Arts and Humanities Commons^™

El Paseo By Harold Trompetero: Approaching Popular Film From Colombia In A North American Classroom, Matias Martinez Abeijon Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This article explores the manner in which popular films from Colombia—

specifically comedies, such as the movie El paseo, directed by Harold Trompetero in 2010, which has been the highest grossing movie to date in the history of movies produced in Colombia–may be used in the classroom in the context of a World Language, Literature, and Culture department in the United States. It is the contention of this study that such a choice is far from common due to diverse issues, which include the limited access to international distribution of the majority of the so-called “national film” or, in …

Understanding Arab Culture Through Cinema, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The article examines the use of cinema as a tool for teaching about Arab culture and assesses the process in which learners acquire a higher level of intercultural communicative competence. The essay draws primarily on multilayered class activities and students’ responses to pre- and post- screening surveys related to eight Arab films. The article reveals that the evaluation of the learners’ intercultural competence and their familiarity with Arab culture in particular is a long process that filled with misunderstandings, gaps, inconsistencies, and contradictions on the part of the learners. To successfully conduct this type of teaching, the article also points …

Retrograde Returns Of The American Housewife: Reimagining An Old Character In A New Millennium, Ruth Emelia Wollersheim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the immensely popular return of the housewife character in the twenty-first century. From films like The Stepford Wives (2004), to television dramas like Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) and The Good Wife (2009- ), to reality shows like Wife Swap (2004- ), Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise (2006- ), Basketball Wives (2010- ), Mob Wives (2011- ), and most recently on the blogosphere with personalities like The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, the housewife character has reentered our imaginations on a mass scale. This anachronistic character trend is in stark contrast to the urban, working superwoman ideal of the 1980s …

Mdocs Publication-2015-11-16, Stone Phillips Helps Center Celebrate Anniversary, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Stone Phillips helps center celebrate anniversary"

The Saratogian

November 16, 2015

Author:

Mdocs Poster-2015-11-11, Sixty Years Young, Michael Zhou

MDOCS Publications

In support of the 60th anniversary of the Adult and Senior Center of Saratoga, Skidmore students prepared a video and exhibition, Sixty Years Young, drawing on the Center's archives and interviews, documenting its past, present and hopes for the future.

Mdocs Publication-2015-11-08, Tv Journalist Stone Philips, Jennie Grey

MDOCS Publications

"TV journalist Stone Phillips to serve as honorary chair at gala"

The Saratogian

November 8, 2015

Author: Jennie Grey

Mdocs Poster-2015-11-03, Bill Daniel- General Poster, Zhiyu (Michael) Zhou, Sophia Baraschi-Ehrlich

MDOCS Publications

Bill Daniel, artist, photographer, documentary and Guggenheim Fellow (2008) visited MDOCS on November 3-4, 2015. A multi-disciplinary activist and self-described hobo filmmaker and phototramp, Daniel offers reporting from the margins in a film screening and pop-up exhibit, and lessons on how to build your own vision and opportunities with a workshop on DIY Touring & Exhibition Strategies for Visual and Media Artists.

Event details:

11/3 @ 7pm: Film Screening: Who is Bozo Texino?

11/4 @ 5:30-7pm: Discussion/Workshop: DIY Touring & Exhibition Strategies for Visual and Media Artists

11/4 @ 7-10pm: Pop-Up Photography Exhibit & Concert: TRI-X NOISE, with Zine Exhibition …

Mdocs Poster-2015-11-03, Bill Daniel: Who Is Bozo Texino?, Zhiyu (Michael) Zhou, Sophia Baraschi-Ehrlich

MDOCS Publications

Who is Bozo Texino? chronicles the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti— a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino”— a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Daniel’s gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it’s underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti, and includes interviews with legendary boxcar artists Colossus of Roads, Coaltrain, Herby, and The Rambler.

