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Often overlooked and overshadowed by its North American cousin,
Canadian cinema has nevertheless produced some mesmerising films
and directors, including Atom Egoyan, Robert Lepage and Denys
Arcand. "The Cinema of Canada" contains 24 essays, each on a
different film and divides itself into three distinct categories:
English-Canadian cinema; Qu?bec cinema; Aboriginal cinema. In so
doing, it provides a fascinating historical account of the
development of film and documentary traditions across the diverse
national and regional communities in Canada. Among the many
important films discussed are "Le D?clin de l'empire am?ricain"
(1988), "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" (1988), "Exotica" (1994),
"Le Confessionale" (1995) and "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner"
(2001).
Translating the experience of film: filmmakers, writers, and
artists explore the elements of film that make us feel "outside and
inside at the same time." "Every film is a foreign film," Atom
Egoyan and Ian Balfour tell us in their introduction to Subtitles.
How, then, to translate the experience of film-which, as Egoyan
says, makes us "feel outside and inside at the same time"? Taking
subtitles as their point of departure, the thirty-two contributors
to this unique collection consider translation, foreignness, and
otherness in film culture. Their discussions range from the
mechanics and aesthetics of subtitles themselves to the xenophobic
reaction to translation to subtitles as a metaphor for the distance
and intimacy of film. The essays, interviews, and visuals include a
collaboration by Russell Banks and Atom Egoyan, which uses
quotations from Banks's novel The Sweet Hereafter as subtitles for
publicity stills from Egoyan's film of the book; three early film
reviews by Jorge Luis Borges; an interview with filmmaker Claire
Denis about a scene in her film Friday Night that should not have
been subtitled; and Eric Cazdyn's reading of the running subtitles
on CNN's post-9/11 newscasts as a representation of new global
realities. Several writers deal with translating cultural
experience for an international audience, including Frederic
Jameson on Balkan cinema, John Mowitt on the history of the
"foreign film" category in the Academy Awards, and Ruby Rich on the
marketing of foreign films and their foreign languages-"Somehow,
I'd like to think it's harder to kill people when you hear their
voices," she writes. And Slavoj Zizek considers the "foreign gaze"
(seen in films by Hitchcock, Lynch, and others), the misperception
that sees too much. Designed by Egoyan and award-winning graphic
designer Gilbert Li, the book includes many color images and ten
visual projects by artists and filmmakers. The pages are
horizontal, suggesting a movie screen; they use the cinematic
horizontal aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Subtitles gives us not only a
new way to think about film but also a singular design
object.Subtitles is being copublished by The MIT Press and Alphabet
City Media (John Knechtel, Director). Subtitles has been funded in
part by grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Henry N.R.
Jackman Foundation, and the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario
Arts Council.
""Ravished Armenia"" and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian is the
real-life tale of a teenage Armenian girl who was caught up in the
1915 Armenian genocide, the first genocide in modern history.
Mardiganian (1901-1994) witnessed the murder of her family and the
suffering of her people at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Forced
to march over fourteen hundred miles, she was sold into slavery.
When she escaped to the United States, Mardiganian was then
exploited by the very individuals whom she believed might help. Her
story was published in book form and then used as the basis for a
1918 feature film, in which she herself starred. The film Ravished
Armenia, also known as Auction of Souls, is a graphic retelling of
Aurora Mardiganian's story, with the teenager in the central role,
supported by Anna Q. Nilsson and Irving Cummings and directed by
Oscar Apfel. Only twenty minutes of the film--the first to deal
with the Armenian genocide--is known to survive, but it proves to
be a stunning production, presenting its story in newsreel style.
This revised edition of Anthony Slide's ""Ravished Armenia"" and
the Story of Aurora Mardiganian also contains an annotated reprint
of Mardiganian's original narrative and, for the first time, the
full screenplay. In his introduction, Slide recounts the making of
the film and Mardiganian's life in the United States, involving a
cast of characters including Henry Morgenthau, Mrs. George W.
Vanderbilt, Mrs. Oliver Harriman, and film pioneer William Selig.
The introduction also includes original comments by Aurora
Mardiganian, whom Slide interviewed before her death. Acclaimed
Armenian Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, who created a video art
installation about Mardiganian in 2007, provides a foreword.
Often overlooked and overshadowed by its North American cousin,
Canadian cinema has nevertheless produced some mesmerising films
and directors, including Atom Egoyan, Robert Lepage and Denys
Arcand. "The Cinema of Canada" contains 24 essays, each on a
different film and divides itself into three distinct categories:
English-Canadian cinema; Qu?bec cinema; Aboriginal cinema. In so
doing, it provides a fascinating historical account of the
development of film and documentary traditions across the diverse
national and regional communities in Canada. Among the many
important films discussed are "Le D?clin de l'empire am?ricain"
(1988), "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" (1988), "Exotica" (1994),
"Le Confessionale" (1995) and "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner"
(2001).
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