The iAnimal Film Series

Screen Bodies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-61
Author(s):  
Holly Cecil
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Short Film ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Critical Animal Studies ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Film Series

This article explores the innovative use of virtual reality (VR) technology in nonfiction documentary film formats by animal-advocacy organizations. I examine the potential of the VR medium to communicate the living and dying environments of factory-farmed animals, and to generate viewer empathy with the animal subjects in their short, commodified lives from birth to slaughterhouse. I present a case study of the iAnimal short film series produced by Animal Equality, which made its public debut at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Employing a critical animal studies framework, I engage Kathryn Gillespie’s work on witnessing of the nonhuman condition as a method of academic research, and apply to it the embodied experience of virtual witnessing through virtual realty.

scholarly journals Editor's Introduction

Screen Bodies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. v-vi
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Ball
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Animal Advocacy ◽  
Film Series ◽  
The Way

The six essays in this in this issue of Screen Bodies explore what we might call the affective modalities of media, that is, each author examines the potential of emerging and traditional media to transform individual and collective relations through the strategic use of embodied affective experience. Three essays in the issue focus on new and emerging technology. In, “The iAnimal Film Series: Activating Empathy Through Virtual Reality,” Holly Cecil examines the potential power of virtual reality to generate empathy in users. In particular, she looks at the way animal advocacy organizations combine documentary film and virtual reality to communicate the embodied experience of living and dying in a factory farm to provoke feeling and widespread opposition to the industry.

The vegan shift in the Australian animal movement

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Pendergrast
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Animal Movement ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Critical Animal Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Resource Mobilisation

PurposeThis article explores the different ways in which the vegan turn within the animal advocacy movement in Australia has played out for two organisations, Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) and Animals Australia. Previous research has found that this promotion of veganism has occurred to varying degrees for different organisations and this article will analyse some of these variations in greater depth, drawing on the sociological theory of resource mobilisation.Design/methodology/approachThis article provides a case study on the campaigning of ALV and Animals Australia on the issue of the dairy industry, as well as an overview of their histories, with a focus on the changing level of vegan campaigning over time. In order to explore this issue, this article will draw on the campaigning materials of the organisations studied, a wide range of academic literature and interviews with key figures from both of these organisations.FindingsLarger organisations have a limited ability to regularly promote a vegan message due to their need to bring in a large amount of resources to sustain costs such as their office costs and paid staff. It is more grassroots organisations that have far greater scope to consistently and strongly promote a vegan message, although they reach fewer people.Social implicationsThe increasing uptake of veganism will have important implications for animals as well as for human health and the environment. The environmental benefits of veganism become even more significant in light of the urgent need to tackle the substantial threat of climate change.Originality/valueThis article is a contribution to the expanding field of critical animal studies as well as to the literature on sociology and animals. It builds on the limited amount of existing sociological literature on vegan activism and contributes an analysis in Australian context.

scholarly journals The Covid Pandemic, ‘Pivotal’ Moments, and Persistent Anthropocentrism: Interrogating the (Il)legitimacy of Critical Animal Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-239
Author(s):  
Paula Arcari
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Critical Animal Studies ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Pivotal Moments ◽  
The Core ◽  
Animal Advocacy ◽  
Key Sites

Situated alongside, and intertwined with, climate change and the relentless destruction of ‘wild’ nature, the global Covid-19 pandemic should have instigated serious reflection on our profligate use and careless treatment of other animals. Widespread references to ‘pivotal moments’ and the need for a reset in human relations with ‘nature’ appeared promising. However, important questions surrounding the pandemic’s origins and its wider context continue to be ignored and, as a result, this moment has proved anything but pivotal for animals. To explore this disconnect, this paper undertakes an analysis of dominant Covid discourses across key knowledge sites comprising mainstream media, major organizations, academia, and including prominent animal advocacy organizations. Drawing on the core tenets of Critical Animal Studies, the concept of critical animal perspectives is advanced as a way to assess these discourses and explore the illegitimacy of alternative ways of thinking about animals. Broadly, it is found that dominant Covid discourses fail to engage with the mechanisms by which human uses of nature and other animals are justified – specifically binary thinking, the normalization and naturalization of hierarchical categories of use, and the commodification of their lives and bodies – or to specify the nature and scope of practices that need to change. These key sites of knowledge, and also prominent advocacy organizations, thus reflect the illegitimacy of critical animal perspectives while also contributing to their ongoing delegitimation. Exacerbating this situation is the illegitimacy of the animal advocacy movement itself, which is attributed in part to movement factionalism and a diversity of poorly articulated aims. Mainstreaming and normalizing critical perspectives on animals has never been more necessary. Extended beyond academia, critical animal perspectives offer a potentially productive and practical way of approaching this endeavour so that future moments may be truly pivotal for humans and nonhumans alike.