Shooting over a 16-year period, Daniel rode freights across the West carrying a Super-8 sound camera and a 16mm Bolex. During his quest he …

Mdocs Publication-2016-10-12, Veterans Program Thursday, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Veterans program Thursday at museum in Spa City"

The Saratogian

October 12, 2016

Author:

Book Review: Children, Film And Literacy, Yonty Friesem

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Mdocs Publication-2015-06-07, Filmmaker's Work Reveals Black Lives In New Ways, Jeff Wilkin

MDOCS Publications

"Filmmaker's work reveals black lives in new ways"

The Daily Gazette

June 7, 2015

Author: Jeff Wilkin

Mdocs Publication-2015-06-03, Skidmore Kicks Off Storytellers With Free Events, Amy Biancolli

MDOCS Publications

"Skidmore kicks off Storytellers Institute with free events"

Times Union

June 3, 2015

Author: Amy Biancolli

Mdocs Publication-2015-05-31, Storytellers Institute At Skidmore To Open Monday, Anonymous Anonymous

MDOCS Publications

"Storytellers Institute at Skidmore to open Monday"

The Saratogian

May 31, 2015

Author:

1st Place Research Paper: Moviegoers And The Moon In 1953, Hannah E. Gary

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

"By analyzing the complicated production of the sexually-provocative The Moon is Blue in the early 1950s, this essay seeks to isolate the perspectives of censorship groups, artistic authorities, governmental legislatures, and the Production Code Administration (PCA) in their respective appraisals of the Hollywood industry’s movie-going public. Referencing communications between studio personnel and the PCA, as well as court documents and scholarly research, this paper highlights how the various organizations’ differing conceptions are relevant with regards to their Cold War context. This period inspired containment ideology in narratives celebrating 'universal ideals and patriotic or sacred causes' through the awareness of a …

From God Terms To Gaga: The Bad Romance Between Motherhood And Female Suffragists In American Film, Mary Ellis Glymph

Masters Theses

Ninety-five years ago, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by Congress, and women across America were given the right to vote. Nearly a century later, the long-gone figure of the female suffragist continues to subtly permeate American film, a reoccurrence that is not easily justified. Why would viewers in the English-speaking world continue an interest in a historically-contextualized feminist that seems, at first, to have little to do with what a “modern-day feminist” portrays?

Although the woman that history calls the suffragette hasn’t existed in America since 1920, representations of her in film and visual media have reminded viewers that this …

1st Place Contest Entry: Moviegoers And The Moon In 1953, Hannah E. Gary

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Hannah Gary's submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. She wrote about the industrial and cultural implications of the film The Moon is Blue during the heavily censored Cold War period. You can read the final essay that came out of her research here.

Mdocs Publication-2015-04-12, History Museum To Open Exhibit, Lauren Mineau

MDOCS Publications

"History Museum to open exhibit featuring maps dating back 250 years"

The Saratogian

April 12, 2015

Author: Lauren Mineau

"Era(C)Ing The South: Modern Popular Culture Depictions Of Southern History", Bryan Jack

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

There has been significant research on various interpretations of the American South, and the relationship between Southern and American identity. However, there has been little investigation into how modern popular culture depicts and constructs the Southern past and how this shapes Southern identity. This article interrogates the relationship between modern films, race, and Southern history to ask, has the challenge to codified Jim Crow segregation changed filmic portrayals of Southern history? How do these portrayals affect both Southern and American identity? Using race as a lens, the article argues that the end of the Civil Rights Movement has created a …

They Survived The Conversion From 35mm To Digital, So Now What? The Future Of America’S Small-Town Art House Theaters, Morgan H. Marianelli

Student Publications

This paper explores the vital role art house movie theaters play in their communities, particularly in bringing film culture to small towns. I argue that art house theaters have a symbiotic relationship with their communities (particularly small towns) in which the art houses play a vital role in bringing culture to their downtown communities, and these communities are ardent supporters of art house theaters, helping them convert from 35mm to digital and continue to thrive. I explore two art house movie theaters in great detail as case studies, the County theater in Doylestown, PA and Gettysburg's Majestic theater, to prove …

