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Student Film Festival 2015 Playbill, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Angell Blackfriars Theatre

Student Film Festival 2015

Films by current Providence College Students

Thursday, April 30

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, Ben Sweeney

COMPETING FILMS:

MICHELLE PICCOLINO '17, OCD: Obsessive Coffee Disorder

VERONICA MURPHY ‘17, MICHELLE PICCOLINO ‘17, BLAINE PAYER ‘18, TIM MOYNIHAN ‘18, The Making of Brokeback Mountain: the Musical

KATELYN SUDLIK '16, Learning Curve

NEAL MERCIER '15, Stupid Keys

VERONICA MURPHY '17, Be Mine

STEFAN PUENTE '17, Newbury Street

NEAL MERCIER '15, Amaryllis

JURY DELIBERATIONS:

MELISSA BRIAN '16, Morph

DANIEL CAPLIN ‘14, TAYLOR ROSENBAUER ‘14, JUSTIN KANKA ‘14, MARC CAPRIO ‘14, Good Hosts …

Providence College Student Film Festival 2015 Comment Sheet, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Providence College Student Film Festival 2015 comment sheet

A Content Analysis Of The Mpaa Rating System And Its Evolution, Cesar A. Perez

Honors College Theses

This thesis analyzes the content within PG-13 and R-rated films from 1984, 1994, 2004, and 2014 to determine if there is any indication of ratings creep. Ratings creep is a term used to describe the increase of adult content in movies; especially in movies aimed at a younger audience. The film industry since the beginning has had to adapt to an ever-changing society. From small silent pictures to big-budget digital productions the film industry has evolved into what it is today, a statement of freedom of expression. It is this freedom of expression, however, that has placed the industry in …

“I Love Lucy” Gender Analysis And Its Influence On Popularity And Longevity, Brianna Knoll

Scholarly and Creative Works Conference (2015 - 2021)

This thesis takes an analytical approach to examine the television show I Love Lucy. The contributing factors to the show’s continued success are considered, including Lucille Ball’s comedic style, domesticity and the role of housewives, marital relations, pregnancy on television, and the larger gender representations with a subtopic of social norms. Upon studying the above aspects of I Love Lucy, it is clear that each topic played an essential role in the success of the show. Ball’s comedic style combined with her portrayal of a 1950s housewife, and the social norms that she and her co-stars broke through …

Formalism Exemplified In The Wolf Of Wall Street, Jillian S. Mccafferty

Cinesthesia

In an essay titled “Film and Reality” formative film theorist Rudolph Arnheim poses a list of "limitations" that a film must adhere to in order to be considered art. "Formalism Exemplified in The Wolf of Wall Street" uses the lens of formative theory to examine Martin Scorsese's sprawling 2013 masterpiece to determine whether or not the film adheres to Arnheim's theory and can be considered film art.

Egyptian Film And Feminism: Egypt’S View Of Women Through Cinema, Wesley D. Buskirk

Cinesthesia

This essay analyzes the history of Egyptian film in relationship to the common perception of women in Egypt. From the early stages of Egyptian cinema, women assumed leadership positions, helping build the undeveloped industry to its height in the mid-1900's. An increasingly state-led and male-dominated film industry, however, adopted women as a symbol of nationalism, while neglecting them as equals through traditionalist film content. Furthermore, in the last quarter of the 20th century, governmental influences resulted in a shortage of production resources. Although commercial motion pictures suffered, social-issue, realist movies have reignited feminist initiatives and provided hope for a recovering …

That’S Why I’M Lonely: Ideology Of The Absurd, Jeremy D. Knickerbocker

Cinesthesia

Ideological film theory is enjoying somewhat of a resurgence in contemporary film criticism. Most notably, filmmaker Sophie Fiennes' recent collaborations with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012). In this essay I attempt to grapple with Harmony Korine's delightfully enigmatic and underrated masterpiece Mister Lonely (2007) through the methodological lens of Ideological film theory. I doing so, I seek to provide insights on the complex nature of ideological categories and the necessity of a more nuanced approach to ideological analysis.

Nollywood: Rooted In Yoruba, A. Evan Kresta

Cinesthesia

No abstract provided.

Malibu Jackson 3: Boldest Move Yet - A Study Of Screenwriting, Parody, And Mullet-Clad Action Heroes, Caleb D. Nelson

Senior Honors Theses

This project is a parody short film script, targeting blockbuster action films of the 1980s. It is written in accordance with the traditional three-act structure of screenplays, which plays an important role in the writing arena of the film industry. It is a comedy, the theory of which is discussed in this paper, and more specifically parody. Like most short films and their scripts, it does not seek to be profitable, but rather serves the purpose of demonstrating skill and achievement on behalf of the screenwriter and filmmaker. This paper also includes a brief synopsis of the project.

Jewish Games For Learning: Renewing Heritage Traditions In The Digital Age, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Rather than a discontinuity from traditional modes of learning, new explorations of digital and strategic games in Jewish learning are markedly continuous with ancient practices. An explication of the close connections between traditional modes of Jewish learning, interpretive practice, and gaming culture can help to explain how Jews of the Digital Age can adopt and are adapting modern Games for Learning practices for contemporary purposes. The chapter opens by contextualizing a notion of Jewish Games and the field of Games for Learning. Next, the chapter explains the connections between game systems and Jewish traditions. It closes with a case study …

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.

