Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Indominable, Kathleen A. Fox

CGU MFA Theses

INDOMINABLE, Kathleen A Fox

The reformation of the feminine portrait from that of idealistic sexual beauty into a portrait of strength, community, longevity, transformation, and inane human foundational essence of societal value. This collection of portraits illustrates the uniqueness that is often overlooked for the fast, idealistic and instantly read images of women hailed as beautiful. These women contain a space they have earned with their strength of character, spirit, and unwillingness to be moved from their places of significance. Created with an expressive abstractive edge to traditional portraiture, these female portraits refuse to be easily glossed over, for their …

Negotiating Political Identity In Community-Based Film Festivals: Reflexive Perspectives From Curator-Scholar-Activists, Eve Oishi, Marisa Hicks-Alcaraz

Faculty Papers and Conference Presentations with CGU Graduate Co-authors

This article is a cross-generational exchange of ideas and experiences that explores the intersections of film curating and activism. Its authors set forth accounts of their own experiences as scholars who have worked as film festival curators “on the side” from the 1990s to the present within the context of the new yet rapidly growing field of film festival studies, which provides a useful set of perspectives and methods for understanding how film festivals function and what significance and impact they can have on the multiple stakeholders involved, including but not limited to the filmmakers, festival organizers and staff, and …

Uncovering Alice Bag: An Alternative Punk History, Emily Macune

Scripps Senior Theses

The intention of this thesis is to provide an alternative counter-narrative to the mainstream histories of punk that center white men. By focusing on the contributions of fem queer and POC punks, I aim to legitimize punk music as a form of resistance against systems of oppression that are oppositional to the commodified forms of mainstream punk. Using Alice Bag, as my central case study as a fem queer punk that is often left out of punk historical narratives, I contextualize her work through feminist, queer, and media studies lenses to bridge the gap between academia and forgotten personal experience.

Damn Spot: Navigating Emotional Trauma In The Body, Emma M. Elliott

Scripps Senior Theses

I researched the history of emotional trauma and its portrayal in modern media and Shakespearean plays and created a film based on my personal experience with the topic. This film utilizes Shakespearean song and monologue from Hamlet and Macbeth to narrate the inner journey of a girl working through emotional trauma. We follow her as she feels the impact of her trauma in her body and as she tries to hide it from her friends and maintain a normal facade. This film does contain a fictionalized portrayal of an anxiety attack, so viewer discretion is advised. This project does not …

Emerging Dark Matter: La’S Underground Women Musicians In The Digital Age, Linnea Rosenberg

Scripps Senior Theses

Virtual Angel is an independent e-zine publication that attempts to frame an emerging canon of self-made, women musicians that work in the margins of Los Angeles’ music and culture industries.

Globalized Interfaces And Anticolonial Engagements With Material Technologies Of Empire: Tabita Rezaire And Morehshin Allahyari’S Works, Neelufar Franklin

Scripps Senior Theses

The virtual is far from immaterial and its expressions are multifarious. The infrastructure of a technologic-globalism has opened new pathways of desecration, created new networks of exploitation, and reinforced fraught foundations. Tabita Rezaire and Morehshin Allahyari are two artists whose radical technofeminist and new materialist practices engage with counterdiscourses in the face of the globalized interfaces of technology; from mappings of submarine fiber optic network cables or understanding water as a knowledge repository, to 3D printed queered figures of Islamic mysticism and hypertext narratives. In these anachronistic approaches to technological use and analyses, archives become possibilities for renderings of futurity …

Constructing Memory In The Wake Of Tragedy: An Analysis Of Film As A Tool Of Collective Memory In The Aftermath Of The Dictatorships In Argentina And Chile, Megan C. Schneider

CMC Senior Theses

Acting as an audiovisual vector of catharsis, film has proved an innovative and effective tool in the process of reconstructing collective memory in the aftermath of traumatic events. This thesis focuses on the emergence of filmmakers and their movies in the post-dictatorial periods in Argentina and Chile as both nations sought to confront their violent pasts. A general overview of the process of memory construction is included to provide background for the subsequent analysis of film as a vector of collective memory following trauma. An examination and comparison of various films produced for both domestic and international audiences detail each …

The Winchester Gospel: The 'Supernatural' Fandom As A Religion, Hannah Grobisen

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores how fandom can be interpreted as a religious experience, specifically examining the fandom of the television show Supernatural. I focus on how fans are emotionally influenced by and drawn to the source material, fan labor/content creation, LGBTQ content and interpretations by the fandom, and toxicity within the fandom.

Star Wars And Franchising: Emotional Ownership And Tensions In The Digital Age, Claire A. Pukszta

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper unpacks the franchise system and the often-tumultuous relationship between Producers and Consumers, especially around the release of new films by the Producers. Star Wars represents far more than just a corporate product. There is a thriving ecosystem around pieces that have touched fans lives personally.

The reaction of fans to new media texts in existing franchises is in constant flux. Tumultuous emotions of betrayal come in waves from fans immediately following the release of new content. Specifically focusing on reception to prequel films, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), reveals …

Evolution Of The Final Girl: Exploring Feminism And Femininity In Halloween (1978-2018), Maya Zhou, Maya Zhou

Scripps Senior Theses

Decades of horror film research and theorizations have shown us that there is a reason why this particular genre has been an important part of film history from the beginning: namely, the idea that horror both reflects and shapes our historically and culturally specific anxieties.

By examining the Final Girl trope in Halloween (the 1978 original versus 2018 version), this paper traces the evolution of female protagonists and whether a more modern film accurately reflects the increasing role of feminism in society, or sticks to traditional conventions of misogyny and male-dominated visual pleasure. Placing the newer film in the context …

The Attention Crisis Of Digital Interfaces And How To Consume Media More Mindfully, Kristen M. Liu

Scripps Senior Theses

Digital forms of media are monopolizing individuals' attention spans, utilizing visual strategies that demand our interactions. Throughout the history of media technology, mediums have become increasingly immersive, presenting more information than ever before. The user interface designs of digital platforms can damage our ability to focus and distribute attention in meaningful ways. Through analysis of our digital media consumption, this capstone project ultimately proposes mindful practices that help us lead more balanced lives and thrive in the digital age. The second half of this capstone project is a digital zine with digital illustrations, animations, and editorial-style articles. The digital zine …

A Geocritical Approach To Coloniality And Aesthetics: Mapping The Spatial Narratives Of The Amazon Basin, Michael Wang

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Coloniality, or the living legacies and practices of the 500 years of European colonization, has produced racial, political, and cultural hierarchies around the colonial difference dividing East from West, center from periphery, civilization from the Global South. This dissertation examines a particular strand of coloniality in the Western narration and aesthetics of the Amazon basin, particularly the consequences of travel writing, science fiction and cinema of Amazon’s tropicality and its enduring effects on spatial cartography. In addressing Western representations of the jungle terrain, this paper focuses on the dichotomous relationship between the metropolitan center and the colonial outer-periphery exemplified by …