizon, necessitating a double perspective that considers the distinct recourse to genre within a medium as well as the trans-media circulation and adaption of genres.

The official novelization of a forthcoming crime film, featuring movie stills and an introduction by producer Jonathan Sothcott George never meant to kill the thief, he was just defending his shop from the jacked up kids who were trying to rob him. Arrested for murder, his world is turned upside down. The next night the doorbell rings, and before George has even opened the door the gang have swarmed into his house--they beat him senseless, rape his wife, and tie them up and set fire to them. Thoughtless, feral Jimmy, George's son, has been dishonorably discharged from the Royal Marines in Afghanistan and is on his way back to London when he gets the news. It isn't long before he's on the trail of the gang who murdered his parents, exacting his own kind of chillingly brutal justice. With the police closing in and his old regiment determined to stop him from airing their dirty laundry on trial, Jimmy goes underground. His actions have created a media frenzy, London's first vigilante of the 21st century. But will his devastating course of action spell the end of the woman he loves?