Our 2018 Masoud Yazdani Award Judges

Film Matters is pleased to announce that judging for the 2018 Masoud Yazdani Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Film Scholarship is well underway thanks to the hard work of our volunteer judges:

Michael Benton, Humanities Professor at Bluegrass Community & Technical College, specializes in film studies, documentary, and peace and conflict studies and hosts the Bluegrass Film Society.

Ari Laskin, Assistant Professor in Media Arts & Culture at Occidental College, is a film theorist, media historian, and filmmaker who teaches courses in global film and media, film genre, critical and visual studies, and film production.

Elizabeth Ward, Lecturer in German at the University of Hull, is a cultural historian specializing in East German cinema and film in the Cold War and has published on both East German film and twenty-first-century German cinema.

We heartily thank our 2018 judges for the service they are providing! And we look forward to announcing the results before the end of 2018.

So please watch this space!

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A Legacy of Tolerance: An Interview with Serena Dykman, Director of Nana (2016). By Ashley Spillane

Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant, Serena Dykman’s grandmother, in Nana (Dyamant Pictures, 2016). Vimeo

“Never again,” the phrase associated with the Holocaust, is a reminder of the value of memory. The Holocaust memory is increasingly important in society today as survivors pass away and intolerance continues to exist. Many dedicated their postwar lives to preserving the Holocaust memory by sharing their stories with younger generations. One such individual was Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant, an Auschwitz survivor and activist for tolerance. Maryla’s greatest wish was to prevent the Holocaust from ever being forgotten or repeated. Her granddaughter, Serena Dykman, carries on her grandmother’s legacy with her latest film Nana, a transgenerational documentary that tells her grandmother’s Auschwitz survival story and shares her stance against intolerance, racism, and antisemitism (Nana: A Film).

Serena Dykman’s documentary is not just a depiction of the life and work of an extraordinary woman, Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant; it is also a strong call to action. Maryla’s retelling of her experiences on screen is so “stunning in their transparency and absolutely heartbreaking to watch” (Propes) that viewers have become inspired and motivated to continue her fight against intolerance (Nana: A Film). As Serena traces her own journey of discovering her grandmother’s life story in Nana, she overcomes the challenges of making her call to action relevant to younger generations and continuing her grandmother’s work in the wake of political acts of violence such as the 2014 attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris (“Impact in Profile”). Nana won several well-deserved festival awards including the Madelyn’s Choice Award at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, the Best of Show Award at Chagrin Docs Without Borders Film Festival, and the Mira Nair Award for Rising Female Filmmaker at the Harlem International Film Festival, among many others. Its theatrical premiere occurred recently on April 13 in New York (Nana: A Film).

Because of my interest in social justice documentaries, I wanted to interview Serena Dykman about the making of Nana. After watching the film, I recently interviewed Serena via email. Her responses to the following questions continue to highlight the importance of the film and its message of tolerance.

Ashley Spillane: Tell us about your film, Nana.

Serena Dykman: I retrace my grandmother’s Auschwitz survival story, and investigate how her lifelong fight against intolerance can continue to be taught to the new generations, against the backdrop of current events.

Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant, born in Poland, survived Ravensbruck, Malchow, and Auschwitz, where she was the forced translator of the “Angel of Death,” Dr. Mengele. She dedicated her postwar life to publicly speaking of her survival to the young generations, so that it would never be forgotten or repeated. Alice Michalowski and I, her daughter and granddaughter, explore how Maryla’s fight against intolerance can continue today, in a world where survivors are disappearing, and intolerance, racism and antisemitism are on the rise. Continue reading

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Elizabeth Riggs, Author of FM 9.1 (2018) Article “Mental Illness and the Monstrous Mother: A Comparison of Representation in The Babadook and Lights Out”

The monstrous mother in The Babadook (IFC Films, 2014)

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

Elizabeth Riggs: This article is an examination of the monstrous mother, as portrayed in the films The Babadook and Lights Out. Specifically, it looks at how Kristeva’s theory of the abject can be applied to view the mothers in both films as abject due to their mental illness, and how the abject can create horror. Through contrasting each film’s outcome, it discusses the representation of single motherhood, as well as the problematic way that Lights Out depicts those with mental illness. Continue reading

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Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Reviewed by Jason Husak

Ant-Man and the Wasp (Marvel Studios, 2018)

