The Cine-Files

Thứ Hai, 17 tháng 11, 2008

Internet Archive Film E-Books: Pudovkin, Kracauer, Balázs, Rotha

Today, Film Studies For Free brings you news of some more cinema-related items from the Internet Archive. The following are links to out of copyright or otherwise legally scannable books that have been collected and archived by the IA. They may be accessed in various formats (PDF, DjVu, Full Text) and can take a while to download, but it's great that they're available online. There are quite a few film books archived (of variable quality) -- check out the IA search tool HERE -- but Film Studies For Free especially likes these classic tomes:

Film Technique And Film Acting (1958) - V. I. Pudovkin (also on Google Books)

Theory of the Film (1952) - Béla Balázs

From Caligari To Hitler: A Psychological History Of The German Film (1947) - Siegfried Kracauer

Jean Cocteau: Diary of a Film (1950 - on La Belle et la Bête) - Ronald Duncan (limited preview on Google Books)

The Film Till Now: A Survey of World Cinema (1949) - Paul Rotha (on Google Books)

Rotha On The Film A Selection Of Writings About The Cinema (1958) - Paul Rotha

Kino A History Of The Russian And Soviet Film (1960) - Jay Leyda (snippet view on Google Books)

The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History (1939) - Lewis Jacobs

Le Fantastique au cinéma (1958) - Michel Laclos (in French)

By the way, if you want to know more about these or any other books then Film Studies For Free recommends you look no further than the wonderful Open Library site. The Open Library promises 'one web page [full of information] for every book ever published':

To date, we have gathered about 30 million records (20 million are available through the site now [and there are 1,064,822 so far with full-text]), and more are on the way. We have built the database infrastructure and the wiki interface, and you can search millions of book records, narrow results by facet, and search across the full text of 1 million scanned books.

The Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and is funded in part by a grant from the California State Library. It needs volunteers (like all wiki-type projects) so, to find out more about participating, please click HERE, or just start browsing around and add some book information.

Finally, thanks for all the appreciative email comments about Film Studies For Free's listing of Online and Open-Access Film and Moving-Image Studies Writing Of Note by Individual Named Authors (also see the explanation of the listing HERE). To reiterate, suggestions for further items for inclusion are also warmly welcomed: please email Film Studies For Free HERE. Thanks.

Thứ Năm, 13 tháng 11, 2008

Individual Authors' Online Writing Of Note - an explanation of FSFF's list

Film Studies For Free proudly presents, in the post below this one, its current listing of 'Individual Authors' Online (and Open Access) Writing Of Note' (in the English language). List entries come in two forms: weblinks to particular articles or e-books (or online theses) by the named authors; and weblinks to the authors' own live links lists to their collected works online. These links, like all the others on FSFF, are permanently accessible via the numerous and copious lists to be found on the right-hand side of the blog - just scroll (almost) endlessly down to find the various categories.

The taxonomy of authorship is always a funny business. Academics often try to work in a spirit of disinterested enquiry and so a system of credit on the basis of names and reputations can have obvious drawbacks. Nonetheless, name recognition functions as effectively in academia as it does elsewhere; and lists of work organised by author name have very obvious uses, beyond that of propping up academic star systems.

Film Studies For Free's author list, like all its other selections, is inevitably partial. Many of those named in the post below are personally known to this blog's author, or associated with academic departments with which she is familiar (though, to be fair, there are many such departments and many such academics as she has been around rather a long time). Other name entries reflect, on occasion, this third-person's own (broad) research interests. But the list also represents a pretty good cross-section of the kinds of Open Access, academic, film and moving image studies work online at the moment, and is fairly international in focus, to boot. So, FSFF offers it up in its usual 'treasure-trove' spirit and hopes you find it useful and spreadable, too.

Any recommendations (by commenting or by email) for additions to the list -- especially for authors' 'collected online works' listings -- will be ever so gratefully received, as will notifications of any corrections or dead links. And the list in the post will be updated as necessary whenever new items come to FSFF's notice. So please keep your undoubtedly beady, Film and Moving Image Studies' eyes on it, from time to time. Thank you.

Online and Open-Access Film and Moving-Image Studies Writing Of Note (by Individual Named Authors)

[Last updated: January 11, 2009; see just added label for latest entries; the list is organised A-Z by author forename]

Please read Film Studies For Free's accompanying explanation of this listing HERE. The list in this post will be frequently updated, so please bookmark it. Comments are closed on this post but please feel free to comment HERE or email FSFF with suggestions for addition HERE.

