American Film Studies Commons^™

Movie And Television Fathers: A Positive Reflection Of Positive Changes, George J. Mcgowan

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Certain films and television programs depicting fathers have both enduring popularity and have reflected the advances in the institution of fatherhood. This has happened because of a symbiosis that has delivered positive results: popular films and television shows that earn money for producers and advertisers have depicted fathers who have changed to reflect the popular example. These depictions have contributed in their way to mending the family dynamic, specifically related to the father’s essential role in the family. Such family-oriented films and television shows have effectively showed fathers (and men that would become fathers) that they could be much more …

From The Struggle To Liberation: A Critical Analysis Of The Film The Color Purple, Rebecca Matlock

Undergraduate Research Conference

This paper critiques and analyzes The Color Purple movie. The Color Purple movie released in 1985 is based on the 16982 novel written by author Alice Walker (Jones & Spielberg, 1985). The movie sheds light on he struggles that African American females faced as their reality in the 1930s. This paper begins with a brief overview of the movie discussing the context of the movie. The paper then discusses four intercultural concepts that is significantly related to the movie. The four concepts are: cultural norms, identity, self-awareness, and discrimination. From an intercultural communication view, the movie impacts, viewers by making …

Sources: Movies In American History: An Encyclopedia (Review), Robin Imhof

University Libraries Librarian and Staff Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Study Guide For United In Anger: A History Of Act Up, Matt Brim

Open Educational Resources

The United in Anger Study Guide facilitates classroom and activist engagement with Jim Hubbard’s 2012 documentary, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. The Study Guide contains discussion sections, projects and exercises, and resources for further research about the activism of the New York chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). The Study Guide is a free, interactive, multimedia resource for understanding the legacy of ACT UP, the film’s role in preserving that legacy, and its meaning for viewers' lives.

Pop Culture, Politics, And America's Favorite Animated Family: Partisan Bias In The Simpsons?, Kenneth Michael White, Mirya Holman

Faculty Articles

An essay is presented on the impact of the political content of the television program "The Simpsons" on the politics, pop culture and viewers in the U.S. It offers an overview of the creation of the show and explores the different aspects of the show, particularly the debate over its so-called partisan bias. It also discusses the criticism from Republicans including former President George H. W. Bush that the show favors the left.

The Hours – A Film To Enhance Teaching Psychology, Christina J. Taylor

Psychology Faculty Publications

Hollywood films provide a rich and engaging means for teaching students about psychological topics. The Hours is an especially noteworthy film because of the wide range of psychological issues touched upon, including mental illness, gender roles, families, chronic illness, bereavement, caregiving, sexuality, and sexual orientation. Analysis of the film in this paper provides instructors of courses in psychology, social work, nursing, medicine, women's studies, and related courses, with suggestions for how this compelling film can help students develop in their understanding of human psychology. Demonstrates the pedagogical value of using the feature film to learn about psychological topics, and its …

A History Of The American Film Institute, Deborah Jae Alexander

Dissertations

The American Film Institute (AFI) is a highly politicized, powerful organization. To date, most historical documentation and recording of AFI events and activities has been disseminated to the mass media from within the organization through its own publications or in other historical documentation as incidental history in relation to another topic. This dissertation, written as an overview, is the first comprehensive, independent historical examination of the AFI. The examination begins with an exploration of the development, activities and decline of the American Council on Education‟s original AFI and other film organizations that existed prior to the present day AFI. It …

Film Review: Masculinity & Interracial Intimacy In 'Star Trek' And 'Gran Torino', Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

Race has long been a central object of political reflection. The salience of racial difference remains hotly debated, figuring in both “utopian” and “dystopian” visions of America’s political future. If race is a primary configuration of “difference” and inequality in the nation, then intimacy between the races is often construed as either a bellwether of equality and political utopia or a re-inscribing of political dominance, typically represented as sexual predation by men against women. Quite expectedly, these political fantasies and fears are often played out at the multiplex, and we can see them in stark relief in two recent films …

Peach, Jewell (Fa 355), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 355. Paper: "Folklore in Film" written by Jewell Peach for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Balancing Rosie And June: A Study Of Lynchburg College Postwar Alumnae And The Impact Of The Feminine Mystique, Dinah Watson

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In 2003, the movie Mona Lisa Smile debuted describing the frustrations that many college women may have faced in the years after World War II. Wellesley College was the elite all-female institution that openly and proudly prepared its young women with the proper rules of etiquette and correctness. Despite Wellesley’s own excellent academic reputation, its close proximity to the prestigious single-sex male college, Harvard, made it even more appealing and convenient for the Wellesley girls to find a “suitable” husband. The novice young art instructor, Katherine Watson, was unique in that she wanted to offer her students not only a …

Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film As Vernacular Culture, Sharon R. Sherman, Mikel J. Koven

All USU Press Publications

Interest in the conjunctions of film and folklore is stronger and more diverse than ever. Documentaries on folk life and expression remain a vital genre, but scholars such as Sharon Sherman and Mikel Koven also are exploring how folklore elements appear in, and merge with, popular cinema. They look at how movies, a popular culture medium, can as well be both a medium and type of folklore, playing cultural roles and conveying meanings customarily found in other folkloric forms. They thus use the methodology of folklore studies to analyze films made for commercial distribution. The contributors to this book look …

Winning It All: The Cinematic Construction Of The Athletic American Dream, Andrew Miller

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Powered by a philosophy of self-determination and an ideology of a level playing field, the Athletic American Dream has become firmly entrenched in American culture. Following narrative pattterns influenced by both newspaper sports sections and juvenile sports fiction, it coalesces around underdog-to-champion, hard-work-leads-to-victory narratives that shape the sporting imagination and help to forge the masculine ideal that is the foundation of American self-image. The Athletic American Dream is produced, packaged and sold by mass media so successfully that one could argue that it becomes the most dominant vision of the American Dream by the end of the twentieth century.

