ALERT: Call for Video Essays

To all our video essay authors submitting to our recent call for video essays that closed on August 15, 2021: A major miscommunication — compounded by the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic — has led to a misprint in the submission email address for video essays. VideographicFM@gmail.com, unfortunately, is a dead, inaccessible email account. We take our submission process very seriously and sincerely apologize for the attendant confusion, delays, and frustration. We do, very much, still want to receive your submissions, however. For those of you still seeking a publication opportunity with Film Matters, please forward any submissions to our new email account — video.filmmatters@gmail.com — which we assure you is now active. Please see below for updated guidelines in English. And we thank you for your patience, grace, and attention in this matter. We promise to work harder to deserve them!

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Eligibility: submissions are accepted from scholars worldwide who are either (1) currently enrolled in an undergraduate program (regardless of discipline) or (2) recent graduates from one. Recent graduates must have received their bachelor’s degrees no earlier than a year from the deadline and must not be currently enrolled in a graduate program.

What to submit: submissions must include three items. (1) An original and unpublished piece of videographic scholarship, authored solely by undergraduates/recent graduates. Video essays must be between 5 and 20 minutes and feature English subtitles (hard-coded), regardless of what languages are spoken in the video. To be considered for publication, video essays must make an identifiable argument and substantially transform the original audiovisual material (i.e., through editing, commentary, etc.). Resources regarding videographic criticism, including information on Fair Use, may be found at: http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/intransition/resources. Video essays must be uploaded to Vimeo in private mode; link and password must be provided in the accompanying written statement. (2) A written statement of no less than 300 and no more than 600 words. These statements should not be a transcript of the video, but rather an explanation of the author’s intentions. Statements must be written in English, and bilingual statements are especially welcome. (3) A 150-word, English-language bio of the author.

How to submit: please direct your submission and eventual questions to Film Matters Magazine’s Video Essays Editor Pedro Branco (University of Brasília) at VideographicFM@gmail.com video.filmmatters@gmail.com. Feel free to write in English, Portuguese, Spanish, or French.

Deadline: submissions must be received by August 15, 2021 November 1, 2021, to be considered for publication in issue 13.1 13.2 (2022) of Film Matters Magazine.

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Mise-en-Scene Scrapbook: But I’m a Cheerleader. By Tessa Throneburg

Figure 1. Cast in Edward Scissorhands (20th Century Fox, 1990).

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) is a satirical rom-com directed by Jamie Babbit and starring Natasha Lyonne as the film’s protagonist Megan, a closeted cheerleader. Megan is sent to a conversion therapy camp by her friends, family, and boyfriend after they suspect her of being a lesbian due to feminine and vulva-esque motifs in her decorations — all of the posters in her room and locker are of women — and the fact that she does not enjoy kissing her boyfriend. After her family, friends, and boyfriend suspect her of being a homosexual, Megan is sent to a conversion therapy camp run by Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty), who is in charge of the girls at the camp, and Mike (RuPaul), who is in charge of the boys. Megan and the other youth at the camp have to perform and pass a series of exercises and tests throughout the film in order to “correct” their sexual desires, including cooking, cleaning, and dressing feminine for the girls, and yard work and learning how to fix cars for the boys. At first, Megan is open to changing herself and her sexuality through the program, but as she gains more confidence in her sexuality and falls for one of her peers, Graham (Clea DuVall), she rejects the camp and strives for the freedom to be herself.

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Nolan Crawford, Author of FM 11.3 (2020) Article “’He’s Fictional, But You Can’t Have Everything’: Screwball Comedy and the Viewer’s Reality”

In the signature dance of Top Hat (RKO Radio Pictures, 1935), Dale and Jerry falls in love on the dance floor in one of Astaire and Rogers’s most elegant dances.

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

Nolan Crawford: My article is a comparative analysis of three films, two of which are classic screwball comedies from the 1930s and the third of which is a film from the 1980s whose surrealist plot relies and comments on the screwball comedy genre.  My original hope was to focus solely on the brilliant subversion of the genre and its voyeuristic tendencies which Woody Allen brings to his 1980s film, The Purple Rose of Cairo.  But, in actually writing the essay, the article got to a bigger message.  This bigger message was one on class and the predatory nature of Hollywood studios in the Great Depression, coopting working-class desires through film.  It was a huge pleasure to see this article evolve as I wrote it.

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Mise-en-Scène Scrapbook: Hugo (2011) by Dan Verley

Figure 1 – Setting – 1931 Paris. Hugo (Paramount Pictures, 2011).

After his father dies in a fire, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is taken in by his Uncle Claude (Ray Winston), who takes care of the clocks at a train station. Claude is a drunk and eventually disappears, leaving Hugo to fend for himself. The only things that Hugo has from his previous life are an automaton that his father found in the attic at the museum where he worked and the notebook that his father kept as they were trying to repair the automaton. To prevent losing his home, Hugo continues working on the clocks on his own. He also continues trying to repair the automaton using parts that he pilfers and steals. It’s while stealing parts from a toy booth at the station that he meets the other main character, Georges (Ben Kingsley). Georges has caught Hugo in the act of stealing and, during the subsequent shakedown, discovers the aforementioned notebook. Georges is shocked by the drawings found within and, after Hugo refuses to say who drew them, takes the notebook, saying that he will burn it. Hugo follows Georges home to get the notebook back and meets Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), who lives with Georges and his wife Jeanne (Helen McCrory). The two become friends and bond over a shared love of the movies. At one point, Hugo discovers a key that Isabelle has around her neck in the shape of a heart. He realizes that the key would fit in a slot on the automaton. Hugo and Isabelle use the key, and the automaton comes to life. Hugo believes that the automaton will write a message from his father. Instead, it draws the famous image from Georges Méliès’s Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902) and signs the image Georges Méliès. Isabelle explains that Georges’s full name is Georges Méliès. This eventually leads them to Rene Tabard (Michael Stuhlbarg), a historian and fan of Georges Méliès’s films. He travels to Georges’s home and plays one of his films for Jeanne, Hugo, and Isabelle. Georges returns home at this time and, after encouragement from his wife and the others, tells the story of how his career as a filmmaker ended. He also mentions that he believed the automaton he created had been destroyed in the fire that killed Hugo’s father. Hugo leaves to get the automaton but is captured by the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). The inspector is getting ready to take Hugo to jail when Georges shows up and tells the inspector that Hugo is his boy. The film ends with a public presentation of Georges’s films and an after-party where all the various characters celebrate Georges’s accomplishments.

