Call for Print Reviews

Film Matters is actively seeking book and film/DVD/Blu-ray reviews by current undergraduate students for future print issues, including the upcoming FM 15.1 (2024).

Here is our list of available books:

We also have the following Blu-ray(s) from Criterion (before requesting a Blu-ray, please make sure you can play region A/1 media via your technology):

  • La Ceremonie (1995)

Students interested in this opportunity should send a brief statement of interest (taking care to indicate any relevant qualifications for reviewing a specific title, like past course work, etc.) to: 

futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

It definitely helps to provide some backup selections in your statement, in the event that your first-choice request has already been claimed by someone else.

Students who are selected for this opportunity will receive a review copy of the item, which they can keep with our (and the distributor’s) compliments in exchange for the written review. Build your CV with us!

Posted in Calls, News | Comments Off on Call for Print Reviews

Monica Foster, Author of FM 13.3 (2022) Article “Flâneuserie Reimagined: Ida and Purposeful Wandering”

Black-and-white screenshot from the film Ida -- a medium close-up of a woman who appears white in a casual nun's habit; she is positioned in profile to the right of the frame, looking off-screen, a bright light illuminating her face but not the background, which is darker.
Ida is framed to the side, rarely in the center. Everything is still, and there is a feeling of anticipation caused by the irregular framing. Still from Ida, (Opus films/Phoenix Films, Curzon Film World, 2013).

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Monica Foster: Much has been said about Charles Baudelaire’s nineteenth-century figure, the flâneur, and its relation to a variety of different disciplines. The flâneur was and still is a figure of modern mobility; he is one who strolls and observes his surroundings. My article for Film Matters introduces the female iteration of the flâneur, the flaneuse, by examining Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2013 film, Ida. The act of flâneurie, is typically a metropolitan activity, and is done at one’s leisure; in other words, it is not a serious activity that involves much labor. In contrast, the flâneuse in Ida, is reflective and has a purpose to her wandering, especially given the film’s historical context: 1960s communist Poland. Through flâneuserie, Ida, the film’s protagonist, navigates urban and rural settings to discover a truth about herself and the world around her. This article gives much to female subjectivity and consciousness under the effects of the Second World War and communism and how the past continues to inform one’s present.

Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Monica Foster, Author of FM 13.3 (2022) Article “Flâneuserie Reimagined: Ida and Purposeful Wandering”

Emma Fergusson, Author of FM 13.3 (2022) Article “‘A Ritz Among Laundrettes’: Identities and New Waves in My Beautiful Laundrette”

Medium shot of two men in an interior overlooking a busy high street. They are positioned in the center, but leaning toward the right of the frame. One man has his hands up against the yellow window frames, looking out of the window, his face bloodied; the other man embraces him from behind, kissing his neck.
My Beautiful Laundrette (Working Title Films, 1985).

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Emma Fergusson: My article, “’A Ritz Among Laundrettes’: Identities and New Waves in My Beautiful Laundrette,” analyzes the 1985 Stephen Frears-directed film, My Beautiful Laundrette, as a precursor to the New Queer Cinema movement, and as significant for its portrayal of characters with complex, intersectional identities, living in Thatcher’s England. The laundrette at the film’s center serves as a space in which its characters can find success in business and the freedom to live out their sexuality, but which nonetheless remains inextricable from the oppressive society that surrounds. Furthermore, I investigate the stylistic impact of the film’s origins in television.

Continue reading
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on Emma Fergusson, Author of FM 13.3 (2022) Article “‘A Ritz Among Laundrettes’: Identities and New Waves in My Beautiful Laundrette”

Officially Announcing FM 13.3 (2022)!

FM 13.3 cover

We are shining a light on the TOC of FM 13.3, now out, which includes the following peer-reviewed features:

A Contemporary Horror Cinema Dossier, edited and curated by Georgia Gwinnett College:

And this featurette:

For more information about this issue, please visit: 

https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/fm/13/3

Are you an undergraduate author who wants to be published in Film Matters? Then we want to work with you! Please check out all the different ways you can publish with us.

Happy spring!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Officially Announcing FM 13.3 (2022)!

Emily Heiser, Author of FM 13.2 (2022) Article “Empathizing with James Baldwin in I Am Not Your Negro

A tight close-up of James Baldwin's face -- he is slightly off center in the frame, and looking off-screen to the left, his eyes shining as if he is moved, his mouth downturned
I Am Not Your Negro (Velvet Film, Artemis Productions, and Close Up Films, 2017).

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Emily Heiser: My article examines the critical reception of Raoul Peck’s film I Am Not Your Negro (2017) and how the film’s unique ability to evoke empathy and harness the psychological process of projection could have impacted certain responses. Although I Am Not Your Negro is based on an unfinished book by James Baldwin, he still had no active role in the creation of the film, which is why I was intrigued when I found multiple critics saying that they felt they were in the presence of Baldwin or were immersed in his point of view upon watching the film. 

