Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Learners’ Perspectives On The Use And Support Of Student Created Video Assignments At James Madison University, Annette Bruff Liskey

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This research is an exploratory analysis of the use of student created video assignments at JMU, a pedagogical strategy that is increasingly common but not widely researched. The study collected quantitative data via an online survey of JMU students with the objective of examining the use, design, and outcomes of student created video assignments at James Madison University. Survey topics included the requirements of the assignment, the course that included the assignment, resources available and/or used to complete the assignment, students’ perceptions of the learning outcomes, as well as non-identifying information about each respondent’s demographics and academic experience at JMU. …

Ethics And Methods Of Human Rights Work: Exploring Both Theoretical And Practical Approaches, Shayna Plaut, Maritza Felices Luna, Christina Clark Kazak, Neil Bilotta, Lara Rosenoff Gauvin

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This workshop will explore both theoretical and practical approaches to methodologies and ethics as it relates to human rights work.

The goal of the workshop is to create a dynamic space that encourages participants to share and learn from our own experiences navigating the messiness of human rights ethics and methods. We specifically address formal education and systems and structures so that we may all design, do and teach research and practice related to human rights in a more critical and sustainable manner. We recognize the tensions of creating research, programs and advocacy that is seen as “legitimate” to educational …

Grassroots Activism In Resolving Intractable Human Rights Problems: Theory And Case Studies From Ghana And Barcelona, Mette Brogden, Phyllis Taoua, Rashid Abubakar Iddrisu, Durado Brooks Jr, Francis M. Abugbilla

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Five presentations comprise this panel discussing grassroots activism in resolving intractable human rights problems. Presenters will provide case studies, theoretical framings, and practical steps to create salutogenic trajectories toward healthy societies and communities where marginalized people can realize human rights and freedoms to attain lives "they have reason to value" (cf. Amartya Sen). The Ghanaian and U.S. presenters include academic researchers, human rights practitioners, and independent artist/filmmakers.

Biafra And The Politics Of Humanitarian Consumption, Chi-Chi Ayalogu

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-70) is overwhelmingly represented by photographs of malnourished, sickly looking and often protein-deficient children, iconic and complex images that encapsulate the narrative of an impoverished black Africa in the western imagination. While these photographs reveal the grievous, inhuman atrocities that took place in Biafra, they have come to be negatively associated with the entirety of black Africa, as they tend to validate inaccurate ideas of homogeneity on the continent. Yet despite their homogenizing effect, Biafran leaders re-appropriated images of suffering for propaganda use, specifically to elicit a humanitarian response and thereby procure aid and resources from denizens …

The Fear And Biopolitical Control Of The ‘Terrorist Other’, Percy Percy Sherwood

Western Research Forum

“I think Islam hates us,” Donald Trump said as a presidential candidate in a CNN interview in March 2016, conflating the religion with ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ Trump’s statement exemplifies the prevailing fabricated enemy and resulting Islamophobia in the context of the ‘global war on terror.’ Since 9/11, powerful actors are using abstractions, ideologies, and narratives—that are usually defined along racial lines—to conjure up a fear so permeable that it serves to legitimize massive levels of violence in the name of self-righteousness. How do the racist abstractions, ideologies, and narratives that are associated with Islam and Muslims produce fear and insecurity …

La Position Préférée De La Femme Francophone, Nathalie Bidwell, Allie Enyon, Ornella Bisamaza

Student Symposium

The representation of women in francophone films is a concern because of the relationship it has with women and their portrayal of characters in film. When reviewing the films, Bataille D’Algiers, Mossane, Règle du Jeu, and Le Genou de Claire, we have found several different portrayals of women that have either challenged or confirmed stereotypes of women in cinema and in their everyday lives. Some of these movies emphasize on characteristics that marginalize women while others portray the importance of women in cinema. Without these women , the story would’ve been changed or would not have had the same effect …

Cinematographic Aspects Of The Francophone Film: The Scale Of Realism To Formalism, Angelo Lozada, David Sickles

Student Symposium

Films can be placed on a formalist-realist scale based upon the style taken upon by filmmakers, whether a film leans toward aesthetic forms over objective subject matter, leans towards replicating objective reality, or is a mixture of both. As film evolved and took shape within the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema, experimental forms of film were produced from the Francophone Film Industry, in both in cinematic aspects of camera techniques and editing. This presentation will discuss two films in particular: La Règle du Jeu by Jean Renoir, and La Bataille d’Alger by Gillo Pontecorvo. Renoir, son of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, …

