The national cinemas of Czechoslovakia and East Germany were two of the most vital sites of filmmaking in the Eastern Bloc, and over the course of two decades, they contributed to and were shaped by such significant developments as Sovietization, de-Stalinization, and the conservative retrenchment of the late 1950s. This volume comprehensively explores the postwar film cultures of both nations, using a "stereoscopic" approach that traces their similarities and divergences to form a richly contextualized portrait. Ranging from features to children's cinema to film festivals, the studies gathered here provide new insights into the ideological, political, and economic dimensions of Cold War cultural production.

The People's Front in Defense of Land of Atenco (the ""Frente"") is an emblematic force in contemporary Mexican politics and in anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal activist networks throughout the world. Best known for years of resistance against the encroachment of a government airport project on communal farmland, the Frente also became international news when its members were subject to state violence, rape, and intimidation in a brutal government crackdown in 2006. Through it all, documentary filmmaking has been one aspect of the Frente and its allies' efforts. The contradictions and difficulties of this moral and political project emerge in the day-to-day experiences of local, national, and international filmmakers and film distributors seeking to participate in the social movement. Stone highlights the importance of how the circulation of the physical videos, and not just their content, promotes the social movement. More broadly she shows how videographers perform their activism, navigating the tensions between neoliberal personhood or ego and an ethos of companerismo that privileges community. Grounded in the lived experiences of Atenco's activists and allied filmmakers, Atenco Lives! documents the making and circulating of films as an ethical and political practice purposefully used to transform human relationships.

Film technology developments in the early 20th century opened up a new world of possibilities for the motion picture industry, and opera, relying as it did on the melodramatic storyline and grand pantomime acting, was an ideal subject for early silent film. Even deprived of their principal glory-their voices-opera singers were among the first prominent screen stars. This book examines the relationship between the established operatic stars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the newly developing motion picture industry. It concentrates primarily on developments between 1895 and 1926, from the invention of the commercially exploitable motion picture to the coming of viable sound on film. Early chapters discuss the changing role of the opera star prior to and during the development of film as a popular commercial medium, and explore the technological innovations that eventually enabled opera to move out of the strict confines of the opera house and to be viewed by a global audience. Later chapters expose the fragile relationship between art and the entertainment industry in the early decades of the motion picture, and show how the opera helped establish a balance between film as a new art form and its commercial exploitation. Also discussed is the extent to which the inclusion of opera in early motion pictures contributed to the broader democratization of art. The book concludes with four detailed case studies that examine the experiences of operatic performers who made the transition to the silent screen and who made a notable impact on the early movie industry. An extensive filmography is included to provide the reader with full details of films cited and archival locations of surviving materials.

This comprehensive film guide lists the screen credits and provides synopses of more than 5,400 silent western features, documentaries, shorts and serials released from the 1890s through 1930. Numerous one-, two- and three-reelers are included in this guide. These westerns came from both the major and lesser known American film studios, many long defunct. The term "western" is hard to define; someone once commented that a western had to have a horse in it. The genre generally applies to that post-Civil War period beginning with the great cattle drives and ending around 1890. But the author has included tales about early California, Mexico, various Indian tribes along the Eastern seaboard, the building of the railroad, the gold rush of 1849 and the search for gold in the Yukon. Other films which seem to have less in common with the genre, such as northern westerns, are listed in a separate appendix.

Go behind the scenes with an insightful look at horror filmsand the directors who create them The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades examines the work of several of the genre's most influential directors and investigates how traditional themes of isolation, alienation, death, and transformation have helped build the foundation of horror cinema. Authors Carl and Diana Royer examine the techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock that place his work squarely in the horror (rather than suspense) genre, discuss avant-garde cinema's contributions to mainstream horror, explore films that use the apartment setting as the cell of horror, and analyze how angels and aliens function as the supernatural Other. A unique resource for film students and film buffs alike, the book also examines Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy and the fusion of science, technology, and quasi-religious themes in David Cronenberg's films. Instead of presenting a general overview of the horror genre or an analysis of a specific sub-genre, actor, or director, The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films offers an imaginative look at classic and contemporary horror cinema. The book examines Surrealist films such as Un Chien Andalou and Freaks, the connections among the concepts of voyeurism, paranoia, and alienation in films like Rear Window, Rosemary's Baby, Blue Velvet, and The Blair Witch Project; the use of otherworldly creatures in films such as The Prophecy, Dogma, and The Day The Earth Stood Still; and the films of directors George Romero, John Waters, and Darren Aronofsky, to name just a few. This unique book also includes an extensive A-to-Z filmography and a bibliography of writings on, and about, horror cinema from filmmakers, film critics, and film historians. The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films examines: Body Doubles and Severed Handsthe common ancestry of avant-garde art films and exploitation horror B-movies And I Brought You Nightmaresrecurring themes of psychological terror in Alfred Hitchcock's films Horror, Humor, PoetrySam Raimi's transformation of drive-in horror cinema Atheism and 'The Death of Affect'David Cronenberg's obsessions, interests, and cautionary messages in films ranging from Videodrome to Dead Ringers to eXistenZ and much more! The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades is a unique resource of critical analysis for academics working in film and popular culture, film historians, and anyone interested in horror cinema.