Continue reading
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on Emily Heiser, Author of FM 13.2 (2022) Article “Empathizing with James Baldwin in I Am Not Your Negro

Daisies (1966). Reviewed by Josie Banner

A black-and-white screen grab which introduces two women named Marie slumped against a wood background and dressed in checkerboard bikinis. The Marie played by Ivana Karbanová on the left holds a flower crown to her face, looking through the middle of it, blankly. The Marie on the right, Jitka Cerhová, has her hands clasped to her chest and a trumpet resting between her legs.
Figure 1: From Daisies (1966) at 00:03:00, the main characters, both named Marie, are introduced.

Daisies (1966) is a very interesting experimental film. Throughout, it uses many cinematic techniques and mise-en-scene elements to weave a complex web of emotion and discovery as two women both named Marie (played by Ivana Karbanová and Jitka Cerhová) navigate the depths of their patriarchal world. The first frame that I grabbed from Daisies (Figure 1, 00:03:00) establishes its feminist values. This sequence cleverly introduces the Maries, their joints squeaking like old dolls when they move as literal objectification. They lament the badness of the world and how it makes no sense for them to be good (hence the caption on screen) because of it. Their feet are already dirty, no doubt because of the “dirtiness” of the world that has tainted the pure representation of these women. On the left, Ivana frames her face with the flower crown she uses to symbolize her virginity and innocence. It’s almost as if she’s peering through a hole to say that what once was whole no longer is. Jitka clasps her hands together in a way that reflects that the girls are meant to come off as innocent, despite their nihilistic discussion of the world around them. One of my favorite parts of this sequence is the quick transition from black-and-white to color film. Jitka slaps Ivana, which spurs this transformation to a world that is dynamic and full of color. This elucidates how dull and plastic life is until the realization that it shouldn’t matter how women present themselves. Furthermore, their world goes from lifeless and bland to bright and lively the second they reject patriarchy.

Continue reading
Posted in Criterion^3 | Comments Off on Daisies (1966). Reviewed by Josie Banner

Interview with Will Kitchen, Author of Romanticism and Film and Film, Negation and Freedom. By Brittany Utley

Cover of the book Romanticism and Film by Will Kitchen, publishing by Bloomsbury, featuring the painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

Brittany Utley: What sparked your interest in wanting to investigate Romanticism and its connection to film?                                                                  

Will Kitchen: Pretty much all the work I’ve done since I started my film studies back in 2011 has been driven by a desire to connect existing interests. Romanticism, for me, came about primarily through an existing interest in music. I’ve always loved Romantic music, including Liszt and Beethoven, and I thought: “Is there a way I can connect that to the study of film? Pushing the idea of film as an interdisciplinary subject, can it be the ultimate synthesis of all the arts? And is there a way to connect these preexisting interests into some new contribution.” That initially took the direction of looking at representation – looking at the ways creative labor is represented in films through biopics, films about performing musicians, creativity, and genius – virtuosity, in a broad sense. But it also includes how classical music has a symbolic content. We go to see a film, for example, and the villain always loves classical music – that sort of thing. So I began to think about those very broad connections and how they become repeated and develop meanings that can expand, be communicated, and used. Of course, that leads to the idea of language more broadly, more “hardcore” film theory, and the theory of audiovisual explanation. My interests grew from exploring these various threads that lead off from this central, nebulous idea of Romanticism. It’s an area that’s leading to all kinds of fascinating topics, which I’ve explored across two books now, and there’s still a lot more work to be done.

Continue reading
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on Interview with Will Kitchen, Author of Romanticism and Film and Film, Negation and Freedom. By Brittany Utley

The Butterfly Queen: Interview with the Filmmakers. By Alexis Johnson

Poster for The Butterfly Queen, featuring two people standing in the center, in long shot, and looking toward the camera; one carries a large book and sword, the other a large stick; a sheep peeks out between them, also looking toward the camera; a sunset is in the distance, a river snakes up behind the figures, and mythical creatures adorn the top left and right corners

Alexis Johnson: Please tell us about The Butterfly Queen in your own words.

Liam O’Connor-Genereaux (director): I wanted to tell a love story about friendship. Lots of movies focus on true “romantic” love (it’s one of the most celebrated forms of storytelling), but friendship, especially in cinema, is treated superficially. It’s either taken as a given and difficulties in the friendship are played for laughs—or it’s relegated to a B or C plot. For me, my platonic relationships are central to my life. They have been just as meaningful, difficult, and life-changing as falling in love. So I wanted to make a movie about that. In the woods. With monsters and portals and a dragon.

Continue reading
Posted in Interviews | Comments Off on The Butterfly Queen: Interview with the Filmmakers. By Alexis Johnson

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) in Three Frames. Reviewed by Ruby Schweitzer

The walls of the Palmer home’s foyer take up the left and right thirds of the frame. Between the walls, we can see into the dining room, where Leland Palmer sits alone. Only half his body is visible behind the left wall. His hands are folded in a prayer-like position, and he is staring into the camera.
Figure 1 (00:53:27): Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) peers at the camera. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). CIBY Pictures, Criterion Channel.

Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) has just come to an unsettling realization, one she does not want to accept as truth: her father (Ray Wise) may be the real person behind Bob (Frank Silva), a mysterious figure who has been haunting and sexually abusing her. While the origin of Bob remains unclear to the audience at this point, David Lynch’s use of cinematography in the scene after this realization suggests that Laura is correct in her belief. In Figure 1, Leland Palmer sits at his dining room table in solitude. The scene is lit naturalistically, with lamps used for practical lighting and shadows that emulate window blinds. The production design implies an unassuming, if stuffy, suburban home. Nothing about the mise-en-scène hints that anything sinister is about to occur. Yet Lynch’s choice to have Leland gradually appear from behind the wall as the camera trucks to the right and pans to the left in a single slow movement gives this shot an ominous, anticipatory undertone. What could have been a simple establishing shot becomes a reveal fit for a horror film, and Leland’s stern gaze into the camera, though tiny in this long shot, adds to his foreboding quality.

Continue reading
Posted in Criterion^3 | Comments Off on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) in Three Frames. Reviewed by Ruby Schweitzer

Introducing Our 2023 Masoud Yazdani Award Judges

Judging has begun for the 2023 Masoud Yazdani Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Film Scholarship. Articles under consideration are from the following notable institutions of higher education:

  • Broward College
  • Chapman University (4)
  • Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi
  • Kalamazoo College
  • Keene State College
  • The Ohio State University (3)
  • Queen Mary University of London (2)
  • Queen’s University
  • Rhode Island College
  • University of Delhi/Jadavpur University
  • University of Hong Kong
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Toronto (2)
  • The University of Warwick
  • University of York
  • Wesleyan University
  • Wilfrid Laurier University

And, of course, none of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of our judges:

Lexi Collinsworth, a master’s student in Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, treads the delicate intersection of dance and cinema. In addition to her academic pursuits, she founded “Dance on Film” at UNCW, offering guidance to undergraduates while fostering an appreciation for interdisciplinary art. Beyond the academic sphere, Lexi runs a photography business known as “The Reel Shot,” specializing in portrait photography. This November, a collaborative effort materialized in the form of her codirected short dance film, Reflections in Motion, premiering at the Cucalorus Film Festival. Lexi remains dedicated to pushing boundaries, aspiring to weave genuine, unassuming stories within the tapestry of contemporary cinema.

Hannah Davenport is an aspiring film scholar currently located in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she attends the University of North Carolina Wilmington as a Film Studies graduate student. Her academic interests include regional American cinema and ideological film criticism, as well as aesthetics and phenomenology. Outside of class she spends her time reading and watching “bad” movies.

Dason Fuller is a graduate student pursuing his MA in Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He received his BA in Film Studies in the summer of 2023, and has two upcoming published pieces appearing in Film Matters in the spring of 2024. After achieving his MA, Dason is interested in pursuing academic writing and teaching.

Clayton Sapp is a master’s in Film Studies student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His research primarily focuses on masculinity and romance in popular Hindi cinema. When he is not engaged with his research, he can be found volunteering at local nonprofit film organizations, or at a coffee shop grading papers for the class he assists in teaching.

We are planning on an early 2023 announcement. So please watch this space!

Happy holidays!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Introducing Our 2023 Masoud Yazdani Award Judges

One with the Whale. Reviewed by Dason Fuller

An overhead extreme long shot of six boats towing a whale through ice-dotted water
One with the Whale (Peter Chelkowski & Jim Wickens, 2023).

“We live in a modern world, in a remote area.”

This quote from the film drives the overall message of One with the Whale. This documentary, directed by Peter Chelkowski and Jim Wickens, follows the life of a family in Gambell, Alaska, as they survive day-by-day despite the pressures and damages done by the world around them. The film is a gripping examination of the effects of climate change and uneducated mass media on a remote village without traditional methods of living or survival. It opens with a group of hunters getting excited—they have spotted a whale. The extent of their excitement is not immediately clear to the audience, but will become apparent once the full sequence plays out toward the end of the film. Chelkowski and Wickens are very deliberate in the way they pace information throughout the story, opting for an objective observance of the way the tribe lives before introducing environmental and societal context to justify this way of living. The landscape itself is a sheet of white, and the camera pans slowly across the space to allow the viewer to take in the beauty of the place. Also present, however, are shots of melting ice caps, signifiers of climate change that threaten this land. Because of the amount of ice that has already melted, the land has diminished, and the Yupik tribe has no choice but to hunt for its food in the sea. Their biggest prize? A whale, large enough to feed the entire village.

Continue reading
Posted in Cucalorus x Film Matters | Comments Off on One with the Whale. Reviewed by Dason Fuller