Film and Media Studies Commons^™

“You Shall Be As Gods”: Xenogears, Gnosticism, And Gaming On The Mystical Marketplace At The Turn Of The Millennium, Alexander Sutton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores the role of Christian Gnosticism in the Japanese role-playing video game (JRPG) Xenogears, developed by Square Co. Ltd. and released in Japan and the United States in 1998. In tracing its historical context, development, and localization I argue that Xenogears is an important text in the history of mediated religion in global popular culture. In comparing the game’s narrative against ancient Christian Gnostic texts such as The Apocryphon of John, The Reality of the Rulers, and the Gospel of Judas, I show how the game harmonized, mediated, and reproduced ancient Gnostic mysticism for its players to emulate. …

True Love Stays, Sydney Thier

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

True Love Stays is a love story, albeit an atypical one. Inspired by the bond I have cultivated with my dog, Ava, it explores the nature of relationships with other people and myself. As an essayist and a filmmaker, I was inspired by the way that writers like Jo Ann Beard, Joan Didion, and Leslie Jamison write about love and how Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Alice Birch approach the complexities of identity and relationships on-screen. This collected work is meant to be a multi-genre approach to unpacking how love, desire, and grief interact with identity formation through character-driven writing and an …

Defamiliarizied Gender In The Works Of Hayao Miyazaki, Jolie Finley

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Defamiliarized Gender in the Works of Miyazaki Hayao argues that the films of Hayao Miyazaki portray unconventionally strong female protagonists through a process called defamiliarization. Defamiliarization is a literary technique that transforms familiar qualities to ones that seem strange and new to the audience. Miyazaki borrows from and rejects elements of Japanese culture to create characters and settings that evoke the defamiliarization of gender in the films Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Examples of this in Miyazaki’s works include allusions to historical figures of the opposite gender in his own characters and presenting fantastical creatures of Japanese folklore …

Bibliography, Kristi Branham

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Kristi Branham.

Kids, Culture, And Queerness: The Progression Of Lgbtq+ Representation In Children's Media, Sarah Stevens

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Historically, popular media has functioned as a window into society’s ever evolving idea of normalcy. Children’s popular media, which contains elements of both entertainment and didacticism, is further burdened with the responsibility of influencing the perspectives of upcoming generations. This truth is particularly salient for the LGBTQ+ community, who have faced consistent misrepresentation or utter erasure from children’s media in the recent past. While there have been marked improvements in both the quality and quantity of queer representation in children’s media since 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges case, there is still a significant need to acknowledge intersectional queerness and queer gender …

Discovering Caroline, Jon Meyers

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

DISCOVERING CAROLINE is the script for an ensemble, a feature-length supernatural drama, set in 1899. Caroline, presumed dead at birth, returns forty years later to the scene of that tragedy, a university nursing school training hospital, where her birth mother still works as a lunch lady. Surrounded by a dozen other characters (thirteen if you count the pig), played against a backdrop of a handful of supernatural events, this script explores familiar love, romantic love, inappropriate love, truth, deceit, death, and the consequences on others when these life events intertwine throughout seventy-seven scenes. Included here is an introduction as well …

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.

I Love You, Go Away (A Novel), John Matthew Steinhafel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

I Love You, Go Away, a novel set in Milwaukee, tells the story of a twenty-two year-old nobody, Gabriel Driscoll, who meets and befriends a middle-aged, drug addicted, recluse actor, Beau Brooks. But less than six months into their friendship Beau commits suicide. At the funeral Gabriel meets a twenty-nine-year-old corporate executive, Michelle, the daughter of Beau’s long-time girlfriend. Gabriel and Michelle bond over their mutual grief and quickly strike up a romance. At the same time, Gabriel’s semi-estranged mother, Sadie, a recovering heroin addict, reaches out to him in an effort to rebuild their relationship. What follows for Gabriel …

Old Man Young Man Snake, Bradley Hathaway

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A young man in rural and frigid North Dakota is on the run for committing a crime. He finds refuge at a secluded bible camp from a mysterious old man that may or may not have his best interests in mind, and the young man must decide if the old man’s protection is worth the cost. Exploring ideas of free will, God, nature, and visions, Old Man Young Man Snake, a screenplay, quietly tells their story.