An examination of how screen texts embrace, refute, and reinvent the cultural heritage of antiquity, this volume looks at specific story-patterns and archetypes from Greco-Roman culture. The contributors offer a variety of perspectives, highlighting key cultural relay points at which a myth is received and reformulated for a particular audience.

The beginning of filmmaking in the German colonies coincided with colonialism itself coming to a standstill. Scandals and economic stagnation in the colonies demanded a new and positive image of their value for Germany. By promoting business and establishing a new genre within the fast growing film industry, films of the colonies were welcomed by organizations such as the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (German Colonial Society). The films triggered patriotic feelings but also addressed the audience as travelers, explorers, wildlife protectionists, and participants in unique cultural events. This book is the first in-depth analysis of colonial filmmaking in the Wilhelmine Era.

In Cinematic Political Thought, Michael J. Shapiro investigates aspects of contemporary politics and articulates a critical philosophical perspective with politically disposed treatments of contemporary cinema. Reading such films as "Hoop Dreams, Lone Star, Father of the Bride II "and "To Live and Die in LA "through the lens of Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault and Lyotard, Shapiro demonstrates what it can mean to think the political both in terms of cinema studies and in wider aesthetic and social contexts.

Cinematic Political Thought is a polemical work, aimed at encouraging critical, ethical and political thinking. Its breadth of theoretical scope and empirical reference, and the innovative style of presentation will make it vital reading for anyone with an interest in the conjunction of culture and politics.

Filmic constructions of war heroism have a profound impact on public perceptions of conflicts. Here, contributors examine the ways motifs of gender and heroism in war films are used to justify ideological positions, shape the understanding of the military conflicts, support political agendas and institutions, and influence collective memory.

Between the two world wars, a distinct and vibrant film culture emerged in Europe. Film festivals and schools were established; film theory and history was written that took cinema seriously as an art form; and critical writing that created the film canon flourished. This scene was decidedly transnational and creative, overcoming traditional boundaries between theory and practice, and between national and linguistic borders. This new European film culture established film as a valid form of social expression, as an art form, and as a political force to be reckoned with. By examining the extraordinarily rich and creative uses of cinema in the interwar period, we can examine the roots of film culture as we know it today.

The richness and color of African cinema have been neglected for too long and its many talented film-makers deserve full recognition. This new and unique book gives detailed information on over 300 major African and Arab film-makers from the main film-producing countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Zaire. It also includes important film directors from Southern African states--Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and others--as well as from other African republics.

Each entry gives details of the film-maker's career and a complete list of films made. Two extensive indexes arrange film-makers by country and list some 5,000 film titles, in both the original language and English. An important addition is the chronology of African cinema, giving a bold summary of its growth over the last thirty years.

Moby-Dick looms large - gargantuan in size, themes, symbols, and influence. Its deep dives, comedic interludes, adventurous journey, and surface effects demand a new approach. Instead of a traditional academic analysis, Dive Deeper grapples in novel fashion with this classic work. For each of the originals 135 chapters (along with Etymology, Extracts, and Epilogue), Dive Deeper has a corresponding brief chapter relating to themes and issues in the original. This permits Dive Deeper to follow the flow of the original and to bring forth new appreciation for the novel, its characters, and its readers. At once creative and informative, Dive Deeper captures the up and down history of the novel, from its original reception to its resurrection in the 1890s, to its ecoming the central work in the canon of American literature in the 1930s. Great books such as Moby-Dick live outside the confines of libraries. They occupy a central place in popular culture. Thus, Dive Deeper tracks the novel as it appears in various motion pictures (more than five major ones to date), comic routines and jokes, paintings, novels, songs (from rock to classical to rap), and in other cultural forms. In the process, Dive Deeper charts how, and why, this novel about a whale and its pursuer has captivated generations of American readers. And why it continues to do so today. Dive Deeper, then, is a creative and original way of approaching a great novel. Readers will gain information and a deeper understanding of an American classic and its place in popular culture.

