Paul J. Rainey: Northeast Mississippi's Hidden Legend, Peyton Elizabeth Holliday

Masters Theses

Paul J. Rainey was a man of the 20th century who had it all. A fortune, land, ability to travel, and fame. He was a big game hunter who out did all others and a wildlife filmmaker who broke records and helped to finance the beginning of Universal Studios. While all his claims to fame were with hunting and filmmaking, Rainey went on to serve in the Great War as an ambulance driver, spy, and Captain in the British army. Rainey was originally from Ohio, but in 1901 he bought land in Northeast Mississippi. Here, Rainey established his Tippah Lodge …

Conservatives At The Movies: Conservative Film Critics And Popular Culture, Alex Pinelli

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The study of modern American conservatism has flourished in the 21st century. However, there are some gaping holes in the historiography. One is the intersection between conservativism and popular culture and the arts. This study aimed to remedy this by analyzing hundreds of film reviews in nearly a dozen conservative publications over twenty-five years. In doing so, this first-of-its-kind analysis explored the underexamined world of the conservative film critic, while also identifying a group of principles that unified the varying critics under one conservative banner.

As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States is one of the last western nations still practicing capital punishment. A history of and commitment to vigilantism and its ideals offers an explanation of America’s retention of capital punishment. Employing scholarship on law and popular culture and vigilantism, this thesis finds that pro-death penalty frames are prevalent in vigilante films while anti-death penalty frames are prevalent in films that focus specifically upon capital punishment. Since the 1960’s however, there has been a gradual shift towards anti-death penalty frames and away from pro-death penalty frames as well as changes in the themes presented in the two genres …

No Happy Endings: Anna May Wong’S American Film Roles From 1931-1942, Kayla G. O'Leary

CSB and SJU Distinguished Thesis

In the 1930s and ‘40s, shifting relations with China, Japan, and the United States drastically impacted American public sentiment towards these Asian countries. US films produced during these decades starring Anna May Wong illuminate how harmful stereotypes about Chinese culture and people were portrayed on screen. I analyze five of Wong’s films from this period to examine how the gendered and racial stereotypes within them provide a cultural lens of changing US-Chinese relations. The stereotypical archetypes of her characters, which include the formidable Dragon Lady, helpless American citizen, and Chinese war hero, demonstrate how American perceptions of China and Chinese …

Local Involvement, Memory, And Denial: The Complexities Of The Holocaust In Lithuania, Hailey Cedor

Honors College

The Holocaust was one of the most pivotal and destructive events in the 20th century. While decades of research have been done in order to attempt to understand the events of the Holocaust, its preconditions, its survivors, and its lasting impacts, there is still much to be studied. This thesis explores the complex and understudied relationship of Lithuanians with the Holocaust. Local collaboration with Nazi perpetrators was widespread, yet acknowledgement of and reconciliation with this collaboration is largely absent from Lithuania’s current public memory. While this work does not excuse the actions of perpetrators or condemn those who helped Jewish …

Residence Life_Virtual Communities Webpage, University Of Maine Residence Life

Residence Life

Screenshot of the University of Maine Residence Life's Virtual Community webpage with opportunities for University of Maine students to participate in.

A Vermont Romance Turns One Hundred: Vermont's Earliest Surviving Photoplay, Martin L. Johnson, Frederick Pond

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In 2016, a hundred-year-old film spent the year touring the northern half of Vermont, drawing audiences to refurbished opera houses and picture palaces. But the picture being celebrated for its centenary year was not D. W. Griffith's Intolerance or Lois Weber's Shoes, two of the best-known films made in 1916. Instead, Vermonters were watching what they believed to be the first feature film made in their state, the fetchingly titled photoplay A Vermont Romance.

But A Vermont Romance is not a conventional feature picture. None of the people who appeared in the film had previous movie acting experience, …

The Portrayal Of Roman Gladiators And Slavery In Film, Megan Gingerich

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis project will endeavor to examine how prominent historical films set in the Roman Empire deal with slavery and gladiators, said research to inform a corresponding creative project. In studying and analyzing Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960) and Gladiator (2000), the three most prominent films that deal with the topics of slavery and gladiators in ancient Rome, I hope to uncover how films treat the topic, how the films are influenced by more modern values, and how accurate the films are. I will also identify commonalities between all three films, and supplement my discoveries with observations from two less successful …

Art And Terror: Vergangenheitsbewältigung In Relation To The Red Army Faction, Joanie Lange

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Advanced Undergraduate Winner