Mule Nation, Polina Konokh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis project is a TV pilot and the second episode of the show. There is also a critical essay that serves as an explanation of the creative work.

There are multiple problems addressed in the text, such as growing up, living in the modern world, countries not working properly for their citizens and other important issues of our modern life, with a thorough explanation of some of them in the critical essay.

The screenplays are formatted according to the current industry standards.

The result of this thesis is two first episodes of a potential TV show.

Yugoslav Revolutionary Legacy: Female Soldiers And Activists In Nation-Building And Cultural Memory, 1941-1989, Maja Antonić

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While women are often excluded and/or portrayed as victims in the historical scholarship on war, this research builds on recent scholarship that shows women as active agents in warfare. I focus on Yugoslavia’s WWII Partizankas, female soldiers and activists, who held visible positions in the war effort, public consciousness and, later memory. Using gender as a category of analysis, my thesis explores Partizankas’ legacy and their contributions in the National Liberation Movement (NLM) in WWII (1941- 1945) and post-war nation building. I argue that the organizational framework of the Anti-Fascist Women’s Front (AWF) under the guidance of the Communist Party …

Sound And Emotion: The Use Of Music In The Cinematic Experience, Sarah Schulte

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

To portray the radical importance of music in stimulating emotion within cinema, to appeal to an audience’s selective attention to sounds, and to detail the process of creating an original film score, I have scored WKU student Tori Mills’ short film Come Up for Air. Film music is traditionally defined as any music that accompanies a film, though today it more specifically refers to music intended to advance the film’s narrative. Music has played an increasingly important role in transmitting emotion to film audiences, feeding the psychological connection between spectator and on-screen action. To achieve this emotional connection, a film …

Sustainable Messaging In Film: A Survey Of A College Community, Chelsea Faught

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The concept of sustainability encompasses environmental, social, and economic issues. A sustainable approach encourages a balanced earth in both well-being and resource conservation for the sake of future generations. Unfortunately, awareness of and participation in various dimension of sustainability are currently inadequate given the current projections of the negative impact of climate change to humanity. Therefore, this project was designed to research if there was a relationship between viewing sustainably themed films and becoming more sustainably-conscious as a way to explore a potential avenue for mental and behavioral change. Furthermore, this project examines audience perception of sustainable messaging and content …

Fire And Skye: The Magic And Misadventure Of Filming Traditional Music Videos In Scotland, Katie Daniels

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As part of my study-abroad experience during the fall of 2018, I was awarded a Benjamin H. Gilman Scholarship. One of the components of this nationally competitive scholarship was to complete a follow-on service project to share my experiences abroad with a wider audience and give back to the community. My project was to bring my harp and a DSLR camera and film 4-5 music videos, contextualizing Scottish music in the Scottish landscape and capture, at least a little bit, a sense of what it was to be abroad. The final project consists of four videos, each one highlighting a …

Southard Collection, 1924-1994 (Mss 650), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 650. Financial records and some personal correspondence of Robert “Bob” Southard who ran an itinerant movie theater in a tent, 1931-1959, in south central Kentucky. Also includes research and promotional material for an exhibit titled “Breathless Moments: Green River Valley Picture Shows,” which showed at several public libraries in south central Kentucky.

Animals Don't Hate: A Social Commentary On The Political Climate In America, Lane Lewis

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

My CE/T Project revolves around the pre-production work for a short film that explores the current political climate in the United States of America. The project was a very rewarding experience, as it better prepared me for professional life within the film industry. The reason that I chose the particular topic that I did is that I wanted to create a project that would serve as a positive message to the people of this country as well as other people all around the world. The message that I wanted to convey with this project is that we can get along …

Fighting The Good Fight: Transforming Expectations Of Women In Front Of And Behind The Camera, Victoria Mills

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The film industry is a male dominated field. This is not new information. Directing, cinematography, and musical composition are the most heavily male governed above-the line crew positions, with women only making up 12% of directors as of 2018 (Quick, “The data…”). There is an unfortunate hesitation in support for female filmmakers from the part of studios. Melissa Silverstein of “Women and Hollywood” writes that there are quite specific visual expectations of a director to be a “white male with greying hair,” as this is what people are used to (Smith, “Female trouble…”). To go along with this, only 35% …

