Digital Commons Network^™

Appropriating The Past: Looking At Visual Evidence In The Twenty-First Century Archival Documentary, Zachariah Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Film and documentary scholars have long debated links between images, history, and truth. The field recently began addressing epistemological questions emergent when visual sources are circulated as evidence in an age of rapid image appropriation, manipulation, and circulation. To contribute to debates about images’ digital-era evidentiary roles, I study twenty-first century archival documentaries. By archival documentary, I mean a film that primarily comprises extant images (from government archives, home movies, surveillance footage, Hollywood films, etc.), rather than footage shot for the documentary. Films scholars and critics have applied many labels to these kinds of films: compilation, found footage, remix, etc. …

From Creator To Curator To Author As Content: Nicolas Winding Refn, Transdiscursive Authorship, And Self-Branding In Twenty-First Century Media, Christopher J. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s development from creator and curator to author as content within an evolving media ecology driven by capitalist ideology. A close critical study of Refn’s career from 1996 to 2019 offers insight into contemporary techniques of creating, collecting, and curating media texts, as well as the phenomenon of presenting oneself as content via discursive branding. Given that Refn’s career coincided with the emergence of the World Wide Web and the rise of digital platforms, he thus emblematizes what it means to be a creator working within an increasingly interconnected media ecology. Refn initially …

“Screen Riders” An Exploration Of Breaking Away From The Norms Of Cinematic Storytelling, Jake Alexander Escamilla

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout my time in college, I would always hear people discussing how originality is dead and that everything has been done before. Though I do believe there is some air of truth to these statements, I hold tight to the idea that originality is not truly gone. My belief is that the entertainment industry is so set on playing it safe, they do not wish to break away and explore new ideas which have never been done before. I believe that if more creatives were given the freedom to try new combinations and had more fun doing what they love, …

Cashing Out (Documentary), Girard Tecson

Theses and Dissertations

My 30-minute documentary film, Cashing Out, explores my journey into the world of sneaker culture and the major impact it made in my life.

To, From: Of Time, Of Distance, Of Body And Mind, Fanxi Sun

Theses and Dissertations

This paper introduces the concepts, theories, and techniques associated with my thesis project “To, From.” The paper consists of three parts: Time as Structure, Distance as Premise, and Body and Mind. Each chapter is written in a mixture of personal narration and a general introduction to materials that are directly or implicatively relevant and important to the creation of my project. In this experimental narrative comprises film screening and live performance with multi-channel sound, I tell a story of non-story. Words and the exchange of words, movements and non- movements, objects that are being handled and subjects that are handling... …

An Epic (Fail): Humor, Play, And Politics In Chilean Contemporary Art From The Early 1980s, Paula Solimano

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis foregrounds the methodology of humor and play employed by Chilean artists during the late 1970s and early 1980s. I argue that, through comic relief, collaborative practice, and melodrama, artists from different fields worked together in Santiago to reimagine the relationship between intellectuals and the public sphere and criticize the Pinochet regime.

Inheritance, Katherin Machalek

Theses and Dissertations

Inheritance is a feature documentary that investigates the concept of spiritual inheritance, that which is passed from parent to child. More precisely, it examines how the experiences and struggles of an individual may be transferred and reprocessed by their children. Life experience is studied not as personal, but rather a continuous process that transcends the parent and projects onto the children. The film is a hybrid composed of experimental sequences and false starts, which all bring attention to the nuances of a not-so-straightforward story. The film begins as an essay focusing on an investigation into my parents’ divorce with the …

At Home Among Strangers, Aleksandra Gorbacheva

Theses and Dissertations

At Home Among Strangers is a character-driven documentary that explores the price of freedom for a gay person in a society that lacks freedom and civil rights. It follows an asylum seeker from Russia, Sasha Smirnov, during a crucial moment of his life: starting over in New York City at 40 as a journalist without English language skills. The film reflects on the choices one makes and the consequences of staying true to oneself.

Steve Mcqueen, The Filmmaker, And Kant’S Sensus Communis, Livia Melamed Margon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects on the ways in which art reinforces community and reduces political polarity by stimulating shared feelings, namely through Kant's idea of sensus communis. To illustrate its argument, this thesis analyzes the work of Steve McQueen, a politically aware, ethically engaged, and broadly recognized filmmaker and artist.