After ten years of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, it’s incredible to believe what Disney and Marvel have accomplished after a decade. Not only have Disney and Marvel produced twenty consecutive films that are commercially and critically successful (every single MCU film has turned a profit and been “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), but they have also created a new form of movie watching—serialized feature storytelling based in genre. The reason MCU films resonate with mass audiences is due to high accessibility through its genre-like design and inclusive nature. MCU films, like television series, consist of episodic-like genre films that lead to a grand finale. For example, Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017), Captain America: Winter Soldier (Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, 2014), and Ant-Man (Peyton Reed, 2015), all work as standalone episodes that represent and explore the best that genre has to offer. Spider-Man: Homecoming is a teen movie, Captain America: Winter Soldier a spy movie, and Ant-Man a heist movie. This storytelling technique allows for easily digestible films that all moviegoers can rally behind and enjoy. This form of entertainment not only produces big-budget, grandiose, character-driven films (such as Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008), Thor (Kenneth Branagh, 2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011)), but also allows for more local, small-scale storylines based around less known niche characters such as Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. In turn, these standalone films (or episodes) build to a grand (season) finale where all these characters and storylines come together in the Avengers films. After the heartbreaking finale of Avengers: Infinity War (Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, 2018) three months ago, the twentieth MCU film, Ant-Man and the Wasp (Peyton Reed, 2018) was released on July 6, 2018. Ant-Man and the Wasp offers a good palate cleanser to the high-stakes juggernaut that was Avengers: Infinity War by providing a less ambitious and generally entertaining film packed with laughs, action, and fun. Overall, Ant-Man and the Wasp delivers another good MCU film; however, issues regarding flat characters, lack of emotional resonance, and inconsistent tone prevent Ant-Man and the Wasp from being as memorable or consistent as past MCU films. Continue reading

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Interview with Austen Sprake, Director of Murder Go Round (The Student Film That Never Was). By Lily C. Frame

Murder Go Round (The Student Film That Never Was)

Murder Go Round (The Student Film That Never Was) is a feature-length student film produced by the liberal arts institution, St. Lawrence University (SLU), and directed by their 2018 film graduate, Austen Sprake. Like many, Sprake sparked his adoration for filmmaking during high school and since has budded into a writer, producer, director, actor, editor, and cinematographer. Granted the majority of student feature-length films are created in auspicious circumstances with accessible film tools at their disposal, Murder Go Round (The Student Film That Never Was) is unique for the reason Sprake was the first film major in the history of SLU. In the face of adversity, Sprake constructs a fruitful feature-length film, but during post-production he forsakes his initial narrative and conceives an invaluable visual medium for student filmmakers. Austen Sprake participated in this interview with Film Matters via email in summer 2018.

Lily Frame: Tell me about Murder Go Round.

Murder Go Round was my senior year project at St. Lawrence. After years of working on different short films, music videos and documentaries at school, I wanted to step up and work on a large scale (for our school at least) feature film, consisting of an all Saint Lawrence University cast and crew. The film would be a feature length version of my award winning short film Murder Go Round, and I would continue experimenting with the murder mystery genre in it. Continue reading

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FM 9.1 (2018) Is Out!

Film Matters is pleased to report that our first issue of 2018 is finally out — and with a completely new look, new size, etc.  Our spirit is still the same, though:  celebrating the undergraduate voice in film and media studies, just as we have been doing since 2010.

In this issue, you will find:

  • A tribute to our dear Hannah Frank, 1984–2017

These peer-reviewed feature articles:

  • Warped Space Time: Exploiting Schematic Assumptions in Ritual in Transfigured Time by Grant Brighter
  • “We’re Just Cinema Thugs”: A Documentary Critique on Cultural Exploitation by Jake Martin Graves
  • Mental Illness and the Monstrous Mother: A Comparison of Representation in The Babadook and Lights Out by Elizabeth E. Riggs
  • What Makes HAL 9000 a Character in 2001: A Space Odyssey? by Kyle Stanley and  Jacob Laham
  • I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts: Positive Female Representation in the Ghostbusters (2016) Remake by Linnea Warburton

The 2017 New Directors/New Films Festival Review Dossier from Hendrix College:

  • Introduction by Gabrielle Fulton, Hunter Herrera, Kaitlin Lowe, Katie Neilson, and Blake Thompson
  • Autumn, Autumn (2016) by Blake Thompson
  • Documenting Fantasy and Disability by Kaitlin Lowe
  • Happiness University: The Strange, the Mundane, and the Sensuous by Gabrielle Fulton
  • Lady Macbeth (2016) by Katie Neilson
  • The Last of Us (2016) by Katie Neilson and Blake Thompson
  • Pendular: Screen Space by Hunter Herrera
  • A Tour de France in Four Days by Gabrielle Fulton and Kaitlin Lowe

The following featurettes:

  • Global Cinema, For Western Eyes by Eduard Saakashvili
  • Analyzing High-Fidelity Thematic Elements of the World of Stalker: From the Tarkovsky Film to the GSC Game World Video Game by Emmett Williams

The Contemporary Science Fiction II Dossier from Messiah College:

  • We’ll Teach Them Tricks: Reinstating Normative Hybrid Futures in Alien: Resurrection by Julia Glick
  • Empty Space: The Depersonalization of the Future in 2001: A Space Odyssey by Scott Orris
  • The “I” in AI: Emotional Intelligence and Identity in Ex Machina by Hayley Wilson
  • The Fantasy of Star Wars: Reconsidering Genre in Hollywood’s Biggest Space Movie by Jonathan Wright
  • The Science of Star Wars: The Scientific Facts Behind the Force, Space Travel, and More! by Cayce Bower
  • Mars in the Movies: A History by Carter B. Emory
  • Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Shaun Ting Sheng Kam
  • Exploring Science Through Science Fiction by Christian Pavlovich

And book, DVD/Blu-ray, and film reviews by:  Craig Ball, Lizzie Bankowski, Nick Bugeja, Tayler Camplin, Kim Carr, Christopher DeAngelis, Gabrielle Fulton, Matthew Johnson, Tyler Linden, Jaka Lombar, Kaitlin Lowe, Alexandria Rose Moore, Kelsey Saller, Kimberly Mariah Smallwood, Shaun Soman, Chamberlain Staub, Blake Thompson, and Steph Triplett.

For more details about this issue, please visit Intellect’s site:  https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=3635/

If you are an undergraduate writing about film and media, we want to celebrate your voice, too — so please get in touch with us today!

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CFP: Based on Actual Events (Film & Television)

Special Dossier for Film Matters 10.3 (2019)

This call is to solicit essays for a Film Matters dossier on movies based on actual events. Ideally papers should explore the intersection between fictional aesthetics and the documentary form, media interactivity, questions of (in)accuracy, scholarly versus marketable understandings of the past, and the relationship between the screen and contemporary sociopolitical events.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Military History
  • Sports History
  • Music History
  • Biopics
  • Political Crises
  • Conspiracies
  • Mass Murders
  • Financial Crashes
  • Race Relations

Undergraduate authors, please submit your work to Fabrizio Cilento (cilentofabrizio AT gmail.com) by March 31, 2019.

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Interview with Dr. Candace Grissom on Her Recent Book, Fitzgerald and Hemingway on Film: A Critical Study of the Adaptations, 1924-2013. By Kenneth L. Freyer

Kenneth L. Freyer: Please introduce yourself.

Candace Grissom: My name is Dr. Candace Grissom, and I was born and raised in Cullman, AL. In August, I finished a three-year contract as a full-time Instructor of English at Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, TN. This summer, I relocated with my family to Cincinnati, OH, where recently I began teaching at Xavier University. In 2012, I received my PhD in English with specialties in American Literature and Film Studies from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. Additionally, I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and a JD in Law from Samford University in Birmingham, AL. Continue reading

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Scars of the Soul in Ole Bornedal’s 1864. By Matthew Johnson

Peter (Soren Saetter-Lassen) memorializes his pastoral haven with Laust and Inge, before indulging in war. 1864 (MHZ, 2017)

Apart from charting the deep, psychological trials of war, granted with such humanistic sensitivity, Ole Bornedal’s ambitious portrayal of the Second Schleswig War of 1864 between Denmark and Prussia is truly an exhortation for both historical reverence and remembrance. As 1864 explores interweaving narratives surrounding its eponymous title, it also presents a complementary, modern perspective. The contemporary figure Claudia (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) comes to discover and gain appreciation for Denmark’s tumultuous and intimate lineage through the elderly local Baron Severin (Bent Meiding). A lineage, both national and familial, through which she discovers her own roots. Far from fetishizing violence or divulging in pandering dramaticism, 1864 displays an expressively personal, multifaceted portrait of the lives of many Danes, forged and leveled by the shadows of war. This deeply investigative narrative aptly stretches over a century and a half, thus exhibiting an innate thread between history and today. Continue reading

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Interview with Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan, Editors of Screen Production Research: Creative Practice as a Mode of Enquiry. By Ashley Spillane

Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan’s book Screen Production Research: Creative Practice as a Mode of Enquiry explores screen production—filmmaking and screenwriting—as a research method. Made up of a collection of essays by international experts in field, the book defines and provides case studies of screen production research and defends its place in the academy. As editors, Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan used their extensive knowledge on creative practice research and their passion for linking film theory and practice to create this comprehensive and timely guide for students and scholars alike. Craig Batty is associate professor of screenwriting at RMIT University, Australia, and is an award-winning educator, researcher, and supervisor in the areas of screenwriting, creative writing, and screen production. Susan Kerrigan is an associate professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and is a screen production scholar who specializes in creative practice research methodologies. Batty and Kerrigan participated in this interview via email in summer 2018.

Ashley Spillane: Please tell us about your book, Screen Production Research.

Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan: Our book is intended to provide a robust, rich–and dare we say, foundational–account of what it means to do screen production research; what that looks like; and how it can be articulated. In particular, it is aimed at giving other practitioner-researchers a variety of ways of doing academic research with and through screen production, and writing about it in ways that suit the requirements of academia. The book features a range of practitioner-researchers from around the world, and covers all forms and genres, from the feature film to the screenplay, and from documentary to mobile media filmmaking. Continue reading

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