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Vanessa Zarm, Author of FM 11.3 (2020) Article “The Significance of Ingrid Goes West’s Obsession with Social Media”

Ingrid Goes West. NEON, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbvoNz387K0 [Screengrab from the Official Red Band Teaser].

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

Vanessa Zarm: My article centers around Matt Spicer’s 2017 dark comedy Ingrid Goes West and discusses its contemporary representation of social media, which shares a rare, behind-the-scenes insight into the world of influencers and their famed lifestyle in Los Angeles. In particular, my article focuses on the journey of the film’s protagonist, Ingrid Thorburn, whose obsession with Instagram, alongside her mental instability, dives into the psychological ramifications of using such apps on a day-to-day basis and how heavily it influences today’s generation. 

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Qingyang Zhou, Author of FM 11.3 (2020) Article “Discovering the Beauty of the Quotidian: The Contemporary Flâneur in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson”

Frame from Paterson.
The poetic use of dissolves (Paterson, Amazon Studios and K5 International, 2016).

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

Qingyang Zhou: My article uses the theory of flâneur, developed by Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin, to analyze the relationship between poetry, the urban landscape, and driving in American independent film director Jim Jarmusch’s film Paterson (2016).

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FM 11.3 (2020) Released!

Film Matters announces the release of FM 11.3 ,via Ingenta and EBSCO. (Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, print copies will follow once the Intellect offices are back open at some point in 2021.)

In this issue, you will find the following peer-reviewed feature articles:

These featurettes:

These book reviews:

These film reviews:

And these DVD/Blu-ray reviews:

For more about this issue, please visit: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/fm/2020/00000011/00000003

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.

Stay happy and healthy!

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Arta Barzanji, Author of FM 11.2 (2020) Article “A Still Cinema: Sohrab Shahid Saless’s Still Life (1974)”

Still Life (Telfilm, 1974).

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

Arta Barzanji: The article is, for the most part, a close reading of Saless’s Still Life, generally considered to be one of his two masterpieces. It’s also an effort to give context on Saless and introduce him through one of his seminal works, while addressing the deficiencies of what has been written about him and this film so far.

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Open Call for Papers 13.2W

Film Matters is pleased to announce our open call for papers from current undergraduates, authors who have been invited to revise and resubmit previous submissions (including authors who did not make it past our pre-screening for a previous call), and recently graduated undergraduates for consideration in issue 13.2 (2022).

The deadline is September 1, 2021.

Film Matters is still using MLA 8th edition style — so please prepare your submissions accordingly.  Purdue OWL’s MLA Formatting and Style Guide is an excellent resource to consult for help with this.

For more information about this call for papers, please download the official document (PDF):

Submissions should include a cover sheet, which provides the author’s name, title of essay, institutional affiliation, and contact information; all other identifying information should be removed from the body of the text and the headers/footers in order to aid the blind peer review process.

Submissions and questions should be directed to:

  • futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

Please note that Film Matters does not accept submissions that are currently under review by other journals or magazines.

Please submit your film- and media-related research papers today!  We look forward to receiving your work!

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Moumen Smihi is Si Moh, pas de chance (1971). Reviewed by E. Rafael Jacobs-Perez

Si Moh, pas de chance (Groupe de Recherches et d’Essais Cinematographiques, 1971).

Smihi’s short film, Si Moh, pas de chance (1971), depicts a Moroccan immigrant in France. The film follows the path of the main character as he navigates the French ghettos in search of work. The short film can be looked at as semi-autobiographical in its depiction of the emotions and archetypal experiences of Moroccan immigrants in France. In 1965, Smihi began studying film in Paris, “many hours he spent at the Cinémathèque française and in the famous open seminars of Barthes and Lacan,” growing an understanding of French culture in relation to the experiences of Moroccans living there (Limbrick, “Of Marabouts” 3). Through the stylistic content, black-and-white cinematography and an Arab score, a stark contrast between the main character and the French setting is created. The black-and-white cinematography helps to contrast the darker skin of the protagonist against the many lighter shades of the French citizens. Adding to this contrast between the Moroccan immigrant and France is the playing of traditional Arab music, which is a trope that is common throughout Smihi’s work. For example, in his film El Chergui, it opens with a shot of Tangier accompanied by the playing of a traditional Berber song (Badaoui 107). While panning over shots of the French landscape, a unique score helps depict the reality faced by Smihi and other Moroccan immigrants. Additionally, the filmmaker worked creatively to forge a style that allows for a first-person perspective, as well as the insertion of moments of surrealism. All these details add up to deliver not only a semi-autobiographical story of immigration, but a heavy-handed critique on French xenophobia.

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