Thứ Tư, 12 tháng 11, 2008

Documentary filmmaking and intellectual property law: free e-book and short films

The above great little comic book can currently be downloaded for free in a new and expanded edition from the Duke University Press website.

Bound by Law?: Tales from the Public Domain, by Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkins takes a humorous look at copyright and fair use issues in relation to filmmaking. The book has a new foreword by Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (Director of An Inconvenient Truth) and a new introduction by award-winning novelist and copyright activist Cory Doctorow.

Here's the blurb about the book (which was available, in its earlier, shorter edition, through Google Books) from the Duke University Press website:

A documentary is being filmed. A cell phone rings, playing the Rocky theme song. The filmmaker is told she must pay $10,000 to clear the rights to the song. Can this be true? Eyes on the Prize, the great civil rights documentary, was pulled from circulation because the filmmakers’ rights to music and footage had expired. What’s going on here? It’s the collision of documentary filmmaking and intellectual property law, and it’s the inspiration for this comic book. Follow its heroine Akiko as she films her documentary and navigates the twists and turns of intellectual property. Why do we have copyrights? What’s “fair use”? Bound by Law? reaches beyond documentary film to provide a commentary on the most pressing issues facing law, art, property, and an increasingly digital world of remixed culture.

The book is the fruit of the pioneering Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Do check out their fabulous website which, among many other resources (webcasts and online articles about fair use), has the following downloadable short films (via RealPlayer):

To Clear or not to Clear Filmmaker Chris Hegedus discusses how rights clearance practices have changed since the making of “Don’t Look Back”
Disappearing History? Filmmaker Orlando Bagwell talks about making “Citizen King” and why “Eyes on the Prize” is no longer in circulation
Great Composers Steal Composer Anthony Kelley visits classical and jazz traditions and explains why you can find a doppelganger for almost any tune.

If you are a budding documentary filmmaker, or if you are teaching the next generation of budding documentarians, Film Studies For Free thinks that you should definitely check out all of the above resources.

Thứ Ba, 11 tháng 11, 2008

Free (and legal) Online Films

Film Studies For Free knows from tireless study of its visitor statistics that one of the internet search phrases that most often brings readers to this site is 'free online films'. So, for those (evidently numerous) folks who haven't yet discovered the very best gateway to and repository of thousands of free and legal online films, including many important feature-length films (like Fritz Lang's 1931 M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder - see still images above; please click HERE for the online film with English subtitles), here is the link to the website of your search engine dreams: the Moving Images section at the Internet Archive (a site you should explore for lots of other reasons, too). All Internet Archive material is in the Public Domain, so it's a must-promote resource for an Open-Access advocacy website like Film Studies For Free.

So you can see the full scope of its rich offerings, below are the subsections that make up the Internet Archive Moving Images website area:

Animation & Cartoons Arts & Music Computers & Technology Cultural & Academic Films Ephemeral Films Movies News & Public Affairs Non-English Videos Open Source Movies Prelinger Archives Spirituality & Religion Sports Videos Video Games Vlogs Youth Media

Just click on the Internet Archive mantra below to link to its general search tool:

Thứ Hai, 10 tháng 11, 2008

Miriam Makeba and South African Cinema

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (1932-2008)

Film Studies For Free was very sad to hear news of the death of Miriam Makeba.

As part of her monumental singing career she appeared in person and on the soundtrack of many films (including: Soul Power (2008); Bobby (2006); Transamerica (2005); Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony (2002); Sacred Sounds (2000); When We Were Kings (1996) Sarafina! (1992); Have You Seen Drum Recently? (1988); Amok (1982); and Come Back, Africa (1960), as discussed by Ntongela Masilela in a great 1991 article for Jump Cut).

She so often embodied the sound of global, cinematic South-Africanicity. And, thanks in part to all her film performances, she will sing on for us.

