Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.
Chamberlain Staub: “Manipulating the Masses with Modernism: The Weapon of Abstraction” analyzes the different reactions to avant-garde throughout history. The article focuses on how Hitler, Stalin, and Castro created guidelines for censorship and implemented cultural watchdogs to enforce the regimes’ ideologies through the arts while monitoring the content being created. It also outlines how certain avant-garde filmmakers found creative ways to avoid censorship.
FM: What research and/or methodologies do you incorporate in your article?
CS: I found it important to study the art movements that occurred before each regime came to power and after. My research took me to publications regarding the censorship of art and also to the beliefs behind certain movements, one such document that assisted this was the Dada Manifesto. I also watched a number of films that had been censored, including Ghosts Before Breakfast, in attempts to find familiar traits and patterns.
FM: Describe the original context for/when writing this article while an undergraduate student.
CS: I wrote this paper in my final semester. I was told to compare two different avant-garde film movements and chose to look at the ideologies behind the censorship of abstraction.
FM: How has your department and/or institution supported your work in film and media?
CS: The film program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington provided me with a very solid group of mentors and I feel extremely fortunate for the support I was given. The department requires critical studies courses alongside production courses and this expanded not only my skills as a filmmaker but also my understanding of historical film movements and theories.
FM: How has your faculty mentor fostered your advancement as a film scholar?
CS: Dr. Carlos Kase introduced me to a whole new set of artists. My final semester I ended up having twelve hours of back-to-back screenings and lectures on Wednesdays, and this day started with a cult cinema class taught by Dr. Kase and ended with his avant-garde one. Despite long days and a whole heap of new, strange material, I was always intrigued. His passion for the subjects helped broaden my understanding of cinema and challenged what I had thought to be “successful” cinematic formulas.
FM: How has the Film Matters editorial and publication process impacted the development/evolution of your article?
CS: Film Matters publication process influenced me to add visuals to strengthen my article. I know there must have been a number of amazing articles submitted and I feel so privileged to been chosen.
FM: What audience do you hope to reach with your Film Matters article and/or what impact do you hope it has on the field of film studies?
CS: I hope this reaches an audience interested in abstract movements, propaganda, experimental cinema and that it may motivate more research into the different ways art shapes policies and is used to promote ideologies. There are so many other countries that have seen oppression and misuse of their artists and still much to be studied on this topic.
FM: What are your future plans?
CS: I moved to Australia right after graduation and have been working in the industry here. I plan to continue writing and filming my own content and hope my work is able to push stagnant discussions forward in entertaining ways.
Author Biography
Chamberlain Staub is an international writer and filmmaker with a bachelor’s degree in Film Studies. Her work touches on social issues and mixes humor with raw, unbiased truth and strives for honest expression through the careful exploration of difficult subjects. Her latest independent documentary Melba frames a portrait of a woman as she comes to terms with her mortality.
