The last decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in film festivals, with the field growing to a position of prominence within the space of a few short years. Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice represents a major addition to the literature on this topic, offering an authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the area. With a combination of chapters specifically examining history, theory, method and practice, it offers a clear structure and systematic approach for the study of film festivals. Offering a collection of essays written by an international range of established scholars, it discusses well-known film festivals in Europe, North America and Asia, but equally devotes attention to the diverse range of smaller and/or specialized events that take place around the globe. It provides essential knowledge on the origin and development of film festivals, discusses the use of theory to study festivals, explores the methods of ethnographic and archival research, and looks closely at the professional practice of programming and film funding. Each section, moreover, is introduced by the editors, and all chapters include useful suggestions for further reading. This will be an essential textbook for students studying film festivals as part of their film, media and cultural studies courses, as well as a strong research tool for scholars that wish to familiarize themselves with this burgeoning field.

This book examines how renewed forms of artistic activism were developed in the wake of the neoliberal repression since the 1980s.

The volume shows the diverse ways in which artists have sought to confront systemic crises around the globe, searching for new and enduring forms of building communities and reimagining the political horizon. The authors engage in a dialogue with these artistic efforts and their histories – in particular the earlier artistic activism that was developed during the civil rights era in the 1960s and 70s – providing valuable historical insight and new conceptual reflection on the future of aesthetic resilience.

This book will be of interest to scholars in contemporary art, history of art, film and literary studies, protest movements, and social movements.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Taking Aesthetics from Resistance to Resilience

Bram Ieven, Eliza Steinbock, and Marijke de Valck

Part 1. Resilience: Searching for New Weapons While Fleeing

1. Resilience Thinking, Storytelling and Aesthetic Resilience

Marijke de Valck

2. But does it Work in Theory? Androcentric Blind Spots and Omissions

Hilary Robinson

3. Learning from Documenta: Aesthetic Resilience and the Politics of Institutionalized Art

Bram Ieven

4. Blackout: The Necropolitics of Extraction

T.J. Demos

5. Movement of Movements: Resilient Strategies in the ‘Global South’

Kitty Zijlmans

Part 2. Global Conjunctions of Aesthetic Resilience

6. Of Tricksters and Zombies: Re-imagining Outsideness in Contemporary Russian Activist Art

Ksenia Robbe

7. An Alloy Made from Art and Activism, in North Macedonia

Jon Blackwood

8. Drones and Streets: On the Image Composition of the Tahrir and Gezi Occupations

Begüm Özden Fırat

9. The Resilient City: When Social Activism meets Media Arts in Hong Kong

Isaac Leung

10. Art-activism in Decolonising a South African University Space

Zethu Matebeni

Part 3. Artistic Practices of Embodied Resilience

11. Feminist and Anti-Racist Graffiti: Disrupting Public Space in the 1970s in Britain

Na`ama Klorman-Eraqi

12. The Black Radical: Fungibility, Activism, and Portraiture in These Times

Syrus Marcus Ware

13. Practicing Aesthetic Resilience through Collaboration

Keri Watson

14. Embodied Narratives: Art, Corporeality, and Creative Processes

Ana Cristina Bohrer Gilbert

The last decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in film festivals, with the field growing to a position of prominence within the space of a few short years. Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice represents a major addition to the literature on this topic, offering an authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the area. With a combination of chapters specifically examining history, theory, method and practice, it offers a clear structure and systematic approach for the study of film festivals. Offering a collection of essays written by an international range of established scholars, it discusses well-known film festivals in Europe, North America and Asia, but equally devotes attention to the diverse range of smaller and/or specialized events that take place around the globe. It provides essential knowledge on the origin and development of film festivals, discusses the use of theory to study festivals, explores the methods of ethnographic and archival research, and looks closely at the professional practice of programming and film funding. Each section, moreover, is introduced by the editors, and all chapters include useful suggestions for further reading. This will be an essential textbook for students studying film festivals as part of their film, media and cultural studies courses, as well as a strong research tool for scholars that wish to familiarize themselves with this burgeoning field.

This book examines how renewed forms of artistic activism were developed in the wake of the neoliberal repression since the 1980s. The volume shows the diverse ways in which artists have sought to confront systemic crises around the globe, searching for new and enduring forms of building communities and reimagining the political horizon. The authors engage in a dialogue with these artistic efforts and their histories - in particular the earlier artistic activism that was developed during the civil rights era in the 1960s and 70s - providing valuable historical insight and new conceptual reflection on the future of aesthetic resilience. This book will be of interest to scholars in contemporary art, history of art, film and literary studies, protest movements, and social movements.

This is an open access book. This edited collection aims to document the effects of Covid-19 on film festivals and to theorize film festivals in the age of social distancing. To some extent, this crisis begs us to consider what happens when festivals can't happen; while films have found new (temporary) channels of distribution (most often in the forms of digital releases), the festival format appears particularly vulnerable in pandemic times. Imperfect measures, such as the move to a digital format, cannot recapture the communal experience at the very core of festivals. Given the global nature of the pandemic and the diversity of the festival phenomenon, this book features a wide range of case studies and analytical frameworks. With contributors including established scholars and frontline festival workers, the book is conceived as both a theoretical endeavour and a practical exploration of festival organizing in pandemic times.