In memory of Makeba, some good (mainly South) African cinema web-links follow:

Cinema of South Africa - Wikipedia
Class and Ideology: Reflections in South African Cinema (Keyan G. Tomaselli for Critical Arts Journal)
Jacqueline Maingard, South African Cinema in the 1940s: Reviewing Black Identities
"Come Back Africa" and South African film history by Ntongela Masilela
Sub-Saharan African film by Manthia Diawara
Martin Mhando, "Approaches to African Cinema Study." Senses of-Cinema
Francoise Pfaff, "New African Cinema." Cineaste v22, n4 (Fall, 1996):58
Rod Stoneman, "African Cinema -- Addressee Unknown." Kinema, Spring 1994
Mbye Baboucar Cham, "Film Text and Context: Reweaving Africa's Social Fabric Through Its Contemporary Cinema."
The South African Film Industry: Fragmentation, Identity Crisis ... (Martin P. Botha)
The Struggle for a South African Film Audience (Martin P. Botha)
110 Years of South African Cinema (Part 1) Martin P. Botha
110 Years of South African Cinema (Part 2) Martin P. Botha
New Directing Voices in South African Cinema (Martin P. Botha)
Haile Gerima: An African Film Master (Ntogela Masilela).
Issues in the South African Cinema (Ntogela Masilela).
Is there a South African National Cinema? (Ntogela Masilela)
Thelma Gutsche: A Great South African Film Scholar (Ntogela Masilela).
Kamran Rastegar, Arab and African Cinema’s Uncertain Future (Vertigo Magazine)
The Cinema of Manie van Rensburg: Popular Memories of Afrikanerdom ...
Culture, Communication and Media Studies - Cinema on the Periphery ...
Homosexuality and South African Cinema
UC Berkeley Library African Cinema Bibliography
BFI African Cinema Bibliography
UStanford Guide to African Films Movies and Video on the Internet
Manthia Diawara, African Cinema: Politics & Culture (Google Books)
CAS - Cambridge African Film Festival
Africa in Motion, the Edinburgh African film festival
Kamran Rastegar's article on Youssef Chahine (commissioned by Africa in Motion)
Trevor Steele Taylor's article on AiM After Hours: African cinema off the tourist map (commissioned by Africa in Motion)
Paula Callus's article on African animation (commissioned by Africa in Motion)
N. Frank Ukadike, The Hyena's Last Laugh: A conversation with Djibril Diop Mambety
Djibril Diop-Mambety’s Tales of Little People on DinaView (Dina Iordanova)
From African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, FSFF obtained the following links to articles:

Disarticulating Black Consciousness: a way of reading films about apartheid / Tomaselli, Keyan. In: Safundi: the Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies, no. 10 (April), 2003. See document
African cinema: an interview with Mali's Souleymane Cissé / Cissé, Souleymane. In: Africa Update., vol. 9, no. 3 (Summer), 2002. See document
Nigerian cinema revisited / Emeagwali, Gloria and Abiola, Mike. In: Africa Update, vol. 8, no. 4 (Fall), 2001. See document
Interview with Nigerian actress Golda John on Nigerian film / Emeagwali, Gloria and John, Golda. In: Africa Update, vol 7, no. 2 (Spring), 2000. See document
A confusion of cinematic consciousness: Southern Africa on film in the United States / Tomaselli, Keyan and Shepperson, Arnold. In: Safundi: the Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies, no. 3 (October), 2000. See document
African cinema in the nineties / Cham, Mbye. In: African Studies Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1,1998. See document
Contemporary African film at the 13th Annual Carter Lectures on Africa: interviews with filmmaker Salem Mekuria and film critic Sheila Petty / Gearhart, Rebecca. In: African Studies Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1, 1998. See document
Framing post-Third-Worldist culture: gender and nation in Middle Eastern/North African film / Shohat, Ella. In: Jouvert, vol. 1, no. 1, 1996. See document
How Francophone African cinema reflects social and political reality / Doiron, Jeanne. In: Africa Update, vol. 2, no. 3 (Summer), 1995. See document

Two online journals with lots of comparative studies of African cinema:

An article on 'African music' in cinema generally - The Film Score and the African Musical Experience: Some comments on a work in progress by Andrew L. Kaye
And, finally, a brilliant discussion group and website: H-AfrLitCine [an H-Net Network discussing African Literature and Cinema]

Thứ Bảy, 8 tháng 11, 2008

The Week's Links

Film Studies For Free was all too easily distracted/mesmerised this week by momentous events, but came across, nonetheless, the following, freely-accessible, online items of note, and offers them up for your delectation, delight, and varied film/moving image education:

Check out Barack Obama's Favourite Films online at Total Films, including One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Please visit the e-journal Post Identity. It's an international, fully-refereed journal of the humanities that 'publishes text-based and multi-media scholarship that problematizes the narratives underlying individual, social, and cultural identity formations; that investigates the relationship between identity formations and texts; and that argues how such formations can be challenged. In print since 1997, Post Identity has partnered with the University of Michigan's Scholarly Publishing Office to transform itself into an audio-, graphic-, and video-enhanced web-based journal that can make available the new forms and subjects of contemporary critiques of identity, as well as more traditional text-based scholarship.'
A really great online Post Identity article worth exploring is Chuck Tryon's 'New Media Studies and the New Internet Cinema' (Print source: Post Identity, vol. 5, no. 1, Winter 2007). Tryon is assistant professor of film and media studies at Fayetteville State University, and also the author of the renowned blog The Chutry Experiment. His other online publications can be accessed at the blog HERE.
'Divide and Conquer: A world of possibilities in the unstudied field of DVD chaptering' by Adrian Martin at Moving Image Source (posted November 6, 2008). This and lots of other great Adrian Martin links were shouted out by Girish, including news of the latest issue of online film journal Rouge.
Thanks to Alison Butler (Film, Theatre and Television, University of Reading; author of Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen, reviewed HERE and HERE), FSFF heard of the Artivi video archive and a great online Eija-Liisa Ahtila interview (link HERE; also see an earlier FSFF post on this film artist HERE). Artivi is 'is a community-oriented Web-TV which produces and broadcasts programs about the contemporary art world. Artivi is also a website which offers user-generated contents'.
A little bit more Ahtila surfing then revealed Medien Kunst Netz/ Media Art Net. This site has a huge number of artists' film and video resources worth checking out, including good quality, online excerpts from four of Ahtila's videos (Anne, Aki and God, Consolation Service, Talo (The House), and Tänään (Today)). HERE's a link to the A-Z list of artists' resources at the site.
The ever bountiful GreenCine Daily posted a Tate Online link to Curing the Vampire, an online Lynn Hershman Leeson project involving four interviews by the artist-filmmaker in conjunction with Tilda Swinton, posing questions to a selection of guests, including a politician, journalist, scientist and lawyer, partially shot in the virtual world of Second Life, and released in four episodes from October. FSFF readers should check out the section of the Tate site that houses this project - Intermedia Art, which has all sorts of film-related resources, including great podcasts and texts.
There's a good film studies article in the latest issue of Politics and Culture: An International Review of Books: Productive censorship. Revisiting recent research on the cultural meanings of film censorship by Daniel Biltereyst.
The Fall 2008 issue of Mediascape has just been published online. The aim of Mediascape, to quote its website, 'is to create a forum which takes an interdisciplinary approach to visual cultural studies [...] focusing on the moving image and all its manifestations. We want to endorse a non-exclusive treatment of visual culture and will look for cross-disciplinary, cross-technological, and cross-cultural perspectives of our field to make up the content of the journal. Our staff comprises members of UCLA's School of Film, Television and Digital Media and represents both the field of critical studies, as well as the moving image archive program.' The new issue which focuses on politics and film/media contains the following, great, film-studies related articles and interventions: 'By, For, and About: The 'Real' Problem in the Feminist Film Movement' by Shilyh Warren; 'Gray or Black? Howard Koch and the Elusive Architecture of the Hollywood "Lists"' by Heather Heckman; 'Low and Behold: Using Fiction/Documentary Hybridity to See the Real Damage of Hurricane Katrina' by David O'Grady; and 'Scholars on the Subject of Media, Politics and the Academy (in 12 parts)' by Allyson Nadia Field, Toby Miller, Bill Nichols, and Chuck Tryon (him again).
Finally, do, please, check out Innovate: Journal of Online Education an open-access, peer-reviewed, online periodical published bimonthly by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University. The journal focuses 'on the creative use of information technology to enhance education and training in academic, commercial, and governmental settings.' HERE's a link to film-related articles at Innovate, a list that includes the following essay FSFF has singled out: 'The Davideon Project: Capitalizing the Possibilities of Streaming Video as Flexible Learning Objects for the Humanities' by André Rosendaal and Johan Oomen.