This study is an attempt to understand the politics of international film festivals and how it translates into local forms of colonialism. Theroretical review of this study focuses around the politics of festivals particularly through Iranian Cinema in the international frame. Inclusionary/exclusionary mechanisms of film festivals, the notion of national geographic effect and how they formed the canonization of Iranian cinema will be discussed. The thesis has also analyzed an Iranian film Kandahar as a case study with the notion of Orientalism to demonstrate how colonizing gaze organized in festival circuit has been internalized by a national filmmaker.

This dissertation explores the relationship between state, citizen and public culture through an ethnographic and historical examination of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in northern Greece. In the two-year period leading up to and following its fiftieth anniversary in 2009, the festival was caught up in the larger economic, political and social crises that have overtaken Greece in the last five years - a painful period of rapid transformation and neoliberalization for one of Europe's staunchest social-welfare states. As the Greek state faces bankruptcy - both economic and political - it is being forced to revisit the terms of its social contract with its citizens. In a country where "culture" was once touted as a national "heavy industry," the relationship between the state and cultural production is also being restructured. Public culture is one of the areas of social life in which people are now struggling with these changes and attempting to redefine what it means to be a citizen of the Greek state - utilizing and revising local, national and transnational identities in the process. / Anthropology

西方自從1970年代末期逐漸重視華語電影，國內外影評、輿論經常以「中國電影熱」形容這個現象，本研究將此現象置入歷史文化的脈絡中分析，認為這個現象肇因於當時西方面對封閉而陌生的中國，一種交織過去文化想像、殖民經驗、神秘氛圍、現實需求（戰略考量、廣大的市場）所形塑的心理動機，並展現在許多不同領域，而電影「中國熱」是在此情況下的一個環節。 另一方面，本研究以「中心╱邊陲」的後殖民思考架構，視「中國熱」現象為華語電影走向世界的過程中的四個階段－「重新被發現、新電影運動與西方中級影展、納入主流藝術電影院線、與好萊塢電影工業接軌」。同時，本研究也將進一步探討背後的文化意涵及其所代表的意義。 / Since late 1970s, the Western has gradually put more and more concentration on the Chinese films. The film reviews and the public opinions always regard the phenomenon as the “Chinese Cinema Fever”. This article, on the one hand, analyzes the phenomenon in the historical and cultural veins. While facing China, a state once made the western feel so distant and unfamiliar before, a kind of mentality in the “Western” has been molded by the cultural imagination, colonial experience, mysterious atmosphere, and realistic demand (such like strategic consideration and large-scale market, et al.), and displayed in the various fields. Meanwhile, the “Chinese Cinema Fever” is being a part in such complicated situation. On the other hand, the phenomenon, the Chinese Cinema Fever in the Western Film Festivals since late 1970s, will be considered under the framework of “Center-Periphery” and be regarded as a process of the Chinese film toward the world, which is composed of re-discovering, re-emphasizing, including into the mainstream in the system of the Art Theatre. Nowadays, the Chinese films have turned into a part of the worldwide culture and universal consumption. At the same time, I would like to go a step further to discuss the cultural meanings behind the appearance.

Disertační práce Filmové festivaly ve vztahu k okrajovým částem kinematografie 2016 PhDr. Andrea Slováková Abstrakt Disertační práce Filmové festivaly ve vztahu k okrajovým částem kinematografie se soustředí na prezentaci především experimentálních filmů na filmových festivalech. Práce analyzuje především specializované přehlídky experimentálního filmu, uvádí historický exkurz do prezentace filmové avantgardy ve vztahu k fenoménu filmových festivalů. Metodologicky však vychází z přístupu interdisciplinárně propůjčeného z politických věd, diskurzivního nového institucionalismu, který adaptuje do pole festivalových studií. Zkoumá, jak se diskurzivní moc uvnitř festivalové organizace utváří a posiluje, a také k čemu slouží. Zavádí koncepty zastřené a průzračné diskurzivní vrstvy, mezi nimiž je argumentační vrstva, která mnohdy obsahuje i argumentační fikce. Část diskurzivního působení, resp. moci festivalové organizace slouží k jejímu ovlivňování kulturního pole, značná část však slouží zachování samotné organizace. Zkoumá, které části organizace jsou klíčovými uzly ve smyslu produkce diskurzivní moci. Na diskurzivní moc festivalů prezentujících experimentální film se dívá z hlediska procesů a struktury uvnitř organizace.

This study sets out to explore the representations of disability in documentary films. Its starting point is that when such representations of disability films are under examination, one needs to take into consideration a level of complexities that come with disability, the construction and functionalities of representations, and more particularly the impact of documentary films on understanding disability. In order to address this issue, I draw upon disability theory and disability aesthetics, crip theory and crip willfulness, as well as practices of good looking, synthesising in this way a theoretical framework that responds to matters of intersectionality and criticality in relation to the analysis of representations of disability. To this end, I employ a mixed method design, which is based on participant observation, the methods of the written festival and a critical disability studies (crip) analysis for examining selected documentary films alongside a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews that were conducted with disabled viewers who attended the Emotion Pictures – Documentary and Disability Film Festival in Athens, Greece. Its findings indicate that representations of documentary films familiarise viewers with disability. This familiarisation and the development of political engagement by depicting crip killjoys are the key elements that create representations of a different context and meaning in comparison to those produced by media and fiction films. My analysis reveals that depictions of crip killjoys who are conscious of their political identity, speak out and take action are depictions that ask for political engagement. As such, they can produce good staring. Visibility and social dialogue are two of the benefits of disability film festivals that are highlighted by disabled viewers.

