Last Call/New Call for “Film Bytes”

Posted on March 5, 2012 by admin

Last call!  The “Film Bytes” column for Chungking Express will run in issue 3.1 (2012), which we are working on now.  So you have until March 9th to get your comments submitted to us.

New call!  For 3.2 (2012), our “Film Bytes” selection is:  Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991).  Share your thoughts on Daughters by March 30th!

“Film Bytes” is the perfect opportunity to contribute to Film Matters in a meaningful yet casual way — particularly if you have been wanting to get published but don’t have the time to write reviews or submit your longer essays.

Comments on Chungking or Daughters can be posted here on our website or on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/filmmattersmagazine), or you can email them to us at:  futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Open Call for Papers, 4.1 (2013)

Posted on February 27, 2012 by admin

We’re pleased to announce our next call for papers for issue 4.1 (2013).  This is an open call, the deadline for which is September 1, 2012.  For more information, please download the official document (in Word):

As always, any questions can be directed to Liza Palmer (palmerl AT uncw.edu).  We look forward to receiving your submissions!

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FM 1.1 Reviewed!

Posted on February 14, 2012 by admin

We’re pleased to read this review of FM 1.1 in Music Library Association. Notes:

We appreciate the feedback and are always working to make Film Matters as strong and diverse a publication as it can be!

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UNCSA School of Filmmaking Dean Emphasizes “Thinking As Well As Shooting.” By Melinda Miles

Posted on February 7, 2012 by admin
Credit: Donald Dietz

Since its inception in 1993, the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) has been a creative addition to the forty-six-year-old conservatory located in the Piedmont city of Winston-Salem, NC. For the past four years, the department has been under the leadership of Dean Jordan Kerner. A graduate of Stanford University, Dean Kerner was previously a guest artist who was tapped by former UNC President Erskine Bowles to be Dean of the Film School while maintaining his career as a film producer. The film school went from being relatively unknown outside the Carolinas to ranking twelfth among film institutions worldwide (according to The Hollywood Reporter, July 27, 2011). On September 20, 2011, I interviewed the Dean via telephone.

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Beauty and the Beast 3D: Nostalgia Sells This Re-release, Not The 3D. Reviewed by John Debono

Posted on January 30, 2012 by admin
Beauty and the Beast image
Belle (voiced by Paige O’Hara) & the Beast (voiced by Robby Benson). ©2011 Disney

To my readership, I should state that I am unfit to write this review. This is not because of a lack of craftsmanship in my writing or a lack of journalistic integrity. The reason why I would consider myself unfit to write a review of the 3D re-release of Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise’s Beauty and The Beast is because I consider this film to be the definitive Disney classic. I was so spellbound by seeing the film on the big screen for the first time; I cannot even pretend that I noticed the extra dimension.

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Carnage: Showcase For Ensemble And Nothing More. Reviewed by John Debono

Posted on January 24, 2012 by admin
Carnage image
Left to Right: Jodie Foster as Penelope Longstreet and Kate Winslet as Nancy Cowan. Photo by Guy Ferrandis, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

The medium of film is an interesting one, because it combines both visual art and narrative development.  Not only can a compelling and personal narrative be distributed to a wider audience, but it also allows the artist to experiment with subtlety in performance and framing. This is something that director Roman Polanski has mastered in films such as Repulsion, The Pianist, and Chinatown, all very different films that have a firm grasp of the slow burning psychological effects of confinement. However, Polanski’s latest film Carnage lacks this grasp, it is not a film, as much as it is a prerecorded play.

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Reminder: Open Call 3.3 Papers Due on February 1st

Posted on January 17, 2012 by admin

Undergraduates, submit your film-related research papers to open call 3.3 today!:

Email Liza Palmer (palmerl AT uncw.edu) today, with questions or submissions — thanks!

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Shameless Audience Manipulation. Reviewed by John Debono

Posted on January 11, 2012 by admin
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close image
THOMAS HORN as Oskar Schell in Warner Bros. Pictures’ drama ‘EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Francois Duhamel

The successful construction of a dramatic prestige picture is similar to that of a horror film. An intelligent director takes the time and consideration to create an atmosphere and developed their characters to have their audience fully invested in the story. Then there are films that just use cheap tricks to force an emotional response. In that regard, Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011), is not different to a film such as Hostel (2005). Both rely on circumstances not characters to get their audience invested and neither is particularly compelling because of this.

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We want your end-of-semester papers!

Posted on December 7, 2011 by admin

Undergraduates, hang on to those end-of-semester film papers and submit them to our open call 3.3, deadline February 1, 2012.  More details can be found here:

Email Liza Palmer (palmerl AT uncw.edu) today, with questions or submissions — thanks!

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“Film Bytes” — New Column for Film Matters!

Posted on December 5, 2011 by admin

Film Matters is about to launch a new column for our print issues, called “Film Bytes,” and we need your help!  Each issue, we will select a film that is challenging yet impactful.  We’ll then put out a call for your comments about the selected film.  The best comments will be printed in that issue’s column, along with your name and affiliation.

This is a perfect opportunity to contribute to Film Matters in a meaningful yet casual way — particularly if you have been wanting to get published but don’t have the time to write reviews or submit your longer essays.

Comments can be posted here on our website or on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Film-Matters/296668242075), or you can email them to us at:  futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

The first column’s selected film is:  Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (1994).

We look forward to hearing your thoughts — share them with us today!

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