American Independent Cinema

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Backman Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Independent Films ◽  
Independent Cinema ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Narrative Cinema ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Mode Of Being ◽  
Modes Of Thought ◽  
Horizon Of Expectations ◽  
Gus Van Sant

Anna Backman Rogers argues that American independent cinema is a cinema not merely in crisis, but also of crisis. As a cinema which often explores the rite of passage by explicitly drawing on American cinematic heritage, from the teen movie to the western, American independent films deal in images of crisis, transition and metamorphosis, offering a subversive engagement with more traditional modes of representation. Examining films by Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola, this study sets forth that American indie films offer the viewer an ‘art experience’ within the confines of commercial, narrative cinema by engaging with cinematic time (as a mode of philosophical thought) and foregrounding the inherent ‘crisis’ of the cinematic image (as the mode of being as change). The subject of this book is how certain American independent films appropriate ritual as a kind of power of the false in order to throw into crisis images – such as the cliché – that pertain to truth via collective comprehension. In his study of genre, Steve Neale (2000) has outlined how certain images and sound tracks can function ritualistically and ideologically; cinema, according to Neale, both creates a horizon of expectations for an audience and also draws upon existing stratifications and categories in order to shore up established identities and modes of thought.

scholarly journals Critical agency in education: a Foucauldian perspective

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Postma
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
The Self ◽  
Alternative Mode ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Educational Implications ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Mode Of Being

While the neoliberal order is associated with the economy, government and globalisation, as a form of governmentality it effects a particular subjectivity. The subject is the terrain where the contest of control plays out. The subject is drawn into the seductive power of performativity which dictates its agency, desires and satisfactions and from which escape is difficult to imagine. Neoliberalism is particularly interested in an education which provides it with the much needed powers of production and consumption. This dependency of the neoliberal order on a particular kind of agential subjectivity is also its weakness because of the indeterminacy of the self. Within this openness of the human subject lies the possibility to be different and to escape any form of subjectification. Foucault’s account of the critical agent portrays a form of difference that opposes and transcends neoliberal ordering. Foucault finds the principle of practices of freedom in the Greco-Roman ethics of the care for the self. It is an ethics where the subject gains control of itself through the ascetic and reflective attention in relation to available ethical codes and with the guidance of a ‘master’. Such as strong sense of the self is the basis for personal and social transformation against neoliberal colonisation. The development of critical agency in education is subsequently investigated in the light of Foucault’s notions of agency and freedom. The contest of the subject is of particular importance to education interested in the development of critical agency. The critical agent is not only one who could identify and analyse regimes of power, but also one who could imagine different modes of being, and who could practice freedom in the enactment of an alternative mode of being. The educational implications are explored in relation to the role of the teacher and pedagogical processes.

scholarly journals Pierrot, Arlequín y nosotros, los espectadores. A propósito de Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)

2020 ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Pablo Ferrando-García
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Dimension ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
The Family ◽  
P 16 ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
The One ◽  
Pedagogical Function

We present an analysis of the filmic representation of Funny Games to highlight its playful structure as a game of games. Through a series of narrative efforts, a double operation is carried out, aimed at a specular relationship with the viewer. On the one hand, Michael Haneke’s film offers a series of expressive mechanisms that are aimed at shifting the objective gaze to subjective in order to transfer the perception of the subject presented to the viewer. On the other, it presents a brutal clash between the registers of comedy and tragedy through the young psychopaths, Peter and Paul, who emerge as contemporary clowns, in the figures of Pierrot and Harlequin, whose negative resonances lead to the incarnation of absolute EVil. In turn, the family are the victims, and this is presented as the prototype of the family institution while Peter and Paul are mere archetypes. In this way, the cinematographic screen is turned into a device for interrogating its modes of representation and, in turn, offers a solid moral dimension. The ultimate objective of the Hanekian story is to cover it with “a pedagogical function: to familiarize the cinema, to bring it closer to a daily life so that it speaks from you to you to the experience –to the conscience– of the viewer” (Font, 2002, p. 16). Resumen Nuestra propuesta trata de desarrollar un análisis de la representación fílmica con el propósito de poner de relieve la estructura lúdica de Funny Games como juego de juegos. A través de toda una serie de gestiones narrativas se efectúa una doble operación dirigidas a una relación especular con el espectador. Por un lado, la película de Michael Haneke ofrece una serie de mecanismos expresivos que van encaminados al desplazamiento de la mirada objetiva en subjetiva con el fin de trasladar la percepción del sujeto de la enunciación al narratario/espectador. Por otro, presenta un brutal choque entre el registro de la comedia con la tragedia a través de los jóvenes psicópatas, Peter y Paul, que se erigen en los payasos contemporáneos, en las figuras de Pierrot y Arlequín, cuyas resonancias negativas conducen a la encarnación del Mal absoluto. A su vez, George y Anne Schöber son las víctimas y estos son expuestos como el prototipo de la institución familiar mientras Peter y Paul son meros arquetipos narrativos. De este modo, la pantalla cinematográfica se convierte en un dispositivo de interrogación sobre sus modos de representación y, a su vez, ofrece una sólida dimensión moral. El objetivo último del relato hanekiano es revestirlo de “una función pedagógica: familiarizar el cine, acercarlo a una cotidianidad para que hable de tú a tú a la experiencia –a la conciencia– del espectador” (Font, 2002: 16).