The Red Army Faction, active from 1970-1998, was an infamous West German far-left terrorist group. Its ideology and numerous terrorist acts not only left a lasting impact upon the politics and culture of Germany, but noteworthy is also the fact that the group inspired the creation of countless works of art. This research paper seeks to understand and explain this phenomenon. It argues that the artworks inspired by the RAF are a form of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, a peculiarly German concept “coming to terms with the past,” most often used in relation to fiction and art exploring the …

Fascist Aesthetics From 1940 To Contemporary Times, Anna M. Gellerman

Publications and Research

Movies and literature all over the world share some common aesthetics: militarization, romanticization of death, beauty of perfection, and even purity. What most don't think about is how these tropes rose to popularity due to Nazi Germany's propaganda films. This work describes these fascist aesthetics, and uses famous publications from the 1940s until now to paint just how common these themes are.

"Ein Pakt Mit Dem Teufel": Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph Of The Will, And The Nature Of Guilt, Andrew O. Burns

Student Publications

Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will is rightly considered a massive technical achievement in the world of cinema and propaganda. However, this achievement was undertaken at the behest of the immoral, murderous regime of Nazi Germany, a regime that Riefenstahl was more than willing to work with and glorify in order to further her career. This thesis will argue that Riefenstahl’s onscreen deification of Hitler, visual representation of völkisch ideology, and use of the music of Richard Wagner make her later claims of ignorance as to the film’s ultimate meaning impossible to correlate with established facts.

Mdocs Poster-2018-04-02, Palestinian Voices: Lyd In Exile, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

April 2, 6pm

Free and open to the public

Location: Somers Room

The Palestinian Voices series is organized and co-sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS), the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program, International Affairs, Media and Film Studies, Art History, History, Hayat, and the Skidmore College Dean’s Office

Join us for a talk by Rami Younis and Sarah Friedland, and a screening of their work-in-progress documentary Lyd In Exile. Younis and Friedland have spent over three years researching and filming Lyd In Exile, and are in post-production. They will screen clips from their film and …

Mdocs Poster-2018-03-22, No Mas Bebes, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

No Más Bebés tells the story of a little-known but landmark event in reproductive justice, when a small group of Mexican immigrant women sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after they were sterilized while giving birth at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Marginalized and fearful, many of these mothers spoke no English, and charged that they had been coerced into tubal ligation — having their tubes tied — by doctors during the late stages of labor. Often the procedure was performed after asking the mothers under duress.

The mothers’ cause …

Mdocs Poster-2018-03-21, Free To Rock, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET) PALMTN Davis Auditorium

FREE TO ROCK is a documentary film directed by 4-time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Rock & Roll spread like an uncontrollable virus across Eastern Europe despite Communist attempts to outlaw it. Thousands of underground bands and millions of young fans who yearned for Western freedoms and embraced this music as the Sound of Freedom, helped fuel the nonviolent implosion of the Soviet regime. Free to Rock features Presidents, diplomats, spies and rock stars from the West and the Soviet Union …

Mdocs Poster-2018-02-06, Issam Nassar, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

February 6, 6pm

Location: Payne Room

Free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the exhibition This Place

Part of the Palestinian Voices series, organized and co-sponsored by the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS), the Environmental Studies and Sciences Program, International Affairs, Media and Film Studies, Art History, History, Hayat, and the Skidmore College Dean’s Office

Join us for a lecture by Issam Nassar on the history of Palestinian photography. Nassar is a historian of the Modern Middle East and of Photography at Illinois State University. His work focuses on the modern Middle East and the history …

Donald Duck Goest To War: Involvement Of The U.S. And International Film During World War Ii, Katherine Wennerdahl

A with Honors Projects

Films hold the capability to shape perspectives and beliefs, spread new ideas, and express suppressed feelings in the hardest of times. Between the year 1939 to 1945, the second World War took the lives of over 50 million people and left homes in ruin. During this time, artists all over the world continued to practice their art forms, many refusing to ignore the atrocities that were occurring. In particular, film makers across the world took the power of the camera and mass media to make statements that have been engraved in filmstrips and history. This paper will identify a handful …

Mdocs Publication-2017-10-13, Documentary On Human Trafficking Screened At Bow Tie Cinema, Wendy Liberatore

MDOCS Publications

"Documentary on human trafficking to be screened at Bow Tie Criterion"

The Times Union

October 23, 2017

Author: Wendy Liberatore

Mdocs Publication-2017-10-22, Saratoga Springs Conference, Staff Report

MDOCS Publications

"Saratoga Springs conference, film screening to target sex trafficking"

The Saratogian

October 22, 2017

Author: Staff Report

Mdocs Poster-2017-10-10, Untouchable, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

"Untouchable" Film Screening with Meerkat Media

Tue, October 10 @ 6:30pm, Emerson Aud

Followed by a panel discussion led by Meerkat Media

ABOUT THE FILM:

When the most powerful lobbyist in Florida discovers that the nanny has sexually abused his daughter, he harnesses his extraordinary political power to pass the toughest sex offender laws in the nation. UNTOUCHABLE chronicles his crusade, and its impact on the lives of several of the 800,000 people forced to live under the kinds of laws he has championed.

