?Films, in their generic, stylistic, and rhetorical variety, are modes of experience that provide a sense for the unexpected dynamics of urban life and historical reality. This understanding of cinema, as loving as it is theoretical, inspired the writings on film which form a central part of the wide-ranging work of Austrian historian Siegfried Mattl. From the political imaginary of well-known "historical films" by Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, John Woo, and Todd Haynes, to inter-war comedies and post-war educational films highlighting the changing socio-economic textures of Vienna, and on to amateur films that offer surprising views of how Austrians adapted themselves to Nazism or consumer culture, Mattls investigations are rich in historical context and re-evaluated material. Written with humor and a critical view of power relations, his essays and studies - some published for the first time - also enter into dialogues with Siegfried Kracauer's and Jacques Ranciere's concepts of cinema's historicity. Exploring imagescapes of Red Vienna, of Haneke's white, or of Dylan's blues, Mattl invites us to look back at, and look out for, the ephemera that make up history.

During the past decade, the international study of non-theatrical cinematic forms has seen a strong expansion - with amateur film as a central area of research. Changing collection policies in film archives and museums and new forms of digital access are not the only reasons for this interest. However, the major impulse to current debates comes from contributions based on an analysis of archival holdings. Abenteuer Alltag. Zur Archaologie des Amateurfilms is the first German-language publication to give an overview of amateur film research in Europe, presenting essays on topics such as the politics and history, the technology and aesthetics, as well as the bodies and spaces of amateur film. In addition, several European and American film archives provide information about their collection strategies.

Der Band befasst sich mit dem k. u. k. Kriegspressequartier (KPQ), das von seiner Entstehung und Komplexitat her unter den kriegsfuhrenden Landern des Ersten Weltkriegs einzigartig war. Die Aufsatze widmen sich zum einen jenen Massnahmen, die das KPQ anordnete, leitete und kontrollierte. Dazu gehoerten die Kriegsberichterstattung in journalistischen Frontberichten und fotografischen Dokumentationen, die Verarbeitung des Krieges mittels Malerei oder das Festhalten des Kriegsgeschehens mit der Filmkamera. Zum anderen bewerten die Autoren die Propagandamassnahmen innerhalb eines breiteren Bezugsrahmens, und zwar mit Blick auf die alternativen Spielraume, die die zentralisierte Verwaltung gestattete. Als Vergleichsebenen werden ausserhalb des Wirkungsbereichs des KPQ liegende Tendenzen des Kulturbetriebs herangezogen.