Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Starless Nights, Deepak Rauniyar

Theses and Dissertations

A film about the filmmaking process and the life of a filmmaker. But it's also a story about immigration, home, and negotiation. We constantly negotiate in our lives to maintain our relationships, opportunities, and dreams.

Be The Hammer, Jonathan M. Novick

Theses and Dissertations

John Young is an accomplished athlete, he has run marathons, long distance triathlons and other impressive feats all at the height of 4 feet 3 inches tall. Jon Novick, a fellow little person athlete, journeys into Young’s story sidestepping played out themes of inspiration and plunging into something deeper.

Fractured Selves, Gearoid Dolan

Theses and Dissertations

Fractured Selves is a self-portrait that examines the histories and points of conflation and diversion of my four public personas. In the style of a Zoom meeting, they chat with a host against animated backgrounds. Interactivity creates non-linear consuming of the content and user directed navigation through four timelines

Seen And Heard

In The Loop

IRL Programs Debut; Short & Sweet Pandemic Film Fest; New MS in Artificial Intelligence; Virtual Experts Talks; DePaul Trustee Producing Documentary; DemonHacks Hackathon

Distant Stars Become Future Homes: The Close Relationship Of Interstellar Between Hard Science-Fiction And Spectacle, Gabriel Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hard Science-fiction shares a close relationship with the element of spectacle. This is especially apparent in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), a film based in realistic science and emotional appeal. Nolan makes use of creating a team comprised of creative minds with different backgrounds. This includes theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, and composer Hans Zimmer. Together, the four develop a film that focuses on three main facets of science: time dilation, black holes, and dimensions. Incorporating these elements based in the historical world gives Interstellar its classification as hard science-fiction, a genre based more solidly in realistic science than …

Beautiful People: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Fashion Industry's Thin Ideal, Shane White

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Negative body image among women has become an extremely relevant topic in the last decade. The “ideal” female body image and what a person should look like according to marketing and advertising has become a highly controversial issue. This project seeks to show how the fashion industry has, over centuries, shaped how people think they need to look and in today’s time and show how it has been a root cause of issues like body image complexes leading to negative self-perception, eating disorders, mental illnesses like anxiety, depression and addiction, and even suicide. Over the last three to four decades, …

Artistry In Air: The Story Of The Younkins, Beth Lewis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For sixty years, a Northwest Arkansas family has dominated the world of general aviation by drawing upon its wealth of expertise, innovation and exceptional talent. Jim Younkin, an electrical engineer, invented an autopilot series that revolutionized the industry. His son, Bobby became one of the top aerobatic pilots in the world and Jim’s grandchildren, Matt and Amanda, also became critically acclaimed performers in the air show business. Like his father, Matt is ranked among the best of pilots in the industry. Jim also received national recognition for his stunning recreations of and restorations of historical aircraft. Bobby operated Younkin Airshows, …

Antyesti (Last Sacrifice): Funeral Rites Performed By Hindu From Western Region Of Nepal, Krishna Niure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Thesis will discuss the process of making, “Anyesti - The Last Sacrifice” which I have directed, produced and edited. It will cover the rites performed by people residing in the western part of Nepal. It will recount how the concept of making a documentary about the last rites came into my mind.

Covid 19 Project, Christine Guzzetta

All Assignment Prompts

No abstract provided.

This Must Be The Place: A Short Film, Reagan Shull

Honors Projects

This Must Be The Place is a short film categorized as a Coming of Age Mystery with strong narrative ties to Magical Realism set in the heart of small town America. The key thematic ideas are identity, female relationships, isolation, friendship, and loss. This story emphasizes each person’s struggle for identity, and the isolation that can be brought upon themselves when they do not know who they are. Further, the difficulties regarding the search for one’s dreams without a strong sense of identity are also discussed in this narrative. Ultimately, this story is about dealing with isolation as we grow …

Whittier, Mario E. Johnson

LMU Theses and Dissertations

A Navy sailor enlists at a mysterious Naval Reserves base to be closer to his dying mother and discovers he’s transporting aliens and an unknown medicine that could potentially save his Mom’s life.

Barren, Hannah Herman

LMU Theses and Dissertations

In the aftermath of their baby’s stillbirth, eccentric couple Marlow and Dev clash with overbearing loved ones, outspoken neighbor kids, and each other while trying to reconcile unmet expectations and their newfound reality. Bottling up her emotions, Marlow begins to see inanimate objects speak, spewing out the feelings she hopes to keep suppressed.

The Táin, Luke Hart-Moynihan

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The Táin (Myth / Epic Fantasy, Feature) - In mythic iron-age Ireland, an exiled king allies with a proud queen to steal a magic bull and retake his former kingdom, but his semi-divine foster-son stands in their way. Based on the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge.

No Man's Land, Preston Ray

LMU Theses and Dissertations

NO MAN’S LAND (One-Hour, Horror) – In a dying Dust Bowl town suffering from the outbreak of a strange disease, a headstrong epidemiologist finds herself facing off against an ancient, supernatural entity.

Fallmore, Emanuella Bettarello De Oliveira

LMU Theses and Dissertations

After a nightmare where her best friend is killed by a terrifying creature, a teenager girl, wakes up to find that not only is he missing in real life, but no one in the perfect town of Fallmore seems to remember he ever existed...

