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).