Film Matters Magazine

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

Anushree Joshi & Saman Waheed: Our article explores the concerns of human mortality in a rapidly disconnecting society, owing to modern capitalism in Indian metropolitans, by focusing upon the 2018 Hindi film, October. We resurrect the works of two of the younger Romantics — John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley — to compare the philosophy espoused within their poetry, with the conflict explored in the film. The ephemeral nature of life and the process of coping with loss and death in an increasingly individualistic world are pertinent concerns of the human condition, and it was our objective to seek some answers in the words of these poets.

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

Peter Horan: My article highlights how artists’ film and video have evolved in the past century when it comes to the representation of non-Western communities and their cultures. It compares Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), Len Lye’s Tusalava (1929) and Free Radicals (1958), and Nguyễn Trinh Thi’s Letters from Panduranga (2015) through a postcolonial lens and discusses how Nguyễn is engaged in the nuances of postcolonial identity in a manner which is not replicated by Reiniger and Lye. It eventually concludes that depictions of non-Western cultures in artists’ film and video have developed in the past century from spaces of exoticization to sites of inclusion and respect.

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

Cameron Detig: My article, “Slow Motion in the Age of Intensified Continuity,” is about the ways in which slow motion has been implemented in film, and how its uses became amplified after the rise of intensified continuity since the 1960s. It draws largely from David Bordwell’s writings on the subject and applies them to the seldom talked about area of slow motion. In the article, I use statistical data on the amount of slow motion used in a range of films to discuss trends and usage of the device.

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

Abby Walkur: My article—“Three Cheers for the Essay Film”—utilizes esteemed scholar Timothy Corrigan’s essay film model to explain how famous French essayist Chris Marker’s Vive la baleine epitomizes the essay film mode.

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

Chuyi Zhang: My article mainly focuses on the film Saving Face created in 2004 by Chinese American director Alice Wu, which carries a lot of meaning but does not catch as much attention as it should. From a film history perspective, it was the first Hollywood film centered on Chinese Americans’ experiences and stories since The Joy Luck Club. From the cultural studies perspective, it is a perfect case, where feminism, queer, ethnic and intercultural studies intersect altogether. However, it is not frequently mentioned in academia. The aim of my essay is to discuss and reveal how the director challenges the representation of Chinese in the dominant American narrative.