Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Trokas Duras, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Trokas Duras (2025), directed by Jazmin Garcia.

Death Education, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Death Education (2025), directed by Yuxon Ethan Wu.

Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting (2025) directed by Alex Thompson.

Paradise Man (Ii), William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Paradise Man (II) (2025), directed by Jordan Michael Blake.

Last Days, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Last Days (2024) directed by Justin Lin.

The Things You Kill, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Things You Kill (2024), directed by Alireza Khatami.

Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) (2025), directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade.

Luz, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of LUZ (2024), directed by Flora Lau.

Khartoum, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Khartoum (2025), directed by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M. Ahmed, and Phil Cox.

Endless Cookie, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Endless Cookie (2025), directed by Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver.

Cutting Through Rocks, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Cutting Through Rocks (2025), directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni.

Dj Ahmet, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of DJ Ahmet (2025), directed by Georgi M. Unkovski.

Atropia, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Atropia (2025), directed by Hailey Gates.

Streaming Media Platforms And Film/Video Arts Distribution, Aras Ozgun, Andreas Treske

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Streaming media platforms have emerged as new and natively digital forms of content delivery for mainstream news and entertainment media over the past decades. Underlying technologies also unfold new possibilities for the circulation artistic/creative digital video works. Yet, such potential remains relatively underexplored, due to the complexities involved in the public distribution of such works. In this study, we analyze these complexities and critically evaluate emerging models, such as open access streaming media platforms, subscription-based platforms, and cryptocurrency and NFT-based platforms that feature new administrative forms and governance strategies. We finally discuss the possible roles of traditional public cultural institutions …

The Kindle Ecosystem Of Overconsumption: The Digital Flâneuse Roaming Booktok E-Spaces, Valeria Baltodano

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The development of a community and culture around reading on the social media platform has afforded women new avenues for empowerment through their earning and spending power. A tool wielded often in this mobile space, Amazon’s Kindle device has reached a new height of popularity thanks to the women in the bookish community of TikTok. This paper employs Anne Friedberg’s concept of the flâneuse in relation to the limitation of women’s empowerment through the commodification and aestheticization of reading on TikTok. It demonstrates how the Kindle has become the locus for a culture of overconsumption through which these women exercise …

Where The Wind Comes From, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Where the Wind Comes From (2025), directed by Amel Guellaty.

Deuce Redemption: Grindhouse Cinema, Moral Panic, And Urban Renewal, Robert Brenner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

If you consult standard histories of the “redevelopment” of 42^nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue, AKA “the Deuce,” you will read that it was filled with nothing but criminals and pornographers, that decent people avoided it at all costs, and the only way the block could be “saved” was by seizing it via eminent domain, evicting all the current tenants, and replacing them with Disney and its fellow entertainment corporations.

The purpose of this thesis is to offer a more nuanced alternative to these standard histories. I will argue that the Deuce was a lower-class, multiracial, queer entertainment …

A Historical Analysis Of Saturday Night Live's Engagement In American Presidential Politics, Isabel Fox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In October 1975, Saturday Night Live began its journey of changing not only television but the ways in which Americans understand political discourse. When the production first aired it introduced the world to Chevy Chase’s Nixon impersonation and has continued that tradition with Will Ferrel’s George Bush, Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump—and many more. But between these comedic impersonations the show also introduced the world to a satirical newsroom in Weekend Update and hosted numerous politicians. From the way this all sounds it would seem as though Saturday Night Live is akin to network news and yet …

Inherited Wounds: Generational Trauma In Postcolonial Film And Narrative Fiction Of The Global South, Sabrina Testi Melgarejo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The theorization of trauma in literary studies emerged in the 1990s, evolving from its physiological origins to a multidisciplinary framework encompassing literature, psychology, and history. However, classical trauma theory, rooted in Western scholarship and focused on singular traumatic events, has been criticized for its limitations in addressing collective and ongoing trauma in non-Western contexts. This thesis responds to a call for a more inclusive approach to trauma studies, examining how multi-generational and cultural trauma is represented in non-Western postcolonial films and literature from the Global South, including works from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, Vietnam, and Lebanon.

The …

Destabilizing The Nuyorican: Rivera’S Women And Nuyorican Cinema, Judith R. Escalona

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rivera’s Women, the Capstone, is a TV segment I produced for the CUNY-TV show Latinas that first aired June 27, 2023 (Pride). It grew out of an hour-long interview I conducted with playwright and screenwriter José Rivera as part of my research on Nuyorican Cinema, the films of the Puerto Rican Diaspora.

An unknown part of U.S. independent cinema, these diasporic films destabilize the way independent films continue to be categorized through gender, race, ethnicity, and language. Using the Capstone as a guide, I examine two of Rivera’s recent screen works that situate him within Nuyorican Cinema because of his …