Eternity Road is a feature-length episodic fanciful drama covering social media culture and its impact on self-image and self-esteem, and a generation of social media users seeking approval and attention on the internet. At its core, it is a story about gender fluidity, acceptance of differences in genders and sexual orientations, and hidden sexism in daily interactions. Shahrzad "Sherry" Dadgar wrote, directed and produced this movie as her Feature Film Production MFA thesis.

This thesis explores and examines one text, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975) through the frameworks of three genres with which it engages: musical, science fiction, and horror. Based on a theoretical foundation of Rick Altman’s semantic/syntactic approach to genres and genre films, I consider how Rocky Horror fits into and/or resists inclusion in each genre. As Altman’s dual-focus approach makes possible, the film contains some semantic elements of each genre while overall resisting the syntactic narrative structures and formulas typical of any. However, through combining elements of a musical, science fiction, and horror film into one campy creation, Rocky Horror is able to use the elements associated with each genre toward its own purposes of social discourse. As part musical, part sci-fi, and part horror, it has many avenues through which to criticize the (American) culture of its production and release, including repressive heteropatriarchy, xenophobia, and technological anxiety. As a product of the early 1970s, it is actively engaged with the countercultural ideologies of its time, imagining and offering a view into a world where these real-world social concerns are exaggerated to the point of comedy. Although Rocky Horror ultimately does not fit into any one of the three genres I use as frameworks for analysis, indicating a need for more flexible approaches, its use of them to engage in cultural commentary also shows the importance of film and genre as a medium which responds to and reflects culture.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This dissertation examines existing attempts to answer the question "Can film philosophize?" (the"CFP question") and offers an original, affirmative account of the possibility of philosophizing by means of film. Focusing OD. narrative fiction films, this dissertation shows how the practice of philosophy can be transformed, and its powers expanded, through its encounter with the realm of moving images. The first chapter presents the groundwork for such a discussion, laying bare the scope of the various theoretical bases through which film and philosophy have been thought to intersect. The chapter follows the threads of extant discussions, from (a) explicitly philosophical approaches to film ("philosophy of film") to (b) in-depth studies of film's thematic constructs ("film theory") and (c) proposals of the symmetry or even fusion of film and philosophy ("film-philosophy"). Each of the three subsequent chapters addresses one of three possible answers to the CFP question.Chapter two focuses on a conservative approach ("the exclusivist thesis") that negates the possibility of any meaningful philosophical capacity in film. Chapter three considers a more moderate view ("the inclusivist thesis") that acknowledges the cinematic capacity for philosophical argumentation, in a manner that is unique, but only partial. The fourth and last chapter introduces an innovative perspective ("the integralist thesis") that countenances a unique cinematic potential to philosophize by insisting on a radical conception of the practice of philosophy itself. To reach this ultimate conclusion, the dissertation elaborates two crucial features of film - the non-linguistic nature of its narrative and the role played by the audience in film - and shows that exclusivists and inclusivists fail to take these features into consideration (largely owing to the principles from which these theorists set out to answer the CFP question). Exclusivists and inclusivists argue that film cannot philosophize (at least not properly) because philosophizing is an essentially linguistic endeavor and film is not.If, however, those crucial features are taken into account, it becomes apparent that exclusivist and inclusivist approaches alike are fatally flawed. The dissertation concludes, in conversation with the integralists, with an affirmation of film's philosophical potential.

Historically the focus of journalistic reports, film festivals have recently started to attract the attention of academics, applying concepts from crossdisciplinary fields such as cultural studies and ethnography. As a result, film festivals are now gradually being institutionalised as a field of study within the wider discipline of Film Studies. This thesis adds to this growing body of literature by exploring film festivals as sites of cinematic, cultural, social, political and economic exchange, as well as the multiple ways in which these events produce cultural value. This thesis draws on three detailed case studies: the Buenos Aires Festival de Cine Independiente, known as BAFICI, in Argentina; the BFI London Film Festival in the UK; and the San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain. Issues of national identity, history and memory inform and become crystallised in each festival. They acquire a particular resonance in the tensions between national and regional allegiances in San Sebastián, as well as the pressures between cinema as culture and entertainment in the case of London. The focus on BAFICI allows for a development of the argument beyond critics and academics’ habitual focus on Western film festivals. Transnational events by nature, all three festivals relate in complex ways to their own national cinemas and localities, as well as to other festivals within the international circuit. My personal experience as film critic and reporter at festivals is underpinned by academic research, giving this project a dual perspective. With findings based on extensive interviews (primary research) with the teams responsible for programming the three festivals, this thesis aims to bring into the public domain the views of those who have shaped these festivals, creating a new body of material that can be drawn on by future scholars working in this area.

In The Circus: A City Symphony, I took the visual notes and phrases I had collected and considered while traveling with Carson and Barnes Circus year after year and created tunes and themes, revealing through gestures rather than stating through words

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The following report describes the pre-production, production, and post-production of my short-narrative thesis film. Auto X is a short fiction film about the ramblings, arguments, and strange encounters in a day in the life of a south-side Austin auto body & tint shop. It was devised and developed through improvisation and collaboration between its four-person cast and the director. Incorporating both elements of realism, character-driven fiction, and documentary, Auto X utilizes an unconventional approach to narrative filmmaking to present a unique and textured world of characters. The report recounts the production process in a day-by-day first-person narrative. The production account is preceded by a description of the initial planning and conceptualization of the project. In the latter half, the post-production process is presented as well as final conclusions drawn from the entire life of the project. Particular attention is paid to key filmmaking concepts and stylistic approaches that are discussed alongside the stages of production they pertain to. / text

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