Reception studies have made film audiences increasingly visible, while surveys track trends and policymakers gather information about audience preferences and demographics. But little attention has been paid to the specific contextual relationships and interactions between films and individuals that generate and sustain audiences. This monograph develops the idea of audiences as interactive and relational, introducing three innovative concepts: 'personal film journeys', five types of audience formations and five geographies of film provision. A major challenge of audience research is how to capture the richness of people's social and cultural engagement with film. To achieve this, the book uses an innovative mixed-methods research and computational ontology. It develops ground-breaking theory and concepts and an innovative methodology based on an extensive data-set derived from the under-researched area of British regional film audiences. -- .

In the fetid depths of a Jamaican prison, the half-caste bastard son of an eighteenth-century Jamaican sugar planter is turned into a zombie and banished to the diamond-hungry colonies of the Cape. Thwarted by an unrequited love he unleashes a dire curse, which reverberates across the continents and generations. From the imagination of Peter Merrington, author of Zebra Crossings: Tales from the Shaman's Record, comes an eclectic tale, woven with folklore, fairy tale and magic, that draws urban shaman Malibongwe Ngingingini and his beloved apprentice, Anna Persens, into a quest to heal their land of the zombie's curse: a foul emanation of fog and narcolepsy. The Zombie's curse affects two family dynasties on either side of the Atlantic. Guided by Maria Juanita – the shape-shifting Sister Moon – Malibongwe and Anna's journey takes them from Cape Town to Great Bushmanland, and on to the mystical deserts of New Mexico and the voodoo-fuelled New Orleans, where Lord Tantamount, the Zombie Prince, haunts the highways. The Zombie and the Moon is a blend of real social issues and deep spiritual symbolism that includes a fanciful exploration of astral travel, the role of the ancestors, animist earth spirits, utopian visions, quotidian squalor, social injustice and an aged goat.

Here are egte South African stories that flirt with legend and history, go to bed with world literature, and produce a golem elephant, a talking fish, Black Jim the colonel of dragoons, a Green Man in the Cotswolds, a donkey on heat in Pofadder, ancestral voices and much more. The sangoma Malibongwe Ngingingini is an old friend who moves in realms of consciousness along with his beloved apprentice Anna. Their task is to heal, which they do in ever more inventive forms as they travel in South Africa and then further afield. This first collection of tales from the shaman's record will be followed by further packages of their exploits between the light and dark.

This is a story of a very ordinary person who had a few unique experiences. Anyone could have made the choices I did, which have culminated in a wonderful life of grace. What happened to me could happen to you too. I share my story optimistically that it might inspire you, but I wish for more: I'm hoping that you're encouraged to make braver and better choices, to pave the way to a better and more meaningful life now. You don't have to be special in the eyes of the world to benefit richly from life; that would make it exclusive and only for the elite. We're all special and I hope to show you a way to a rich and fulfilled life no matter who you are. My story is about change. Part of my story is about injustice, the ways in which the state, society, and creed systems can suppress the life of individuals like you and me. But, through and out of this, I also speak of the miraculous release and deeper transformation that comes from wise and courageous choices - and Ram Dass and the friends that led me, in my own life, to that path. This is my story. It begins as a nineteen year-old incarcerated in military detention and solitary confinement during South Africa's apartheid past. It's about a young man having to face his personal demons and the injustice of others, the ways in which state, society, and creed systems suppress the life of individuals like you and me. It's about religious fanaticism which upturns love and compassion in favour of forceful, cruel and unsympathetic adherence to dogma; the actions of overly zealous, spiritually myopic people who believe they are called to judge others even if the consequences of their decisions rip families apart, leave fields of broken hearts and decades of hurt. But, out of this, I also speak of the miraculous release and deeper transformation that comes from wise and courageous choices. Ram Dass, my spiritual teacher and one of the most beloved contemporary spiritual figures serving four generations, led me, in my own life, along a different path. It is a story of change. What happened to me could happen to you too. I share my story optimistically that it might inspire you, but I wish for more: I'm hoping that you're encouraged to make brave choices, to pave the way to a better and more meaningful life for yourself.