Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Construction Of Character And Authenticity On Rupaul’S Drag Race, Carli Pickett

University Honors Theses

One of the most common instructions delivered to the drag queens competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race is to show their “true self.” At first glance, RuPaul’s Drag Race foregrounds authenticity and individuality, but it does so through a constructed lens that shapes its contestants into characters. While storylines and characterizations on the show are necessarily informed by the queen’s actions, they are heavily shaped by editing. In this essay, I will be exploring the ways in which authenticity manifests itself throughout several seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Each episode of Season Seven, Eight and Nine was watched with special attention …

Trial By Rat Infestation, Elias M. Lunsford

University Honors Theses

Wanna make a rat movie?! From Ashton Livingston handing me his script in class to a week of December night shoots, his vision for a 1980s-inspired horror comedy called Rat Problem was a joy of a challenge for me to take on as his cinematographer. Watching reference films, renting and borrowing equipment, and managing the crew all culminated in creating this film's unique vintage-inspired ultra-wide and high-contrast aesthetic. The process of making this film, from equipment technicalities to creative problem-solving, forged my values as a creative collaborator. I learned to always protect the essence of the film as campy and …

Tea Leaves And Other Stories: Expressing Themes Of Change And Loss Through The Magical Realist Style, Olivia Geist

University Honors Theses

"Tea Leaves and Other Stories" is a collection of "tiny" (1 - 2 page) film scripts and one longer, seven page script that study how themes of change and loss can be expressed through the magical realist style. Inspired by Isabel Allende's essay, "The Short Story", these scripts are both a study of magical realism in film as well as a reflection on the author's process as a writer and the themes present within her work.

To Surpass Convention, Alexander James Odom

University Honors Theses

Something that I struggle with when engaged in creative writing, just as every other writer has struggled with the same issue, is how my stories differ from those written before. It’s difficult to create something that is entirely new, because, as artists, we always fall back on what we know has worked in the past. This uncertainty of unique creativity is what my thesis stems from. I am in the process of writing a fantasy script, but I struggle with originality. I can’t help but compare my fantasy story to the fantasy stories of the past. I want to be …

Book Review Of, K-Pop Dance: Fandoming Yourself On Social Media, Jungmin Kwon

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book Review:

Chuyun Oh, K-pop Dance: Fandoming Yourself on Social Media, New York, NY: Routledge, 2022, 194 pp., $52.95 (paperback).

The Allegory Of United States Settlers V. Native Americans In Wes Craven's The Hills Haves Eyes (1977), Blue Van Alst

University Honors Theses

The year 1977 saw the release of Wes Craven’s second major production, The Hills Have Eyes. A film that sits within a filmic library of Craven that works to use the horror genre to reflect on and critique the American society that he lived in. The Hills Have Eyes employs the stereotypes that the films of John Ford helped to solidify in U.S. society. He does this in order to explore the tense historical relationships between Indigenous and United States settlers during the time of westward expansion. Using the white middle class Carter family to serve as settlers, and …

Hemingway In Hollywood: From Page To Screen, Hayden Hendricks

University Honors Theses

Little attention has been paid to how film adaptations affected Hemingway’s popular reputation (and vice versa). This thesis traces Hemingway's celebrity through the case studies A Farewell to Arms (1932), The Killers (1946), and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). It details their production histories, analyzes the changes made from page to screen, and discusses the contextual motivations behind such divergences. Finally, it considers the ways in which the filmmakers adapted texts of different lengths to fit feature length runtimes and, in doing so, found cinematic equivalences of literary form.

"It's Not The Same Anymore" (2023): A Reflection On The Creative Process Behind My Queer Coming-Of-Age Short Film, Olivia Lee

University Honors Theses

"It's Not The Same Anymore" stands as a poignant queer coming-of-age short film crafted by individuals who share the queer experience, with the intention of resonating deeply with the queer community. The narrative intimately captures the journey of a young queer woman as she navigates the realms of love, heartbreak, and the quest for self-discovery. Amidst a media landscape that frequently falls short in its representation of LGBTQ+ voices and authentic lived experiences, this film aspires to bridge the gap and bring forth a much-needed sense of belonging and recognition.