Mdocs Poster-2017-09-30, States Of Incarceration September 30th Events, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

COMMUNITY CONVERSATION, States of Incarceration Saturday, September 30

9 a.m.–noon MASS STORY LAB: What is a prison for? Murray-Aikins Dining Hall, second floor

Work alongside community members to collaborate on creative strategies to strengthen communities while improving our criminal justice system.

Hear from storytellers who have been personally impacted by mass incarceration, and are interested in rehabilitation. Following the stories, audience members will be invited to participate in an interactive design process where community leaders and members collaborate on creative strategies to strengthen communities while improving our criminal justice system.

Through facilitated dialogue, we will form connections to create healing, …

Mdocs Publication-2017-09-02, States Of Incarceration, Kathleen Phalen-Tomaselli

MDOCS Publications

"States of Incarceration: Mount McGregor stories are part of national exhibit"

The Post Star

September 2, 2017

Author: Kathleen Phaeln-Tomaselli

Mdocs Publication-2017-08-31, Exhibit Spotlights Mass Incaceration, Indiana Nash

MDOCS Publications

"Exhibit spotlights mass incarceration"

The Daily Gazette

August 31, 2017

Author: Indiana Nash

Mdocs Publication-2017-07-20, Radio Dreams, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Radio Dreams: Skidmore Radio Offers Youth Program"

The Saratoga Today Newspaper

July 20, 2017

Author:

Mdocs Publication-2017-06-08, Photographer To Showcase Project At Skidmore, Joseph Phalen

MDOCS Publications

"Photographer to showcase project at Skidmore"

The Saratogian

June 8, 2017

Author: Joseph Phelan

Pre-Occupied Spaces: Remapping Italy's Transnational Migrations And Colonial Legacies [Table Of Contents], Teresa Fiore

Sociology

By linking Italy’s long history of emigration to all continents in the world, contemporary transnational migrations directed toward it, as well as the country’s colonial legacies, Fiore’s book poses Italy as a unique laboratory to rethink national belonging at large in our era of massive demographic mobility. Through an interdisciplinary cultural approach, the book finds traces of globalization in a past that may hold interesting lessons about inclusiveness for the present.

Fiore rethinks Italy’s formation and development on a transnational map through cultural analysis of travel, living, and work spaces as depicted in literary, filmic, and musical texts. By demonstrating …

Mdocs Publication-2017-05-12, Skidmore Student Reveals Archiving Project, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Skidmore Student Reveals Two Year Archiving Project of Senior Center"

Saratoga Today

May 12, 2017

Author:

Mdocs Publication-2017-03-08, Skidmore Grad To Talk About 'Buffet' Film, Bill Buell

MDOCS Publications

"Skidmore Grad to talk about 'Buffet' film"

The Daily Gazette

March 8, 2017

Author: Bill Buell

Mdocs Publication-2017-03-01, Emmy-Award Winning Producer To Screen Documentary, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Emmy-award winning producer to screen documentary at Skidmore College"

The Saratogian

March 2, 2017

Author:

Mdocs Poster-2017-02-13, After Trujillo, Jesse Wakeman, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

Screening: "Despues De Trujillo"

Monday, February 13, 2017, at 6PM-8PM, Davis Auditorium

Después De Trujillo (After Trujillo) (2016) draws on media archives and filmmaking expertise to explore the connection between landscape and memory in the Dominican Republic.

The documentary film, which was first shown in the DR last fall, probes the relationships between dictatorship, modern architecture, and cultural memory.

Narrated by Dominicans, this journey through modern monuments, memory gardens, and contemporary ruins, reveals landscapes where the ghost of the Trujillo regime lingers.

Directors Lisa Blackmore and Jorge Domínguez Dubuc will be present for a discussion after the screening.

This event …

Mdocs Poster-2016-12-13, Student Showcase, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

MDOCS Student Work Showcases

Tue, December 13 @ 6-8pm, Davis: Act I

Wed, December 14 @ 6-8pm, Davis: Act II

Check out what the students in DS courses have been up to this semester. For two nights, an array of video, audio, and multimedia work will be presented in Emerson auditorium.

Event organized by students in DS 251B: Festival Programming Followed by a reception with light snacks and refreshments.