Beirut/The Other Side Of The City: The Impact Of Visual Texture Production Of The Lebanese Postmemory Generation, 1989 - Present, Mohamed Moustafa Gameel Ebada

Theses and Dissertations

In 1989, after the Ta'if agreement, the war in Lebanon started to fade, which ended years of one of the most destructive civil conflicts in the region with no decisive winner or loser. The year also marked the birth of a new Lebanese generation who did not experience the war in person. It is a generation of postmemory, a term Maria Hirsch coined to describe the reminisces of those who did not have a personal encounter with past traumatic events. However, it was not before February 2005, when Rafic Al-Hariri's violent assassination occurred, when the postmemory generation started to question …

Starless Nights, Deepak Rauniyar

Theses and Dissertations

A film about the filmmaking process and the life of a filmmaker. But it's also a story about immigration, home, and negotiation. We constantly negotiate in our lives to maintain our relationships, opportunities, and dreams.

Foxy Ladies And Badass Super Agents: Legacies Of 1970s Blaxploitation Spy And Detective Heroines, Carlie Nicole Todd

Theses and Dissertations

The presentation of Black femininity in Blaxploitation spy and detective films like Cleopatra Jones (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Get Christie Love! (1974) – depicting powerful, independent, and multidimensional characters – was a sharp departure from the derogatory images of African American women in film prior. These films also included some of the first Black spy and detective film heroines – Foxy Brown, Cleo Jones, and Christie Love – that portrayed a “serious” female detective or government agent as the main protagonist and center of the film’s action. These Blaxploitation heroines were unique in how their characters departed from prior …

Hamburger Helper Recipes, John Alex Goss

Theses and Dissertations

Hamburger Helper Recipes is a collection of essays and public addresses that aim to recuperate castoff and misfit material surrounding industries and tools which produce science-fiction fantasies, specifically videogames and television shows. The following essays confront the normative violence of capitalism, whiteness, and hetero-patriarchy that socially and technologically haunt these imaginary worlds and build hegemonic idealogy into their audiences. This collection takes industrial materials and software from their intended commercial purposes of production and “success” into places of abjection and quiet breakdown. The author’s own proximity to masculine and often toxic "work cultures'' within industrial spaces of coding and manufacturing …

What Sound Reveals To Our Eyes: The Intersection Between Subconscious Thought And Real Imagery In Experimental Film And Sound Design, Mireille G. Heidbreder

Theses and Dissertations

The impetus for making films that conjure up atemporal, interconnected spaces suggestive of a unique reality has been influenced in large part by Michel Foucault’s idea of heterotopia, or the creation of a new world by joining together discursive spaces. As such, my practice begins with the collection and re-imagination of these discursive spaces through a combination of an in-depth exploration of little-known landscapes and the organic observation of the natural realm in relation to the human world. By combining various mixed media including digital, film print, as well as re-purposed archival footage, I alter the filmic quality of the …

Mexartivist As Resistance Against Media Representation Of Latinxs In The U.S., Jose Garcia Gilling

Theses and Dissertations

MexArtivist comes as a response of wanting to reflect our experiences as Mexicanxs, Latinxs, Chicanxs and Mexican Americans. I've merged my recent academic years, research and knowledge along with my over then years of experience in the film and audiovisual production industry to create the audiovisual group called MexArtivist. Based on research regarding the image, representation, misrepresentation and lack of representation of Latinxs in U.S. films, I present a tangible proposal to try and better this issue.

Under The Skin, Silvana Silveira

Theses and Dissertations

Under the Skin is an animation depicting the struggles of Laila, a fictional ten-year-old Salvadoran girl child who risks her life crossing the desert to realize her dream of finding a better life in America.

Through Laila's experiences inside the American Immigration system, Under the Skin focuses on the vicissitudes and emotions that unaccompanied migrant children (UMC) arriving in the US across the US-Mexico border encounter.

By combining 2D animation and soundscapes with hand-made textures and paintings, this art film puts a human face to the ongoing immigration crisis. The organic, almost tactile universes created by these textures enhance the …

Japan’S 2d Trauma Culture: Defining Crisis Cinema In Post-3/11 Japan, Matthew C. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

This paper labors to expound the link between the socially mediated “trauma process,” or the creation of collective trauma through social discourse, and the proposed moniker of “crisis cinema” that has often been deployed by media scholars with no clear parameters. This paper, then, endeavors to evince the trauma process’ relevance to crises and disasters, explicitly define a paradigm by which crisis cinema can be understood, and subsequently utilized by a larger patronage, and showcase the pair’s reliance on one another. This is approached through the locus of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and a selection of …

Best Leadership Practices Of Female Film Directors, Sara Carraway

Theses and Dissertations

Female film directors are highly underrepresented within the U.S. film industry, especially within narrative film (S.L. Smith, Pieper, & Choueiti, 2013). In 2019, only 12% of directors in the top 100 grossing films were female (Lauzen, 2020). There are several obstacles female directors face in their careers. Financing is more difficult to obtain for female directors due to stereotypes of women as risky investments (P. Smith et al., 2013). Closely tied to financing, gendered networks and homophily can prevent women from making relationships with gatekeepers and accessing the same opportunities as men (Jones & Pringle, 2015; Wing-Fai et al., 2015). …

Needle And Thread, Caitlin Carvalho

Theses and Dissertations

Needle and Thread is an expanded cinema performance that involves the projection of 16mm film, archival footage, video, 35mm slide projection, soundscape and liquid light projection. It explores the fibers of connection, the thread that ties together my matriarchy, utilizing the language of cinema to piece together the memories.

