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The Last Two Years of David Brachman is a feature-length digital film directed, written and produced by Marcos Casilli in pursuit of the Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. This is a very personal film that presents a sometimes-humorous approach to the following question: what makes life worth living? The film was made on what is categorized as a microbudget, but following the studio production model for the most part. This thesis presents a critique of that combination, advocating for a "slow cinema" model instead.

In the spring of 2010, I worked with four street youths from Durban to create a short fictional film based on their lives. There were two main components to this project: first, a series of drama workshops and second, the film-making process. The filmmaking process consisted of the participants improvising scenes based on their street lives that I captured on film. This project engaged with Theatre for Development and Participatory Video practices. The young man who initiated this project did so because he wanted to change people’s perceptions of youths who lived on the streets. Additionally, he wanted to change his own perceptions of himself. The film provided baseline data regarding how the participants viewed themselves and their lives on the streets. Analysis of interviews conducted after the completion of the project, when compared with the baseline data, demonstrated social impacts that occurred as a result of making the film. This data was coded and interpreted using François Matarasso’s (1997) positive criteria for the social impact of participating in arts projects as well as corresponding negative categories that I generated. The film, once coded, demonstrated that the participants felt negatively about their lives on the streets, with many examples emerging from the categories Lack of Social Cohesion and Lack of Agency. In contrast, the interviews revealed positive social impacts across all categories, but especially in relation to Personal Development, Local Image and Identity, and Community Empowerment and Self-Determination (Matarasso 1997). The participants reported that they felt differently about themselves as a result of the project. They also said that there had been a change in the way some people treated them. Findings revealed that the film project resulted in positive social impacts on the street youth participants. As a result of the film, they engaged in critical thinking and reflection related to Paulo Freire’s (1970) notion of praxis. They also wished for changes in their lives and in some cases enacted change. It was significant that social impacts and change extended to youths in difficult circumstances. In conclusion, this research proved that participating in the film project broadened and enriched the lives of the participants. Problems arose in terms of sustainability. Further projects and research are needed to establish the possible impacts from longterm and sustainable arts projects on youths from the streets. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

This thesis takes a historical approach to its subject and focuses on Swedish cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. The thesis argues that Swedish cinema experienced a renaissance in the 1940s, lasting approximately from 1940 to 1953. It further suggests that one of the most important filmmakers in this renaissance was Hasse Ekman. By focussing upon Ekman and this renaissance, a much-needed contextualisation of Ingmar Bergman will be achieved. Ingmar Bergman is one of the most well-known and well-researched filmmakers of all time, but there are still gaps in the material surrounding him, and one such gap concerns his cinematic origins. Bergman was a part of the 1940s renaissance, during which Bergman worked with, and was influenced by, other filmmakers and in particular Ekman. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part introduces the relevant literature and discusses ideas of authorship and national cinema. It also provides a historic overview of Swedish society and cinema during the 1940s and 1950s, providing the context needed to better understand the films of Ekman, and Bergman too. This part also looks at the 1930s to illustrate what came before this renaissance, and how the films of the 1940s differed from what had gone before. The second part is a chronological overview of Ekman's career from the late-1930s to his move to Spain in 1964. The last part is a discussion of Ekman's relation to Swedish society and his view of the world, based on close textual readings of his films. The aim of the thesis is to present, for the first time, a coherent and extensive overview of Ekman's career and body of work, while also situating it in the specific context in which it emerged, thereby shedding new light on an important, though neglected, episode in cinema history.