A link to the short film can be found here: …

Colonialism's Creation Of Machismo And Its Influence On Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault: A Film Analysis Of Telenovela Dv/Sa Anthologies, Yoselin Aguirre Perez

University Honors Theses

Using Lothar Mikos' (2014) content analysis framework, this thesis uses a Xicana feminist epistemology to conduct a film analysis on telenovela anthologies Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real (1986-2007) and Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres (2001-today). The impact that harmful depictions of domestic violence and sexual assault, and their foundations in colonialism, is discussed throughout my writing. The cynical and racist implications that problematic portrayals of domestic violence and sexual assault within the Latinx community is analyzed. This thesis claims that popular media, while attempting to bring awareness to these sensitive and life-threatening issues, have perpetuated a culture of recrimination …

Lights, Camera, Climate Action: Investigating Emotional Responses To Climate Change Trailers (Documentary, Television, & Narrative Film), Erik Daniel Schell Devore

University Honors Theses

This research examined the emotional responses elicited by different genres of environmental visual media (VM) trailers. Six undergraduate Environmental Science and Management student participants self-selected to watch trailers from three different genres of VM: a documentary film, a television series, and a narrative film. The goal of this research was to understand the extent people become aware of various environmental VM topics, how VM elicits emotional responses, the effectiveness of VM in promoting action, and to gain a better understanding of how producers and directors can potentially modify VM to have a greater impact on changing participants' attitudes toward climate …

Pathos, Spring 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Stephanie Gresham

Kurdish Filmmaking In Turkey: History And Narratives, Omar Sadik

Dissertations and Theses

This research investigates the history and politics of cultural production by examining Kurdish filmmaking in Turkey. Sadik provide an analysis of contemporary films and filmmakers to explore how Kurdish cinema in Turkey is situated in broader, global political-economic structures. By examining this important case through the lens of history and memory, Sadik clarify how production and aesthetics in Kurdish cinema point to important systemic processes. Sadik uses three main research strategies in this study: a historical survey of Kurds in Turkey, an analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with contemporary Kurdish directors and an analysis of films directed by Kurdish filmmakers …

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Understanding The Value In Producing Film Adaptations And Movie Franchises, Courtney Mcdonald

University Honors Theses

The business of making movies is not an easy one; in an industry where very few see financial success, risk aversion often takes the wheel. In order to combat the immense amount of uncertainty, existing research has attempted to establish factors of film success, including actor star power and reviews. However, statistical studies evaluating these factors have produced consistently inconclusive results. To approach this idea from another perspective, this paper investigates two specific areas of film—movie adaptations and film franchises—that contain valuable properties not always as explicitly connected to box office results. While many movies are referenced, two film franchises …

Theorizing The Korean Wave| K(Q)Ueer-Pop For Another World: Toward A Theorization Of Gender And Sexuality In K-Pop, Jungmin Kwon

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article argues that the K-pop space, which on one level appears to be homogeneously cishetpatriarchal, actually encompasses multiple configurations of gender and sexual identity. Nonetheless, academic discussions about gender and sexuality in K-pop have been significantly weighted toward the idea of “soft masculinity” regarding male performers, thereby muffling other possible interpretations. I suggest a new term, K(Q)ueerness. It means the aesthetics, imaginations, practices, performances, and ideas of K-pop players sublate binaristic identifications, including masculinity and femininity and heterosexual and homosexual—as well as Butler’s distinction between performance and performativity—to embrace the multifarious expressions of gender and sexuality surrounding K-pop. This …

Pathos, Winter 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Sings Which Story?: Narrative Production And Race In The Curriculum Of Film Musicals, Joanna Batt, Michael Joseph

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Film musicals serve as a tool to infuse historical and cultural content into social studies curricula towards greater student engagement—for example, Lin Manuel-Miranda's Hamilton has become a celebrated classroom piece due to its ability to blend history with hip-hop and pop culture. Yet beyond language and content scans, teachers rarely examine or utilize musicals for how their narratives (mis)represent racial communities. This critical film analysis of three film musicals, using the theoretical framework of history production, reveals themes of historical morality, romantic relationship and race, and implicit/explicit racial messaging. Although troubling in their overall contribution to racial projects, film musicals …

Pathos, Fall 2022, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

A New Studio Era: How Netflix Is Becoming A Threat To The Film Industry, Al Kasper

University Honors Theses

Movie streaming services have become an increasingly popular distribution method due to their widespread accessibility to film content across the globe. Netflix is the biggest competitor of movie streaming services and has led the charge in creating original content for its customers. With many of these streaming services creating their own content, both Hollywood and independent studios are being introduced to a new competitor in their market: studios that stream their own content. While this may seem to be an issue only within the industry, there are concerns about another oligarchy of studios being created out of these streaming services …

"Untitled Screenplay", Mailyn Salazar Jiménez

University Honors Theses

A young woman moves to Mexico in an attempt to change her mundane and monotonous life.