Tom, Dick, And Harry, Andy Hammersmith

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Presumed dead, a cantankerous retired assassin hides out in a senior living home. When the CIA tracks him down, he enlists his fellow residents to trade in their walkers for weapons to protect the facility from a death squad.

Sid And Bugaboo, Delaynna Corley

LMU Theses and Dissertations

It is an animated series for kids. It centers on Sid, an adventurous eleven-year-old girl, who gets into trouble one too many times, and a Bogeyman, is sent to scare her straight. But this monster, named Bugaboo, turns out not to be the scary creature that she thought he would be, creating an unlikely friendship between the two.

The Last Greatest, Ethan Raduns-Silverstein

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Fighting bankruptcy, the owner of the last traveling circus train in America must improve the act and generate ticket sales or it's curtains for him and his eclectic cast and crew.

Clean Sweep, Isabelle Davis

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Best friends, Harry and Dave, both come to face their own versions of mid-life crises. Harry is a former hockey player stuck in his glory days, and Dave is a recently divorced, try-hard dad without any glory days. Harry realizes he’s not in the “prime” he thinks he is but still wants another shot at the Olympics, so he decides to trade hockey in for the most exciting and physical sport in the world – Curling. He drags along Dave to form a team of misfits, including the local shuffleboard champ and hairdresser, Ramona, and a high-school janitor, Gail. Under …

Black Men Don't Cheat, Edwin Lorenzo Martin

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Sick of doing what's expected him, Marcus leaves his job as a doctor to pursue acting as he and his roommates figure out life in a fast changing South Central LA.

Films For The Colonies: Cinema And The Preservation Of The British Empire, Thomas Barker

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Tom Rice, Films for the Colonies: Cinema and the Preservation of the British Empire (University of California Press, 2019).

Introduction To Cinematography Flm 230, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

The Outriders, Zak Rodgers

University Honors Theses

The Outriders is a portrait documentary filmed in Saudi Arabia. The film follows David, the head outrider, at the King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh. An Outrider is a mounted horseman who assists racehorses to facilitate and maintain safety on the track. The primary duties highlighted in the film are that of catching loose horses and escorting non-compliant horses to various stations along the track. The documentary delves into David's history, starting in the US, and the journey that led him across the world to Saudi Arabia. It offers a window into what it takes to be an Outrider in terms …

Peridot Pictures - Bowling Green-Warren County Bicentennial Film (Mss 715), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 715. Proposal, script materials, correspondence, publicity, interviews and other items relating to the production of a film for the Bowling Green-Warren County (Kentucky) bicentennial by Peridot Pictures and the Landmark Association of Bowling Green.

16mm Filmmaking Flm 316, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Influential Storytelling At Its Finest: Why The Postwar West Took Notice Of Yasujirō Ozu’S Tokyo Story, Abigail Deveney

Japanese Society and Culture

Tokyo Story (1953) came to fame in 1958, when Yasujiro Ozu’s postwar film about a fragmenting family won the Sutherland prize at the London Film Festival – or so cinematic scholarship suggests. There is, however, a much more complex tale to be told. In fact, director Ozu’s shomingeki-genre film was being discussed and promoted internationally long before what is considered that watershed moment.

This dissertation explores why the western world took note. It argues that Tokyo Story’s nuanced and humanist narrative was a unique form of soft power, attracting and persuading decades before that concept was formally articulated. Tokyo Story’s …

Article 6.21, Tatiana Stolpovskaya

Theses and Dissertations

Article 6.21 is a short documentary film that aims to examine the state of censorship around queerness in Russia today and its effects on personal lives in the queer community.

Twenty years after Russia decriminalized homosexuality, on June 30th in 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed Article 6.21 "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values", also known as the "Gay Propaganda Law". Its broad and ambiguous wording allows the government significant leeway in deciding what kind of public queerness is punishable.

In 2020 Russia passed multiple constitutional amendments that affect many areas …

Morkovcha [Korean Carrot Salad], Lidiya A. Kan

Theses and Dissertations

Morkovcha, Korean Carrot Salad is a short documentary that tells a story of ethnic Koreans from Russia and the post-Soviet territories making their new home in New York City. The history of the diaspora is told through conversations with my mother, personal stories, fragmented memories, and my family photo archive. This very personal film is my attempt to revisit the 160-year history of the Russian Korean diaspora and to record and preserve our unique fusion of cultures in the melting pot that is the United States. Its purpose is to help to process and accept the tragic past of my …

Kevin Macleod Documentary, Thomas E. Seymour

Theses and Dissertations

Kevin MacLeod is a film composer with over 2,000 songs that anyone can use for free in their films and projects as long as credit is provided to MacLeod. For over twenty years his music has been available to the public.

In Order To Escort Her, Kimberly Baglieri

Theses and Dissertations

In Order To Escort Her is a thirty-five minute hybrid-documentary in which Lila, my great-aunt, converses with her niece, my mother, about various supernatural creature encounters and spirit visitations from relatives. This is interspersed with a “visitation” from another close relative, communicating from a different time and space dimension. By weaving together supernatural stories and matter-of-fact accounts of resilience and survival, a magical world is created where boundaries between the material and the invisible realms blur. The main thematic concerns of this film are love, care, presence in joy amidst terror, and the journey of the soul.