Film and Media Studies Commons^™

"Ein Pakt Mit Dem Teufel": Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph Of The Will, And The Nature Of Guilt, Andrew O. Burns

Student Publications

Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will is rightly considered a massive technical achievement in the world of cinema and propaganda. However, this achievement was undertaken at the behest of the immoral, murderous regime of Nazi Germany, a regime that Riefenstahl was more than willing to work with and glorify in order to further her career. This thesis will argue that Riefenstahl’s onscreen deification of Hitler, visual representation of völkisch ideology, and use of the music of Richard Wagner make her later claims of ignorance as to the film’s ultimate meaning impossible to correlate with established facts.

El Trabajo Y El Boxeo: Elegir Su Destino Frente A La Desigualdad, Cassandra R. Pritt

Student Publications

Florence Jaugey’s La Yuma was the first feature-length Nicaraguan film in twenty years when it was released in 2009 (Adams 172). Not only does the film constitute an effort by the director to establish the Nicaraguan film genre, but it also narrates a realistic vision of Nicaraguan society (Murillo 235). In this way, La Yuma can be considered both the dawn of the Nicaraguan film genre and an indictment of the actual social asymmetries present within the country’s capital, Managua. The film exposes the audience to the challenges that the protagonist, Yuma, faces due to the complex intersections between various …

La Sagrada Familia, Catalina Correa Contreras

Senior Honors Theses

La Sagrada Familia is a short film that looks at the complex interactions between three women. A grandmother, a mother, and a daughter must spend the night together in the countryside as they prepare for a wedding. Their already strained relationships will be put to the test as painful memories and unresolved grudges arise to haunt them. The story’s title is inspired by the Sacred Family Basilica in Spain. The monument is a beautiful catholic monument that has remained unfinished for hundreds of years much like the neglected relationships of an otherwise loving family.

40 Meters Down: A Diver's Journey, Milan Holman

Senior Honors Theses

In this paper, I will reflect on the challenges I faced from the first idea to the final export of 40 Meters Down, and how I overcame these.

Violence In The Hands Of Women: An Analysis Of Gendered Violence In Life Is Strange And Before The Storm, Mitchi Anne Maja

Senior Theses

This thesis is an analysis of the video games Life is Strange and Before the Storm and how they serve to reflect social expectations and norms placed upon both women and men even today. Cultural studies recently accepted video games as a form of media to study, especially with the prevalence and accessibility of video games in various platforms. Violence in video games is culturally associated with men and the male audience; my analysis focuses on violence in the hands of women. By analyzing the choices I made as a player and how these games present their narratives and characters, …

More Than Anything, Cassie Mae Hess

LMU Theses and Dissertations

When a traumatized ballerina discovers a system of sexual assault in her company, she grapples with the decision to expose her assaulter at the risk of ruining her career.

Zero Line, Timothy Kontje

LMU Theses and Dissertations

An action-adventure script about a hard-driving journalist named Jen who teams up with a talented but fainthearted Iraqi archaeologist and a cynical renegade soldier turned smuggler to track down antiquities looted by ISIS after the death of her war correspondent fiancé.

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 …

Fight, Flight, Freeze: A Series Of Short Films On Sexual Assault, Emma Mazurek 19

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Into Great Silence: Presence, Absence, And The Edge Of Documentary, Steven Schoen

Faculty Publications

Thus, the filmic depiction of monastic austerity found in Into Great Silence might be said to offer a kind of hint at the insights of monastic practice, at the stark limits of the physical world experienced bodily in a life of ascetic deprivation, prayer, silence, and isolation. The monks’ path to the edge of that world and the boundary of transcendence is instead constituted for viewers as profoundly real through an experience of austerity via the film. As the temporal conventions and narrative forms of documentary are ruptured, viewers are left to study the edge of its surfaces for its …

The Pedagogy Of Design And Technology At Xavier University Of Louisiana, New Orleans, Shayna Tova Blum