Life Itself, Daniel Ross Goodman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of the movie "Life Itself" (2014), Steve James' documentary about the life of film critic Roger Ebert.

Victor And Vanquished: American And German Cinematic Depictions Of Wwii, Rashad Butler

Whittier Scholars Program

This project examines historical films as outlets to teach and inform as well as depict the horrors of war to a mass audience. This study compared American films which tend to focus on individuals to German films which focus on a more collective narrative, both in regards to WWII. This project includes contextual information of World War II as well as strategies used by filmmakers and directors with content portrayal. This project concludes analysis of films such as Monuments Men and Saving Private Ryan to demonstrate use of context, perspective and screenplay.

The Movie Mogul, Moses And Muslims: Islamic Elements In Cecil B. Demille’S The Ten Commandments (1956), Michael D. Calabria Ofm

Journal of Religion & Film

Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 film, The Ten Commandments, has come to define the genre of the biblical epic. It has earned a permanent place in American culture due to its annual airing on television during the Easter and Passover holidays. Most viewers are unaware, however, that DeMille had sought to make a film that would appeal to Jews, Christians and Muslims at a time when their common Abrahamic ancestry had yet to be articulated, and interreligious dialogue was all but unheard of. To this end, Henry Noerdlinger, DeMille’s researcher for the film, consulted the Qur’an, and screenwriters incorporated Islamic …

Documentary As Exorcism: Resisting The Bewitchment Of Colonial Christianity, Michael Broyles

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Documentary as Exorcism: Resisting the Bewitchment of Colonial Christianity by Robert Beckford.

Der Skandinavische Horrorfilm. Kultur- Und Ästhetikgeschichtliche Perspektiven (The Scandinavian Horror Film. Cultural Historical And Aesthetical Historical Perspectives), Christiane Königstedt

Journal of Religion & Film

In this book review I discuss a recently published anthology on "The Scandinavian Horror film". The authors are well aware that the existence of this genre is not to be taken for granted, and instead ponder films by directors ranging from Carl T. Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman to Lars von Trier and beyond, who in their work dealt with horrorful sensations in the past 120 years. Focussing especially on the sources and means of the horror sensation, the anthology investigates the characteristics and common features of the films in discussion, as well as their US-American adaptations.

An Evil Threat To Marriage, Children And The Future: Queer Theory, "The Passion Of The Christ," And Evangelical Political Rhetoric, Richard Wolff

Journal of Religion & Film

This article employs queer theory to analyze Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ (2004) for its portrayal of queer characters (Satan and Herod) in contrast with non-queer (Pilate and Claudia, Seraphia, Simon the Cyrene, and Mary, Christ’s mother), and how it depicts the former as evil and the latter as good. In particular, these contrasts involve self-indulgent or predatory sexual expression versus a healthy marital relationship, and evil versus loving influences over children, who represent hope for the future. Finally, the article looks at the film’s heavy marketing to American evangelicals and how the symbolic representations in the …

Personal Identity And Angelic Touch In Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire, Chris Venner

Journal of Religion & Film

Wenders' Wings of Desire offers a rich tapestry for theorists of personal identity and its relationship to the Other. Set in a Berlin where angels walk among humans, it depicts those angels reorienting humans' lives with but a touch. Martin Heidegger and Gilles Deleuze also theorize the Other's touch as central to any change in the self. Bringing Wenders' film into dialogue with their theories offers new insights into the film's central question, “Why am I me and not you?”

The Binding Of Abraham: Inverting The Akedah In Fail-Safe And Wargames, Hunter B. Dukes

Journal of Religion & Film

This article draws upon Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Jacques Derrida's The Gift of Death to trace how two exemplars of atomic bomb cinema reinterpret the Binding of Isaac (Akedah). Released during the twin peaks of Cold War tension, Fail-Safe (1964) and WarGames (1983) invert the Akedah of Genesis 22. In both films, an act of sacrificial patricide accompanies or replaces the sacrifice of an Isaac-like son. When viewed in the context of Cold War cultural politics—events such as Norman Morrison’s Abrahamic self-immolation and Kent State’s rejection of George Segal’s sacrificial memorial— the inverted Akedah emerges as …

Undoing The Claim Of Objectivity: Contradictions At The Heart Of Bergtji Van Der Haak, Saudi Solutions (2005), Anisa Saeed Mohammed Nasser

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper is a study of Bergtji van der Haak, Saudi Solutions (2005). It attempts to question Bergtji van der Haak’s claim of “objective” depiction of Saudi women’s “reality,” as well as the claim of portraying Saudi women through their perspectives as stated in the opening scene. The premise is that the editing strives to undercut the very views of the women that the film is claiming to present, and in the process it duplicates some of the very mechanisms of oppression that the film is denouncing. The documentary’s attempt at ‘subalternizing’ and diminishing Saudi women discloses the subjectivity of …