scholarly journals الفيلم الوثائقي ودوره في الترويج للسياحة في السودان

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
د. المعز حمودة علي حمودة
Keyword(s):  
Documentary Film ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Television Production ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The Media ◽  
Film Series

This study explored the extent of documentary films’ effectiveness in introducing and promoting tourism in Sudan in which the film series Ard-AlSomur was taken as a case study. The basic premise was that documentary films which promoted tourism in Sudan had not been subjected toexistening professional and technical standards in television production process; many questions were presented, however, the most important of which was the extent thatArd-AlSomur series’ had contributedto promoting and guiding tourists to sites and tourism landmarks in Sudan. The descriptive and case study approach was used for which a questionnaire and an interview were adopted as data collection tools. The study was divided into three sections:  the first tackled the documentary film; the second was on tourism and media; and the third covered the field study’s procedures. A number of findings were reached, the most important of which are that: The Ard-alsumor films series have significantly contributed to the promotion of tourism in Sudan and that there are production weaknesses in documentaries that promote tourism in Sudan incompatible with theprofessional and artistic standards. Accordingly, the researcher recommends the conduction of more research to develop the area of documentary film industry in Sudan and to encourage investment in the media by engaging in the production of documentary films that promote tourism.

scholarly journals Immaterial cultural heritage and a sense of place in film-based art education: A case study of a documentary film project with secondary school children as part of Cine en curso Chile

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Felipe Borim Corrêa
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Short Film ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Social

The following article describes the process of a documentary filmmaking programme at a secondary school in Chile, which encourages students to engage with a sense of place and intangible cultural heritage. Run by Gaticine – Centro de desarrollo social del cine (Centre for the Social Development of Cinema) in partnership with A Bao A Qu, a non-profit organization based in Barcelona, the programme assists students in discovering and analysing documentary films from different times and cultures over the course of a year, while performing practical filmmaking inside and outside the school. At the end, a short film project is developed that is premiered in a local cinema. This essay provides a brief overview of the principles and methodology of the Cinema en curs programme, before offering a socio-educational consideration of the school in which it was developed and, finally, an analysis of the project’s delivery.

scholarly journals Remains of a Past Production: A Short Film, Theatre (1957)

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-325
Author(s):  
HANNA KORSBERG
Keyword(s):  
Documentary Film ◽  
Short Film ◽  
Theatre History ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
Theatre Production ◽  
Waiting For Godot ◽  
Central Case ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Moving Bodies

This paper discusses the use of a documentary film as source material for theatre history. The central case study analyses Theatre, directed by Jack Witikka in 1957. This film presents the making of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Finnish National Theatre, which premiered on 5 October 1954. The paper follows the process of an event turning into an object, and at the same time I explore how the film preserves and traces material conditions of the theatre production: the physicality of the actors, their moving bodies, their position on the stage and the sound of their voices.

scholarly journals Including the animal standpoint in critical public relations research

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-161
Author(s):  
Núria Almiron ◽  
Laura Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Critical Animal Studies ◽  
Essential Step ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Theoretical Paper ◽  
Short Explanation

In this paper we argue that adopting critical animal studies perspectives in critical public relations can not only be very fruitful, but that it is also a necessity if the aims of the latter are to be achieved. To this end, this text introduces the challenges and opportunities that the field of critical animal studies brings to critical public relations studies. First, a short explanation of what critical animal studies is and why it can contribute to critical public relations studies is provided. Then the main fields of research where this contribution can be most relevant are discussed, including ethics, discourse studies and political economy. The final aim of this theoretical paper is to expand research within the field of critical public relations by including a critical animal studies approach. Eventually, the authors suggest that embracing the animal standpoint in critical public relations is an essential step to furthering the study of power, hegemony, ideology, propaganda or social change and to accomplishing the emancipatory role of research.

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