Without A Scratch, Samantha Farinella

Theses and Dissertations

Without a Scratch is a short form personal essay film that explores the themes of fear, loss, love, hope and renewal as it relates to my brain tumor diagnosis spanning from the initial symptoms through my recovery.

The Revolution Of Plastic, Marine Brun-Franzetti

Theses and Dissertations

The Revolution Of Plastic is a fiction film about the overconsumption of plastic in our everyday lives. Leo, a ten year-old girl who loves dolphins, rebels against her father Mister Risso, the Manager of Detergents at Willy Supermarket.

Private Rainbows, Mikey F. Estes

Theses and Dissertations

I make art that refers to how the self is mediated through structures, objects, and images — a kind of self-portraiture that circles around its subject, reflecting a state of simultaneous formation and disintegration. Over the past few years, I have used my iPhone as a tool to make images of everyday life. As the user of this device, I am defined by both my presence and absence. I am interested in the process of locating the self within the scattered yet ordered space of the screen.

Luncheon, Tomasz Gubernat

Theses and Dissertations

Documenting the apparently prosaic activities of nearly two hundred Polish immigrant senior citizens, “Luncheon” is an observational portrait of a place that seems foreign and significantly removed from its New York City surroundings. For this dwindling demographic, daily activities and commemorative performances provide a way to revivify collective memories and maintain individual identities that are still deeply connected to a place far removed in both space and time. “Luncheon” is an exploration of how memory and identity are constructed and maintained, nationality imagined, and communities preserved.

Instituting Protest (Film), Joshua Eisenberg

Theses and Dissertations

The road-trip story of one man looking at how first and fourteenth amendment rights have effected college campuses over time in the United States, while also looking at the possibility of revoking a diploma from a white nationalist for having different views than ones preferential to a certain college.

Electronic Rhapsody: Theremin And Matryomin, Kayoko Nakamura

Theses and Dissertations

Electronic Rhapsody: Theremin and Matryomin is a short documentary film, which explores two magical musical instruments: the Theremin and the Matryomin. Both instruments represent innovations in the history of electronic music. The film depicts the world of these unique musical instruments, their inventors and performers who make up the community.

Work/Death, Of Each In Their Own, Micah H. Weber

Theses and Dissertations

Writings in support of my visual thesis, including some background, and bibliographic information: Oregon/Death/Animation/Vocation and the artist as an agent of potential.

The Twilight Zone: The Confluence Of Childhood Scenes And Future Anxiety, Jongwon Bae

Theses and Dissertations

Jongwon Bae’s paintings reflect his childhood memories as an archive that is to be repressed until it manifests itself in uncertain ways as it becomes confluent with the anxiety about the future.

Post-Representational Presence: Disruptive Actions & Visibility Politics In New Media, Christian Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations

This text is a written component to a master’s thesis in the fine arts. It is a research-intensive text that conventionally examines contemporary conditions of politics and modes of representation, and analyzes the most innovative artists and visual producers working in these areas. However, the text also includes exercise modules with “challenges” for the reader, similar to a textbook. In the modules, the examples provided are works of my own. I also include text, images, and documentation of my own work from my MFA thesis exhibition.

Brava & Gloria: A Mexican Counterstory Screenplay, Jose David Garcia Gilling

Theses and Dissertations

“Brava & Gloria: A Counterstory Screenplay” is a thesis work which combines the theoretical aspects of Latinx representation in films with a full-length, feature film screenplay. In this work I use speculative fiction aesthetics to address the matter of representation and I create a version of how I would like to see Latinxs represented on screen. The story of “Gloria and Brava” is a medium to achieve this. Even though it does not mimic my personal experience as an immigrant, the core of the story is my family’s and my own experience as a Latino in the United States. Consequently, …

Misrepresenting The Shoah In American Film, Madeleine Erica Read

Theses and Dissertations

How should we, Americans, confront our complicity in reproducing the Shoah? For complicit we are, if consumerism is any metric: Steven Spielbergs 1993 film Schindlers List had grossed $321 million as of 2012; more than 40 million people have made the pilgrimage to the sacred US Holocaust Museum; at last count, The Diary of Anne Frank had sold 30 million copies. These numbers are stale staples in the debate over the ethics of Shoah representation, of course, but they bear out the skepticism of critics who have questioned American Holocaust consumer culture. And consumerism is only the first of many …