Owu's First Asian Horror Film Festival, Kaitie Welch

Student Symposium

Under an apprenticeship with Dr. Sokolsky, I planned and hosted Ohio Wesleyan University's first "Asian Horror Film Festival." The project began after the realization that among OWU's various film festivals, which celebrate diversity and differing cultures, there were no East Asian or Asian film festivals to speak of. Together, Dr. Sokolsky and I prepared a course of action and settled on the horror genre. I spent my winter break watching many Asian horror films via Kanopy and narrowed down films from four different Asian countries and territories through a rubric of criteria that I created. The films I selected were …

Producing Independent Film, Sydney Steele

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The job of a Producer is elusive to many people. Their work goes unnoticed by the general population, but they are the back bone of film. They are an integral part of the 5 stages of filmmaking: Development, Pre-Production, Production, Post Production, and Distribution. During my research with the film, Light From Light, I shadowed the producer’s through these stages to get a proper understanding of producing. Even on a low-budget independent film, such as this one, a clever producer navigates most issues to ensure that the director completes his true vision for the story. Independent producing requires more …

Disneyfication And Education, Reagan A Yessler

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Disneyfication in theater means the increase in popularity of Disney plays and the resulting reshaping of modern plays to more resemble those of Walt Disney, in order to gain viewership. In most cases, this means a shift to a musical format featuring upbeat ballads and gaudy but family-friendly costumes. While many theatre elitists frown upon such trends, this project shows how Disneyfication fosters renewed interest and enjoyment in theatre across age groups. A case study of the Knox and Sevier County school systems in Tennessee examines patterns of interest and enjoyment in the nation’s most popular plays via snowball method …

Poetic Realism In "Drive" And "Port Of Shadows", Dylan Possoit

Undergraduate Research Conference

Research Idea: Take a 1930s French Film and a modern American film to examine Poetic Realism

Subverting The Patriarchy And Its Ties To Feminism: Du Maurier And Her Adaptations, Samantha Koller

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper describes the common (mis)reading of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca as upholding Victorian patriarchal values and attempts to demonstrate that the novel is indeed feminist and acts as a critique and subversion of those patriarchal standards; it then examines the film and stage adaptations of Rebecca, demonstrating via comparison to the original medium that feminism has begun to affect other cultural interpretations and depictions of the narrator, Mrs. Danvers, and Rebecca herself.

Parental Absence In Modern Narratives, Mario Avalos

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

The protagonists of most fictional stories are characters whose origins often involve traumatic events that either lead to them wanting to do good in the world or wondering what their purpose really is. In many cases, this event is often something closely related to the central character’s parents. This “parental absence” can and generally does become a defining trait of the protagonist as they progress through life and, more evidently, through the immediate narrative. Considering the prevalence of this trope in television, film, literature, and other popular media, it is important to identify the recurring conflicts characters undergoing “parental absence” …

Musical Artists As Entrepreneurs: Assessing Popular Artists’ Brand Partnerships, Social Media Usage, And Performance Of Identity Politics, Amara Pope

FIMULAW

Today’s popular music artists have the potential power to shape hegemonic ideologies of identity categories across multiple media and industries. This position of power is unique to modern musical artists due to recent changes in the music industry’s business model and the introduction of social media. Record sales have diminished. Labels and artists have adapted in new and creative ways with a heavier reliance on brand partnerships. I wish to fill a gap in the literature that explores how brand partnerships may affect modern musical artists’ performances of identity politics through three case studies: Drake, Post Malone, and Cardi B.

Representations Of Immigration In Québécois Film, Roland R. Buchta

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Québec is a region where national identity plays a particularly important role, mainly due to its social context, and the historical influence of anglophones on the province’s affairs. This element is reflected in its cinematic productions, as Santoro, Bachand, Desroches and Loiselle stated, “Québec cinema is indeed but the most recent example of the Québécois’ ability to translate their cultural specificity into an enduring and increasingly appreciated source of cultural and economic vitality” (161). Santoro et al further claimed that “Québec cinema is indeed a rich and increasingly diversified art form and has taken its place on the world stage …