Conclusion: The Crisis Image – Mumblecore and Beyond

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Backman Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Specific Effect ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Independent Cinema ◽  
Economic Production ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Transition Mutation ◽  
Modes Of Thought ◽  
Further Development

By way of conclusion and further development of the notion of a cinema of crisis, I will extend briefly this study’s theoretical framework to the work of Harmony Korine, Kelly Reichardt and the ‘Mumblecore’ movement – or, more specifically, the work of Lena Dunham. However, in order to outline these further facets of a cinema of crisis, it is necessary at this juncture to summarise what its salient features are. I argued at the beginning of this book that the dominant and established approach to American independent cinema in critical and scholarly studies is to categorise it in terms of economic, production and distribution strategies.1 While this is important and useful, this focus on the meaning and context of the very term ‘independent’ has resulted in a paucity of material on the aesthetics and poetics of this kind of cinema and its specific effect or affects. By focusing on the themes of crisis, liminality, transition, mutation and transformation, I have tried to emphasise the ways in which American independent cinema appropriates and transfigures the tropes of European ‘Art’ cinema (as set forth in Gilles Deleuze’s Cinema 2) for its own particular purposes in order to challenge entrenched modes of thought.

23. Representation in the Lords

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dorey ◽  
Matthew Purvis
Keyword(s):  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Subject

This chapter examines the issue of representation in the House of Lords. The existence of the unelected House of Lords has long been the subject of criticism, particularly from the Left. This is because the House of Lords today remains an almost wholly nominated, unelected, parliamentary institution, with most peers formally appointed by the Queen. However, some peers are also appointed by a House of Lords Appointments Commission, primarily those of a non-political nature. Such appointments have sparked accusations that the House of Lords is not representative, which runs counter to Britain's status as a parliamentary democracy. The chapter considers four discrete modes of representation and representativeness vis-à-vis the House of Lords: political representativeness, social representativeness, individual representation, and sectional representation.

Thinking About the Concept of Social Gender With a Film

2020 ◽  
pp. 228-247
Author(s):  
Berceste Gülçin Özdemir
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Public ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
Narrative Cinema ◽  
Feminist Film ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Public Sphere

The concept of social gender is an interdisciplinary matter of debate and is still questioned today. Making sense of this concept is understood by the ongoing codes in the social order. However, the fact that men are still positioned as dominating women in the contrast of the public sphere/private sphere prevents the making sense of the concept of gender. This study questions the concept of social gender through the female characters and male characters presented in the film Tersine Dünya (1993) within the framework of Judith Butler's thoughts regarding the notion of the subject. The thoughts of feminist film theorists also bring the strategies of representation of female characters up for discussion. Butler's thoughts and the discourses of feminist film theorists will enable both making sense of social gender and a more concrete understanding of the concept of the subject. The possibility of deconstruction of patriarchal codes by using classical narrative cinema conventions is also brought up for discussion in the examined film.

‘Art-horror’ and ‘hardcore art-horror’ at the margins: Experimentation and extremity in contemporary independent horror

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eddie Falvey
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Independent Films ◽  
Ghost Story ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Art Film

The changing forms of contemporary horror have been the subject of much discussion, both in popular journalism and scholarship. Amid an on-going discussion on the arrival and characteristics of what has been contentiously termed ‘post-horror’, this article seeks to situate recent independent American horror within the context of the recent art film, in keeping with the work of Geoff King, as well as the traditions of ‘art-horror’ as it has been referred to by Joan Hawkins. Using a series of examples taken from recent independent horror – including A Ghost Story (David Lowery 2017) and The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers 2019), as well as the micro-budget independent films of Phil Stevens – Falvey makes use of King’s work to explore the textual characteristics of recent ‘art-horror’. Falvey argues that films iterative of this mode employ experimentation and extremity (in various forms) to discursively position the films away from more generically recognizable studio horror films in a bid for critical distinction.