Cinema-going was the most popular commercial leisure activity in the first half of the twentieth century. UK cinema attendance grew significantly in the Second World War and peaked in 1946 with 1.6 billion recorded admissions. Though `going to the pictures' remained a popular pastime for the remainder of the forties, the transition from war to peacetime altered citizens' leisure habits. During the fifties, a range of factors including increased affluence, the growth of television ownership, population shifts and the diversification of leisure activities led to rapid declines in attendance. By 1965, admissions had plummeted to 327 million and the cinema held a far more marginal existence in the nation's leisure habits. Cinema attendances fell in all regions, but the speed, nature and extent of this decline varied widely across the United Kingdom. By linking broad national developments to detailed case studies of two similarly-sized industrial cities, Belfast and Sheffield, this book adds nuance and detail to our understanding of regional variations in film exhibition, audience habits and cinema-going experiences during a period of profound social and cultural change. The use of a wide range of quantitative and qualitative sources, such as oral testimony, box-office data, newspapers and trade journals, conveys the diverse nature of the cinema industry and the importance of place as a determinant of cinema attendance. Sam Manning is a postdoctoral researcher on the AHRC European Cinema Audiences project. He has recently published articles in Cultural and Social History and Media History.

Teresa de Lauretis makes a bold and orginal argument for the renewed relevance of the Freudian theory of drives, through close readings of texts ranging from cinema and literature to psychoanalysis and cultural theory.

This is the only collection of every book, story, and ephemera published on and about Stephen King in the US and Internationally Including: Books, Novels, Short-Fiction Collections, Non-Fiction, Etc. Including Reprints and multimedia adaptations of book titles. Short Fiction, Screenplays, Anthologies, Audio and Video adaptations, etc. This volumne, coming in at over 650 pages, also features many reproductions of novels from the US and Foreign editions. Over 100 cover and art reproductions. Thousands of listings that took Mr. Collings over fifteen years to collect. This is a one-of-a-kind volumne, and invaluable to any King reader, library, and collector to discover the many volumnes and listings of and about Stephen King.

The only thing Hollywood likes more than a good movie is a good deal. For more than fifty years producers and directors of war and action movies have been getting a great deal from America's armed forces by receiving access to billions of dollars worth of military equipment and personnel for little or no cost. Although this arrangement considerably lowers a film's budget, the cost in terms of intellectual freedom can be quite steep. In exchange for access to sophisticated military hardware and expertise, filmmakers must agree to censorship from the Pentagon.
As veteran Hollywood journalist David L. Robb shows in this revealing insider's look into Hollywood's "dirtiest little secret," the final product that moviegoers see at the theater is often not just what the director intends but also what the powers-that-be in the military want to project about America's armed forces. Sometimes the censor demands removal of just a few words; other times whole scenes must be scrapped or completely revised. What happens if a director refuses the requested changes? Robb quotes a Pentagon spokesman: "Well I'm taking my toys and I'm going home. I'm taking my tanks and my troops and my location, and I'm going home." That can be quite a persuasive threat to a filmmaker trying to keep his movie within budget.
Robb takes us behind the scenes during the making of many well-known movies. From The Right Stuff to Top Gun and even Lassie, the list of movies in which the Pentagon got its way is very long. Only when a director is determined to spend more money than necessary to make his own movie without interference, as in the case of Oliver Stone in the creation of Platoon or Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now, is a film released that presents the director's unalloyed vision.
For anyone who loves movies and cares about freedom of expression, Operation Hollywood is an engrossing, shocking, and very entertaining book.

The essays collected in "Cinema and Technology" map out a new interdisciplinary terrain, combining contemporary analyses of material and visual culture, deploying the methods of film studies, media and cultural studies, media anthropology, and science and technology studies. Rather than describing a technological "crisis," or separating the technological and aesthetic halves of the cinema, they present a manifold, expansive reconsideration of the life of technologies in the cultures, theories and practices of cinematic production and consumption.

Discover the secrets of Doc Brown's time-traveling DeLorean with the first-ever under-the-bonnet user's manual featuring never-before-seen schematics and cutaways of cinema's most iconic car. One of the best-loved movie sagas of all time, the Back to the Future trilogy has left an indelible impact on popular culture. Back to the Future: DeLorean Time Machine: Owner's Workshop Manual delves into the secrets of the unique vehicle that transports Marty McFly and Doc Brown through time, including both the original version of the car and the updated flying model. From the DeLorean's unmistakable gull-wing doors to Doc's cutting-edge modifications, including the Flux Capacitor and Mr. Fusion, this manual offers unprecedented insight into the car's inner workings. Filled with exclusive illustrations and never-before-disclosed information, Back to the Future: DeLorean Time Machine: Owner's Workshop Manual is the perfect gift for the trilogy's legion of fans.