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde: The Complicated Identity Of The Brussels International Festival Of Fantastic Films, Mila H. Whiteley

Student Publications

The Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films (BIFFF) is a genre festival specializing in thriller, horror, science fiction and fantasy films. Started in 1983, with an initial audience of 32,650 for a festival of 60 films, by its most recent run in April 2015, 64,400 tickets were sold for a showing of 108 films (BIFFF Presentation 4-5; “Festival 2015” 2015). The almost doubling in audience attendance over the course of the BIFFF’s 33 year run emphasizes the manner in which the festival’s identity has become oriented towards a specific and passionate audience. Interestingly, as the festival’s audience engagement has increased, …

Escape Artistry: Elisabeth Bergner And Jewish Disappearance In Der Träumende Mund (Czinner, 1932), Kerry Wallach

German Studies Faculty Publications

The late Weimar film Der träumende Mund culminates in the apparent but unconfirmed suicide of its female protagonist, played by Elisabeth Bergner. Bergner, whose background contributed to the film’s Jewish reception, and who later claimed to have written the film’s screenplay, left Germany and went into exile with director Paul Czinner in 1932. This film and the circumstances of its production and premiere link tragic modes of self-erasure, including the suicides of both many women and many German Jews, to notions of escape, emigration, and reemergence. Its success among Jewish spectators points to its enduring and international appeal.

Mdocs Flyer-2015-01-26, Salim Amin And Chip Duncan Screen Mo And Me, Jordana Dym

MDOCS Publications

On January 26, MDOCS hosted photographer/filmmakers Salim Amin and Chip Duncan, who screened the film Mo and Me. The film follows the life of documentary photographer and filmmaker Mo Amin, Salim's father. Duncan discussed a feature film project that he is developing based on this documentary film.

Fighting Over The Founders: How We Remember The American Revolution, Andrew Schocket

Andrew M Schocket

The American Revolution is all around us. It is pictured as big as billboards and as small as postage stamps, evoked in political campaigns and car advertising campaigns, relived in museums and revised in computer games. As the nation’s founding moment, the American Revolution serves as a source of powerful founding myths, and remains the most accessible and most contested event in U.S. history: more than any other, it stands as a proxy for how Americans perceive the nation’s aspirations. Americans’ increased fascination with the Revolution over the past two decades represents more than interest in the past. It’s also …

Maestros De La Manipulación: Titiriteros De La Memoria Histórica En No De Pablo Larraín Y La Niña De Tus Ojos De Fernando Trueba / Master Manipulators: Puppeteers Of Historical Memory In No By Pablo Larraín And The Girl Of Your Dreams By Fernando Trueba, Polly J. Hodge

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

Se exploran dos obras cinematográficas, No de Pablo Larraín y La niña de tus ojos de Fernando Trueba, en función de sus raíces literarias y el concepto de la memoria histórica. Las obras basadas en eventos históricos intensos y violentos tienen la capacidad de retratar la dialéctica entre la memoria y la amnesia histórica. De esta manera se estimula el impulso por desenmascarar los sistemas de poder y dialogar con la sociedad actual. En el proceso, se descubren soluciones alternativas a la violencia para tratar los problemas políticos.

Feature Films As History, Bryan Jack

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Expertise And Disbelief: Post-1945 American Attitudes Toward The Authority Of Knowledge, Terry Wagner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“You can’t beat brains,” said President John Kennedy of the intellectuals and technicians he assembled in his cabinet. Kennedy was perhaps the greatest political champion for the virtues of expertise. However, all over America during the 1960s and ‘70s, diverse groups voiced doubts about how much experts, such as social scientists, policy specialists, and others, actually improved life. This dissertation examines how movements on the political left and right, and spiritual ruptures such as the rise of ‘60s counterculture and of evangelicalism, spoke in different language to express a similar point: human mastery over the world is profoundly limited. Many …