The Sickness Unto Death In The Underworld: A Study of Nihilism

1958 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Clive
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Western Literature ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Growing Pains ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modes Of Thought

Since the Enlightenment ennui and despair have been among the most dominant themes in western literature. In the twentieth century there scarcely exists a single major work of fiction which views man's nature and destiny under the aspect of hope or fulfillment. Why this should be so is the subject of interminable discussion which, generally speaking, locates the deeper cause in the breakdown of virtually all genuine religiousness with an attendant rise of meaninglessness and emptiness. This development in turn is linked to the various revolutions, particularly the Industrial, that have combined to undermine traditional occidental modes of thought and living. While some critics hold that it is merely a question of modern society becoming gradually accustomed to the blessings so precipitously conferred upon it by technology, thus comparing its present growing pains to those of an adolescent, few seem to disagree on the prevailing exhaustion and anxiety. In addition to the note of doom struck by the best intellectuals of our day — and its fashionableness is no argument against its truth — it would appear that the unreflecting masses independently of being exposed to this literature do not know how to redeem their leisure time, have lost a great deal of capacity for spontaneous participation, and seek despairingly if not eagerly for something vital to which they can relate themselves and through which find renewed structure in their lives.

scholarly journals The Feminine, The Poetic, And The Sacred In BPNichol's The Martyrology And Journal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya Androsova
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Poetic Practice ◽  
Mode Of Being ◽  
A Site

My goal is not to analyse the sacred – to analyse it is to kill it. The objective is only to explore different ways of approaching the sacred through looking deeply at the nature of poetic language. In our contemporary society, the sacred is the other. And so is the feminine. Our culture often rejects these modes of experience, but poetic practice gives them both a time and a space. My overall argument is that poetic practice creates an approach, a site and a possibility for the sacred to manifest itself phenomenologically by breaking through from the other realm into human experience. Poetic practice holds an intention, creates a direction, a dimension, a state that can approach the experience of the sacred and honour it, be open to it, invite it and allow the subject to suspend the habitual control and instead adopt a surrender mode. Thus, poetic practice itself becomes a sacred activity that teaches us about different kinds of knowledge, experience and insight and invites us to experience a different mode of being in the world, in language, with ourselves, and with each other. Instead of detachment and alienation that permeate our culture, instead of separation from and the resulting objectification of nature, poetic consciousness offers us a more primal mode of being that pre-modern man used to call sacred.

scholarly journals Metateatralidad y recepción en el texto dramático del teatro español barroco

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Ximena Gómez Goyzueta
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Spanish Theater ◽  
Dramatic Text ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Methodological Guidelines ◽  
Horizon Of Expectations

Este trabajo propone una reflexión sobre la teatralidad y el metateatro desde el punto de vista de la recepción lectora del texto dramático. Se revisan postulados teórico- metodológicos sobre la teatralidad y el metateatro, y su relación con el tópico del theatrum mundi, en el contexto del horizonte de expectativas del teatro español del siglo XVII. Con ello, se proponen algunas pautas metodológicas sobre el análisis de la recepción a partir de los efectos que pudo haber producido el uso del metateatro en estos corpora y que, en la actualidad, pueden afectar positivamente la captación de la atención del receptor/espectador. AbstractThis article purports to reflect on theatricality and metatheatre from the point of view of the reading reception of the dramatic text. Theoretical-methodological postulates about metatheatre and its relationship with the subject of Theatrum Mundi are reviewed in the context of the ‘horizon of expectations’ of seventeenth-century Spanish theater. A number of methodological guidelines are proposed for the analysis of reception, considering the effects that metatheatre may have had on these corpora, which at the present time can positively contribute to catch the attention of the receiver/viewer.Recibido: 31 de octubre de 2018Aceptado: 10 de enero de 2019

scholarly journals On Women of Rido: A Film Analysis of “Women of The Weeping River” by Sheron Dayoc (2016) Through the Lens of Hamm-Ehsani, Wang, Feldman, and Hsu

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (05) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Regina V. Jacinto ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Independent Film ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Independent Cinema ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Muslim Communities

Several films today include the narratives of Muslim communities. Due to the vast array of movies on the subject, Muslim communities’ representation has opened many representations and interpretations, whether positive or negative. The independent film “Women of the Weeping River” (WOTWR), by Sheron Dayoc, is one of the many indie films in the Philippines that includes the Muslim community. Using the lenses of Stuart Hall (1997) “Theory of Representation,” the researchers focused on how producers utilize elements of the film in crafting their representations towards cultural groups. This study focuses on this film to elaborate the potential of independent cinema in terms of minorities and highlight social issues. In the case of WOTWR, the study also emphasizes how the Muslim community throughout the film also portrays Islamic women and the film’s influence regarding the formation of viewers’ perspectives towards the selected cultural group. Through an analysis of WOTWR, this study also aims to discuss how indie films can break away and are capable of breaking away and alluding to mainstream cinema milestones. Several frameworks like Yihan Wang’s “Ethnic Boundary and Literature/Image Representation,” Mark B. Feldman and Hsuan L. Hsu’s “Introduction: Race, Environment, and Representation,” and Karin Hamm-Ehsani’s “Intersections: Issues of National, Ethnic, and Sexual Identity in Kutlug Ataman’s Berlin Film Lola und Bilidikid,” were utilized in close reading, providing the reader with several perspectives. The study proved that independent film such as WOTWR is a powerful tool when it comes to representation because of having the privilege of autonomy.

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