Accent, Linguistic Discrimination, Stereotyping, And West Virginia In Film, Teresa L. O’Cassidy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examines connections between accent, linguistic discrimination, and stereotyping in portrayals of West Virginia film characters. Ten films featuring West Virginia characters were examined for accent and stereotyping: The Right Stuff (Kaufman, 1983), Matewan (Sayles, 1987), Blaze (Shelton, 1989), The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991), October Sky (Johnston, 1999), Hannibal (Scott, 2001), A Beautiful Mind (Howard, 2001), The Mothman Prophecies (Pellington, 2002), Wrong Turn (Schmidt, 2003), and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Luketic, 2004). Coders were employed to score character accents. Stereotyping data was gathered by comparing portrayals with stereotypical traits associated with Appalachian and/or hillbilly characters. …

On Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film And Stephen C. Wood And J. David Pincus's Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in …

The Gendered World Of Disney: A Content Analysis Of Gender Themes In Full-Length Animated Disney Feature Films, Beth A. Wiersma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has focused on the gender messages portrayed in television programs, cartoons, advertisements, literature, picture books, and fairy tales. One venue that has not received as much attention in the research is the Disney 1 full-length animated feature films. This is a qualitative study of the gender themes and portrayal of gender roles in full-length animated feature films by The Walt Disney Company. The findings in this research indicate there has been little change in the stereotyped portrayals of Disney characters from the release of the first full-length animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 to …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 74, No. 52, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Karen, Mattias. Complainant: I Felt Dirty – Wayne Jones, Sexual Harassment, Lawsuits
• Hutchins, Chris. Baptized In Beer – Banshee
• Harper, Molly. General Education Changing
• Back, Shannon. Mayor Seeks Investigation of Commissioners – Eldon Renaud, Sandy Jones, Joe Denning
• Karen, Mattias. Harassment Documents Released – Wayne Jones
• Wilkins, Erin. Pearce-Ford Tower Shower Arrest Imminent – Housing & Residence Life, Peeping Toms
• Swath of Scandal – Student Government Association, Elections
• Tabor, Chris. Editorial Cartoon Student Government Association Nasty Campaigns
• Emly, Karri. Make Time for Kindness, Compassion
• Matheis, Joe. Candidate Thanks Blacks …

Revisiting The Recordings Of Wars Past: Remembering The Documentary Trilogy Of John Huston, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Gary Edgerton's contribtution to "Studlar, Gaylyn, David Desser, and John Huston. Reflections in a Male Eye: John Huston and the American Experience. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993."

Film Language And The Persistence Of Racial Stereotyping In The Last Of The Mohicans (1992), Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Gary Edgerton's contribution to the Journal of Contemporary Thought, Vol. 7.

Omnibus: Precursor Of Modern Television, Mary Beth Hinton

The Courier

"Omnibus" was, to use an expression current during the Golden Age of Television, a "window on the world", through which art, drama, music, dance, history, literature, science and technology, as well as athletics and comedy were brought into American homes by the gentlemanly and articulate host, Alistair Cooke. Between 1952 and 1961, "Omnibus", in seeking new ways to inform and to uplift, expanded the repertoire of television and stimulated the American public's appetite for 'cultural' programming.

In the early 1960s, Syracuse University unexpectedly acquired kinescope recordings of the "Omnibus" television series' first two seasons: 1952-53 and 1953-54. After the Ford …

Ua12/2/1 Magazine, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special magazine edition of the College Heights Herald featuring:

• Poore, Chirs & Rob McCracken. It’s A Family Affair – Jack Harbaugh
• Hart, John & Andy Lyons. Addiction: Research Shows Chemical Imbalance in Users’ Brains
• Chatin, John. Film Brings Deadly Legend Alive – Ron Schidknect, Legend of the Pope Lick Monster
• Tsimekles, Diane. Hatcher, Rob. Picasso’s: A Room for Bands to Grow In

A Visit To The Imaginary Landscape Of Harrison, Texas: The Filmed Stories Of Horton Foote, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Gary Edgerton's contribution to Film Literature Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1.

Ua37/30/2 Wku Research Notecards - F Topics, Lowell Harrison

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Notecards created by Lowell Harrison while researching his book Western Kentucky University. The cards transcribed below are for 259 topics beginning with F ranging from Faculty - Hunt to Future of Education.

Ua12/11/1 John Carpenter Film Festival, Wku University Center Board

WKU Administration Documents

Program for the John Carpenter Film Festival held at the Downing University Center, December 2 - 4, 1976.