The first films were shorts. Most leading filmmakers made shorts, including Chaplin, Keaton, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Lindsay Anderson, and--more recently--Lynne Ramsey and Damian O' Donnell. Though a standard and much-loved part of the cinemagoing experience for decades, short films are now rarely seen, even though more are made than ever. Hundreds of student films are made annually and television stations use shorts as fillers. Dotcom companies fight to secure rights and short film festivals take place all over the world. There is even the beginning of a comeback for the cinema short.
This book traces the history of the short film and its current role. Focusing on short-film producers and directors, it looks at the short film as a training opportunity for new talent. It covers issues of distribution, funding (including the lottery boom), exhibition, festivals, training, and publications.

Cinema and the Great War concentrates on one part of the art of the war: the cinema. Used as tool for propaganda during the war itself, by the mid 1920s cinema had begun to reflect the rejection of conflict prevalent in all the arts. Andrew Kelly explores the development of anti-war cinema in, Britain, America, Germany and France from the ground-breaking Lay Down your Arms, made by Bertha Von Suttner in 1914 and Lewis Milestone's bitter All Quiet on the Western Front through to Stanley Kubrick's magnificent Paths of Glory.

Cinema and the Great War concentrates on one part of the art of the war: the cinema. Used as tool for propaganda during the war itself, by the mid 1920s cinema had begun to reflect the rejection of conflict prevalent in all the arts. Andrew Kelly explores the development of anti-war cinema in, Britain, America, Germany and France from the ground-breaking Lay Down your Arms, made by Bertha Von Suttner in 1914 and Lewis Milestone's bitter All Quiet on the Western Front through to Stanley Kubrick's magnificent Paths of Glory.

War has had a powerful impact on the film industry. But it is not only wars that affect films; films influence war-time behavior and incisively shape the way we think about the battles that have been waged. In The War Film, Robert Eberwein brings together essays by scholars using a variety of critical approaches to explore this enduringly popular film genre. Contributors examine the narrative and aesthetic elements of war films from four perspectives; consideration of generic conventions in works such as All Quiet on the Western Front, Bataan, and The Think Red Line; treatment of race in various war films, including Glory, Home of the Brave, Platoon, and Hamburger Hill; aspects of gender, masculinity and feminism in The Red Badge of Courage, Rambo, Dogfight, and Courage under Fire; and analysis of the impact of contemporary history on the production and reception of films such as The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, Saving Private Ryan, and We Were Soldiers. Drawing attention to the dynamic interrelationships among politics, nationalism, history, gender, and film, this comprehensive anthology is bound to become a classroom favorite.