The master's thesis deals with simultaneous film interpreting and pre-prepared electronic subtitles at film festivals in the Czech Republic. Simultaneous film interpreting used to be a widespread mode of audiovisual translation at film festivals. However, today it has been mostly replaced with subtitles; these are often pre-prepared electronic subtitles manually projected under the film screen by a so-called subtitle launcher. These types of audiovisual translation are generally characterized in the theoretical part of the thesis. In the empirical part, the research first focuses on film interpreting at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. As films are no longer interpreted at the festival, the research method of interviews with the then interpreters was chosen. Based on the information obtained from the interviews, it is described how films were interpreted and what working conditions interpreters had. General information on film interpreting was also gathered during the interviews. The second chapter of the empirical part deals with pre-prepared subtitles: first with the process of subtitle launching and subtitle launchers' working conditions, and then with the audience's opinion, which was elicited in a questionnaire survey at the Summer Film School Uherske Hradiste. The questionnaire...

Dans cette thèse, nous analysons le Festival yougoslave du film documentaire et du court-métrage, dans le but de questionner la manière dont celui-ci a participé au processus de création d'une identité (nationale) commune dans deux contextes distincts et successifs – celui de la Yougoslavie socialiste multinationale (1943) et celui de la Yougoslavie postsocialiste, État serbe mono-national (1992). Parce qu’il montre des images de véritables personnes, des vrais lieux et des vraies situations, le documentaire, au lieu d'être perçu comme la vision artistique de la réalité, peut être confondu par le public avec la réalité elle-même. Dans cette optique, l'objectif de ce travail est de questionner à travers l'analyse des programmes du festival, le type de « réalité » qui était présenté aux différents publics à une époque marquée par la succession de deux régimes autoritaires, mais opposés sur le plan idéologique. L’analyse débute par la création du festival en 1954 et se conclue par son internationalisation en 2004. Il s’agit pour le festival, d’un adieu officiel à son passé yougoslave, plus d’une décennie après sa sortie effective du cadre yougoslave. / This thesis analyses the programs of the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival in order to examine how the festival participated in the creation of common (national) identities of two of its host-states – firstly, the multi-national socialist Yugoslavia (created in 1943) and secondly, the post-socialist Yugoslavia as a mono-national Serbian state (created in 1992). Due to its particular form, completely relying on the images ‘from the reality’ (real people, places and situations), the general audiences might tend to understand documentary cinema as a truthful representation of reality, instead of critically analyzing it as an artistic vision of reality. Bearing in mind the previous assessment, the study examines what kind of ‘reality’ was presented to the festival audiences in two distinct political periods, corresponding to the establishment of two different states, both born in wars, and both defined by authoritarian, but mutually opposing political regimes. The analysis starts with the creation of the festival in 1954 and ends with its internationalisation in 2004.

This BA thesis studies Göteborg Film Festival from a feminist theoretical perspective. It examines how the festival responds to recent efforts of working towards gender equality in the film industry. Through an interview with Göteborg Film Festivals Artistic Director topics on gender equality, representation and initiatives on gender equality reforms are discussed and analysed with the help from literature in film festival studies, film studies and feminist studies alongside other printed materials such as the festival´s website, press releases and interviews. The thesis also examines the festival´s way of marketing itself during their 5050 Vision initiative. It further discusses how the festival’s work with gender equality and inclusion could at the same time be consolidating a normative social order in society. The thesis concludes that Göteborg Film Festival is a progressive festival with regards to its work towards gender equality. Measures include attempts towards a more gender balanced film festival programming as well as hosting seminars and summits discussing gender equality in the festival sector and in film production. Although Göteborg Film Festival has not yet achieved gender equality, it provides a role model for how festivals can take a stand in a contested cultural arena.

This thesis examines the perceived role of democratization and participatory culture for contemporary film criticism and film festivals, aiming to understand the significance of TikTok and other social media platforms for the industry. For that purpose, film critics and film festival representatives from across Europe and various career stages and ages are interviewed to study how they perceive the developments of film criticism in the age of social media to let them create their own narrative. The findings were then discussed in light of participatory culture, gatekeeping theory, and Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, and cultural capital. Results show that participatory culture enhances the diversity in film discourse and provides younger audiences with entry points into film culture, while also leading to information overload, a lack of filters, and discourse toxification. The line between film criticism and film promotion blurs online, with critics calling for better labeling. As film content on social media shows more characteristics of film promotion, it is not regarded as film criticism by critics. However, it is still considered a valuable asset to the media landscape and film culture. Rather than TikTok and its participatory practices, critics perceive industry dynamics and the crisis of the news media as threatening to their profession. Furthermore, the purpose and role of film critics as gatekeepers are strongly debated amidst the rise of participatory culture. Academic discourse around the topic lacks both the study of TikTok’s relevance for film criticism and qualitative research on how critics and industry professionals perceive the situation. Despite the limitations of interview research, including representation, subjectivity, and quantification constraints, this thesis makes a valuable contribution to both academia and the industry due to nuanced data insights and implications for future research. These include research focusing on other industry players, the audience, and content.

No description available.