Vlogging In Korea: From Film Student To Youtuber, Kalyn Edwards

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Video blogging, or vlogging, has become its own genre on YouTube in almost a “reality show” type atmosphere. This project aims to examine that world of video blogging from a personal level, not only as a film student, but also from the perspective of an aspiring businesswoman. The goals of this project are to take on the role of a vlogger, along with all its struggles, while exposing myself to a new culture in hopes of appealing to a certain demographic. It appears as though we have gone from a world relying on telegrams and postcards to becoming a society …

Woman Standing, Allison Adams

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This is a feature-length screenplay following Farren Cane, a young woman living in a rural Appalachian town, as she struggles with the intersections of gender, class, and the tension between her own ambition and her familial obligation.

Stitched Past, Sawyer Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

“Stitched Past” tells the stories of vulnerable women in Lima, Peru. Despite the emotional and physical impacts of poverty, the women seek mentorship, education, and job security through Krochet Kids International. Krochet Kids, a U.S.-based non-profit organization, offers women in Peru and Uganda the opportunity to create knitwear to be sold online. In addition to gaining a new job and skill, the women receive counseling, affordable childcare, and supportive community. Krochet Kids approaches empowerment from a holistic perspective. The mentors encourage growth in five categories: financial, intellectual, physical, social, and psychological. This model of personal development ensures that the women …

Potter, Hugh Oliver, 1905-1986 (Mss 602), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 602. Correspondence, research notes, book manuscripts, promotional material, and editorials related to Hugh O. Potter’s career as a radio broadcaster and his interests in Kentucky history, specifically Owensboro and Daviess County, and Abraham Lincoln. Includes one box of original legal documents (1783-1953) related to the Massie family of Daviess County.

Eng 100: Filthy, Ryan Courtney

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 100: Social Changes Promoted On Television, Avery Hoskins

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

What’S In A Name?: The Evolution Of The Female Identity In Shalimar The Clown, Jessica Barksdale

Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture

No abstract provided.

English Grammar: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Wendy Delk

Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture

No abstract provided.

Until Valhalla, Mr. Krebs, William J. Williford

Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture

No abstract provided.

Hold Them Down: Oppression Of Film Noir's Working Woman, Shaire Blythe

Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture

Introductory Paragraph:

The struggle for women’s rights and roles in society has been an ongoing battle, since the beginning, with Adam and Eve. The subjugation that was presented upon Eve, because of her fault and easiness to be deceived, has trailed behind mankind, and film noir would not be excluded. The femme fatale seems to play the role of what Eve started, seducing men with her sexuality to carry out wicked schemes and being the downfall of all men. Thus, men began to identify women as a threat to their very essence but, yet, still cannot resist the temptation women …

A Soviet Parade Of Horribles: Conservatism In Glasnost-Era Discourses On Sex, 1987-1991, Svetlana Yuriyevna Ter-Grigoryan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Between 1987 and 1991, Soviet filmmakers and journalists utilized Gorbachev’s glasnost reform policy to depict or discuss sexuality in cinema and the popular press. I argue that Soviet film and popular press discourses on sex in this period reveal a continuity of conservative sexual mores, which were interwoven with social and moral conservatism regarding the centerpiece of Soviet society, the Soviet family. Furthermore, these discourses take on a fundamentally misogynistic tone, in that women are tasked with defending sexual purity, and thus familial integrity, while simultaneously being cast as those most susceptible to the power of sexual enticement. Thus, the …

Dehexing Postwar West Balkan Masculinities: The Case Of Bosnia, Croatia, And Serbia, 1998 To 2015, Marko Dumančić

History Faculty Publications

Focusing on Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, this article examines film and music that emerged in the region since the end of the Yugoslav Wars of Succession. We analyze how the uncertainties of the postwar era facilitated a dynamic field of cultural contestation in which the music and film industries simultaneously challenge and affirm normative masculine sociocultural roles. Although traditional norms have not lost their primacy in public life, we emphasize the fact that attitudes toward masculinity have, in general, become increasingly ambiguous and multivalent. While local sociological studies accurately observe that violence and intolerance constitute central traits for the majority …

“Looking Skyward: An Analysis Of ‘Augress’ By Michael Shewmaker”, Lydia Anvar

Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Language, and Culture

No abstract provided.