Digital Commons Network^™

The Hallow, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Hallow (2015) directed by Corin Hardy.

Entertainment, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Entertainment (2015), directed by Rick Alverson.

The 414s, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The 414s: The Original Teenage Hackers (2015), directed by Michael T. Vollmann.

Umrika, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Umrika (2015), directed by Prashant Nair.

Princess, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Princess (2014) directed by Tali Shalom Ezer.

Sundance Film Festival 2015, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is an introduction to our coverage of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Female Pervert, Kristian Petersen

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Film Pervert (2014), directed by Jiyoung Lee.

Partisan, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Partisan (2015), directed by Ariel Kleiman.

The Stanford Prison Experiment, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez.

Tired Moonlight, Kristian Petersen

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Tired Moonlight (2015) directed by Britni West.

Birds Of Neptune, Kristian Petersen

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Birds of Neptune (2015) directed by Stephen Richter.

Completions 2015-16, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

IPEDS Completions

Welcome to the IPEDS Completions survey component. The Completions component is one of several IPEDS components that is conducted during the Fall data collection period. It collects the number of degrees and certificates awarded by field of study, level of award, race/ethnicity, and gender. The reporting period for the Completions component is during the 12-month time period beginning July 1 of the previous calendar year and ending June 30 of the current calendar year; therefore, for this year’s Completions component, the reporting period is between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015. The Completions component is also collecting the number …

Faith Under The Fedora: Indiana Jones And The Heroic Journey Towards God, Chris Yogerst

Journal of Religion & Film

This essay explores how the original Indiana Jones trilogy (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade) work as a single journey towards faith. In the first film, Indy fully rejects religion and by the third film he accepts God. How does this happen? Indy takes a journey by exploring archeology, mythology, and theology that is best exemplified by Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Like many people who come to find faith, it does not occur overnight. Indy takes a similar path, using his career and adventurer status …

Cloud Atlas’ Queer Tiki Kitsch: Polynesians, Settler Colonialism, And Sci-Fi Film, Gabriel S. Estrada

Journal of Religion & Film

Polynesian theories of film reception, visual sovereignty, feminisms, and worldview offer critical insights into The Wachowskis' and Tykwer's 2012 film Cloud Atlas. From Indigenous and Native feminist film perspectives, Cloud Atlas offers a sci-fi future deeply entrenched in the queer tiki kitsch of settler colonialism as situated within a comparative context of other queer Indigenous film. As an example of heteropatriarchal settler colonialism, the Cloud Atlas plot supports the heterosexual triumphs of cross-racial couples and sublimates the possibilities of transgender reincarnation. Although Cloud Atlas attempts to critique Christian slavery and defend a secular abolitionist stance in the 1848 South Pacific, …

The Wolf Of Wall Street, Daniel Ross Goodman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), directed by Martin Scorsese.

Plato's Watermelon: Art And Illusion In The Brothers Bloom, David L. Smith

Journal of Religion & Film

Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom is a sophisticated film about storytelling, pitting the idea that stories are an enhancement of life against the suspicion that stories are a deception. Set in a world of con artistry and illusion, it raises issues similar to those introduced in Plato’s allegory of the cave and in the critique of religion as illusion. Specifically, it follows one character’s desire for an “unwritten life”—a life free from artifice—through various logical and interpersonal challenges, and ends with a profound meditation on the coinherence of faith and skepticism.

Interview With Edet Belzberg, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a summary of an interview with Edet Belzberg, director of Watchers of the Sky.

The Green Prince, Rubina Ramji, Jodi Mcdavid

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Green Prince (2013), directed by Nadav Schirman.

Song One, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Song One (2014), directed by Kate Barker-Froyland.

What We Do In The Shadows, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of What We Do in the Shadows (2013), directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.

Watchers Of The Sky, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Watchers of the Sky (2014), directed by Edet Belzberg.

The Babadook, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Babadook (2013), directed by Jennifer Kent.

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Rubina Ramji

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (2014), directed by David Zellner.

Completions 2014-2015, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

IPEDS Completions

IPEDS Completions annual report contains the following information:

• Number of awards conferred by program, by level, and by race/ethnicity and gender of recipient
• Number of completers, separately by race/ethnicity, gender, age and level of award

Cloud Atlas, Ting Guo

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Cloud Atlas (2012) which aims to address what constitutes the reasons for the success of this film and the humanistic theme in which they are rooted, despite the seemingly Buddhist philosophy such as reincarnation this film embodies.

Of Men, Roles And Rules: Nanni Moretti’S Habemus Papam, Davide Zordan

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper focuses on Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam and in particular on its representation of the interaction between religion and masculinity. In the light of gender studies, it asks which idea of masculinity, but also of fatherhood, Catholicism and its system of authority tend to encourage according to the film, and it assesses the opportunities for change that the film imaginatively explores. The analysis of the idea of masculinity investigates in particular the distinction between person and office, the necessity of which is dramatically illustrated in the film.

Exploring Orthodox Jewish Masculinities With Eyes Wide Open, Stefanie Knauss

Journal of Religion & Film

Eyes Wide Open (Einayim Petukhoth), Haim Tabakman’s 2009 feature debut, explores the masculinity of strictly Orthodox Jewish men, carefully noting the various practices that shape it – work, religion, clothes, family, social context and community, sexual desire –, but also the fissures that emerge in their performances. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of the performativity of gender practices and R.W. Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, this paper argues that the film explores the practices through which Haredi masculinity is performatively established, but it also shows that this hegemonic masculinity is never perfectly embodied by any man. It is …

Fire, Water And The Goddess: The Films Of Deepa Mehta And Satyajit Ray As Critiques Of Hindu Patriarchy, David F. Burton

Journal of Religion & Film

This article focuses on Fire (1996) and Water (2005), two films directed by Deepa Mehta that present patriarchal Hindu attitudes to women and sexuality as in need of reform. Mehta’s films have met with hostility from Hindu conservatives and have also been accused of Orientalist misrepresentations. While these objections highlight the contested nature of “authentic” Hindu identity, Fire and Water remain powerful indictments of male hegemony in Hinduism. Mehta has cited Satyajit Ray as a major influence on her work; there are interesting parallels between Mehta’s films and Ray’s film Devi (The Goddess, 1960), which explores the plight …

Christians In The Movies: A Century Of Saints And Sinners, Bryan Polk

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Peter Dans' Christians in the Movies: A Century of Saints and Sinners (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009).

Jerusalem Obscured: The Crescent On The Temple: The Dome Of The Rock As Image Of The Ancient Jewish Sanctuary, Curtis Hutt

International Dialogue

To begin with, what is it? In order to answer this question one must, of course, qualify it by asking—to whom? Pamela Berger in The Crescent on the Temple: The Dome of the Rock as Image of the Ancient Jewish Sanctuary has done a great service by supplying us with a history of the iconographic representation of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock (the Qubbat al-Sakhrah). While no publication could ever exhaustively summarize the countless visual and literary portrayals of this world heritage site, Berger not only makes a valiant attempt at such but necessarily changes the way that almost all …