The Happiest Place on Earth is a feature-length film written, directed, and produced by John Goshorn as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The project aims to challenge existing conventions of the American fiction film on multiple levels – aesthetic, narrative, technical, and industrial – while dealing with a distinctly American subject and target audience. These challenges were both facilitated and necessitated by the limited resources available to the production team and the academic context of the production. This thesis is a record of the film, from concept to completion and preparation for delivery to an audience

Text in English, with abstracts and keywords in English and Sesotho / This doctoral study investigates the practice of narrative strategies in the creation of animated poetry-film. The status of the animator as auteur of the poetry-film is established on the grounds of the multiple instances of additional authoring that the animated poetry-film requires. The study hypothesises that diverse narrative strategies are operative in the production of animated poetry-film. Two diametrically opposed strategies are identified as ideal for the treatment of lyrical narrative. The first narrative strategy explored is that of metamorphosis, demonstrating how the filmic material originates and grows organically via stream of consciousness and free association. The second narrative strategy entails a calculated approach of structuring visual imagery and meaning through editing from a pre-existing visual lexicon. In both cases, the interdependence is explored between embodied activity and conceptual activity, between tacit and explicit knowledge in the creative act. These two strategies are practically investigated through my creative praxis, specifically the production of two animated poetry-films, Mon Pays and Parys suite. Through these works, the strategies are tested for their effectivity in communicating visual content not contained in the poetry-text, yet adding value to the poetry/animated film hybrid. Animated poetry-film is theoretically contextualised in terms of intermediality and the specific multi-modal nature of the medium. The construction of animated poetry-film is explored through the research study consisting of a thesis and two animated poetry films, with the hope of contributing to research on animated poetry-film specifically, and to animation theory within the South African context. / Dinyakišišo tše tša bongaka di nyakišiša tiro ya mekgwa ya kanagelo ge go hlangwe difilimi tša go ekišwa ke diphoofolo. Maemo a moekiši wa diphoofolo bjalo ka molaodi wa filimi ya theto a hwetšwa go seemo sa mabaka a mantši a go ngwala ka tlaleletšo fao go nyakwago ke filimi ya theto ya go ekišwa ke diphoofolo. Dinyakišišo tše di šišinya gore mekgwa ya kanegelo ye e fapafapanego e a šomišwa ka go tšweletšo ya filimi ya go ekišwa ke diphoofolo. Mekgwa ye mebedi ye e thulanago e a hlaolwa bjalo ka yeo e swanetšego go šomišwa go kanegelo ya mantšu. Leano la mathomo la kanegelo leo le utollotšwego ke la kgolo ya diphoofolo, leo le laetšago ka fao dingwalwa tša filimi di tšwelelago le go gola ka tlhago ka tatelano ka sengwalwa seo se ngwadilwego ka moela wa kwešišo le poledišano ya go hloka mapheko. Leano la bobedi la klanegelo le mabapi le mokgwa wo o nepišitšwego gabotse wa go beakanya seswantšho sa go bonwa le tlhalošo ka go rulaganya go tšwa go polelo ya peleng ya seo se bonwago. Mabakeng ka bobedi, go amana fa go utollwa magareng ga tiro ye e kopantšwego le tiro ye e gopolwago, magareng ga tsebo ye e kwešišwago le yeo e lego nyanyeng ka tirong ya boitlhamelo. Mekgwa ye mebedi ye e a nyakišišwa ka go diriša mokgwa wa ka wa boitlhamelo, kudukudu go tšweletšwa ga difilimi tše pedi tša go ekišwa ke diphoofolo tšeo di bitšwago, Mon Pays le Parys suite. Ka mešomo ye, mekgwa ye e lekwa ka ga go šoma gabotse ga yona gabotse go hlagiša diteng tša go bonwa tšeo di sego gona ka gare ga Sengwalwa sa theto, le ge go le bjale e tsenya boleng go mohuta wa filimi ya theto/ya kekišo. Filimi ya theto ya go ekišwa ke diphoofolo e amantšhwa ka teori mabapi le kgokaganyo le sebopego sa yona sa mekgwa ye mentši ya polelo. Tlhamo ya filimi ya theto ya go ekišwa ke diphoofolo e utollwa ka dinyakišišo tšeo di nago le taodišo le difilimi tše pedi tša theto tša go ekišwa ke diphoofolo, ka kholofelo ya go tsenya letsogo go dinyakišišo mabapi le filimi ya theto ya go ekišwa ke diphoofolo kudukudu, le go teori ya kekišo ka gare ga seemo sa Afrika Borwa. / Art and Music / Ph. D. (Art)