Stillness And Motion On The Coffee Table: Photochemical Motion Pictures In Gilded Age Periodical, Amy E. Borden

School of Film Faculty Publications and Presentations

My research suggests that in addition to local practices, American film historians should continue to be attentive to mass experiences determined not only by location but, in this case, by 19th century periodical reading habits. I focus on the first four years of US public photochemical motion picture exhibition to consider the similarities I found in the use of still photographs to explain and introduce the machines and development processes used to introduce photochemical motion pictures to middle-class reading publics, effectively inviting readers to mentally animate the images themselves in imitatiion of a screening apparatus. I argue that the use …

Film History Digests, Nathan A. Varner

Student Research Symposium

Film History Digests is a web series created by Nathan Varner and chronicled popular culture's smaller and underrepresented parts. This project showcased collaboration, innovation, consistency, and determination for a small team. In return, we uncovered the decades-long mystery, shined a light on mental health, and provided a subtext of non-partisan political discourse all over a year.

Contributing To A Richer View Of Korean Queer Popular Culture With Jungmin Kwon, Jungmin Kwon

PDXPLORES Podcast

Jungmin Kwon is an associate professor of film and digital culture. Kwon studies film and digital media through a lens of queer and feminist perspectives, focusing on how non-normative identities challenge and disrupt existing hierarchies in Korean culture.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

Interwar Weimar Film And Masculinity: Challenging The Presumed Crisis Of Interwar German Gender Discourse From Selected Films From 1925-1931, Brandon Metcalf

Dissertations and Theses

The First World War altered the view of masculinity held by many in Germany and shredded what many regarded as unchangeable fixtures of German life. For German men, much of the interwar period meant dealing with the losses from the war, reconfiguring what it meant to be a man. This reconfiguration of gender took place in a context of change in Germany. Many women entered the workforce to replace the lost men. The economic downturn and reliance on funding from the United States motivated many within Germany to examine gender roles and to reassemble masculinity to meet changing circumstances.

This …

Pathos, Spring 2022, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

Partizan: Separating The Human From Propaganda With Film, Raymond Hill

University Honors Theses

The relative protection Americans have for freedom of expression can allow stories to be told that would not be able to be told elsewhere. However, telling a story that does not belong to the storyteller and represents people of a different culture or nation can problematize the retelling of events and its perspective. The long-standing rivalry between United States and Russia complicates the matter further, making it difficult to find American film relating to Russia without the inclusion of propaganda and uneducated assumptions in film. Despite these issues, authentic storytelling can provide an informative view of events that the average …

Pathos, Fall 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

"Memories Of A Family" (2021): A Reflection On My Process As An Interviewer And Filmmaker, Kyle Day

University Honors Theses

"Memories of a Family" is a short essay film that communicates the complicated dynamic between personal and familial memory. With an experimental approach in editing, Kyle Day uses his family's home videos as a materialized form of familial memory that he deconstructs and reconstructs based on his and his family members' personal memories and subjective views of the family.

"The Caucasian Persuasion Here In The 'Dale": Othering, White Normality, And Post-Racialism In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Isaiah Lee

University Honors Theses

This thesis engages the construction of race within the television landscape of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to investigate how well-meaning, progressive media either reinvents or repudiates racial stereotype. This paper also examines the figure of the Other, as it is evoked in horror, and utilizes Hazel Carby's conception of the fantasized black subject to analyze the setting and characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with an eye towards the inherent assumptions the show makes about race. Ultimately, I argue that Buffy's representation of race assumes a white normality, flattening its non-white characters under the guise of inherent difference, even …

Situating Hiv/Aids Humanitarian Film In The National Cinema Culture Of Mozambique: Historical, Contemporary And Feminist Perspectives, Sebastián Andrés Suárez Hode

University Honors Theses

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mozambique has enabled a new wave of humanitarian cinema to develop as it seeks to educate and empower a population that has been adversely affected by the epidemic. Colonial-era patriarchal systems that persist have resulted in Mozambican women being disproportionately impacted by the virus, and humanitarian projects in turn use film as a vehicle for the exploration of Mozambican women’s subjectivities. Thus, these films have made for an especially feminist reconditioning of Mozambican national cinema culture. This essay will explore HIV/AIDS humanitarian cinema’s place within the larger discourse of Mozambican national cinema and will demonstrate how …

The La Uprising On Camera: The Changing Mediascape And Its Influence On Conceptions Of Race And Poverty, Neave Carroll

Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference

Using the LA Riots as a case study, this paper examines the impact broadcast journalism had on electoral politics in America by deconstructing the media discourse surrounding the event and reviewing the electorate’s response. Mainstream network broadcast transcriptions and archival footage represent the bulk of source material used. These sources suggest changes in journalistic methods, such as the adoption of the 24-hour news cycle and sensationalist reporting, as well as new technologies like the camcorder which led to the advent of eyewitness reporting, coalesced to influence politics in 1992. Urban crime was linked to an ailing economy, encouraging politicians to …