Faculty and Staff Publications

Abstract. Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) university located in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a Historically Black University (HBCU), the university serves a diverse community of students in which many are first-generation, college graduates. Students enrolled in Design courses at XULA are studying in Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Art programs and majoring in subjects such as Computer Science, Physics, Mass Communication, Art, Business, and Science. The interdisciplinary student environment offers a unique opportunity for collaboration and peer learning, whereby students are able to share diverse perspectives on a topic by relating …

Homebound: Sts-M1301 A Study On Television Writing In The Science Fiction Genre, Matthew Crouch

Senior Honors Theses

This project is a scene-by-scene outline of an original television pilot script in the science fiction genre. The outline is based on research conducted in both the television and science fiction fields, providing the project with a firm foundation in television screenwriting structure as well as insights into the characteristics of the science fiction genre. Additional research was carried out on the topic of developing realistic, engaging characters for the screen. This project serves to broaden the writer’s portfolio upon graduation while giving him a chance to study the world of television, which contains numerous differences from the field of …

1st Place Contest Entry: Countering The Current: The Function Of Cinematic Waves In Communist Vs. Capitalist Societies, Maddie Gwinn

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Maddie Gwinn's submission for the 2019 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. It contains her essay on using library resources, a three-page sample of her research project on how the Czech New Wave and New Hollywood cinema are defined by their agency in preserving and prescribing cultural meaning across their societies while being bound to their economic systems, and her works cited list.

Maddie is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in Film Production. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Carmichael Peters.

Film Review: 1945, Carolyn Sanzenbacher

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Hollywood's Return To The Home: Taming The Post-World War Ii Career Woman, Kate Marburger 19

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Adventure, Intrigue, And Terror: Arabs And The Middle East In Hollywood Film Music, Grant Woods 19

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Of Fire, James C. Norris Iii

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The teenage daughter of a summer camp slasher, trained to kill sexually active adolescents, questions her father’s work when the camp she’s assigned to terrorize hands out bibles instead of condoms. That’s right, it’s a Christian camp.

Polly, Melissa Bloomer

LMU Theses and Dissertations

A senior studio art major finds herself in a polyamorous relationship with her Professor and her husband.

Host City, Inishmore, Jordan Sandfer

LMU Theses and Dissertations

A nomadic con artist, bent on inflating the price of his family land, deceives a small Irish town on the verge of bankruptcy into hosting an international sporting event.

Children Of The War, William Krauss

LMU Theses and Dissertations

In 1948 post-war Berlin, a mother, whose son was stolen from her during the war, implicates the woman that the Nazis gave him to in a Soviet spy ring, but soon realizes that her son's adoptive mother might be able to give her son a better life than she can and her actions put him in mortal danger.

Yet I Love Her Well, Chikodili Agwuna

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Yet I Love Her Well (Feature, Dark Comedy) A bureaucratic teenager helps her power-hungry crush become Class President, but she must compromise her beliefs to protect the President from their conspiratorial peers.

Direct Action Housing: Exploring The History Of Tenant-Led Housing Struggles—On Film—In Nyc, Arielle Lawson

Publications and Research

This independent research project dives into the history of tenant-led housing struggles in New York City with a particular focus on using film archives and documentaries to highlight key moments and case studies when housing activism opened up new political imaginations, intersections and possibilities in the city.

As outlined in the Direct Action Housing zine, I curated and hosted four public events in the spring of 2019 on different aspects of housing struggles documented through archival film records. This series of housing history films was a starting point and catalyst to think about the role of and for the home …

Tales As Old As Time: The Progression Of Classic Story Themes From Fairy Tales To Disney Films, Delaney N. Kunkle

Selected Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the original purpose of the most familiar fairy tales based on the state of society at the time of their conception, including the stories of the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. The thesis will then compare these original themes to the themes of the Disney films they inspired, taking into account the cultural and historical factors that produced the final film. In addition, the thesis will take note of the modern interpretations of both the fairy tales and the films based on the viewpoint of our current society. In …

Discovering Faith In The Entertainment Industry, Leanna I. John

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis explores how secular entertainment can contain Christian themes and messages. Hollywood presents ideas that either agree with or contradict Christianity in the movies and shows that are produced. People need to be careful about what type of entertainment they decide to watch because they can become desensitized to graphic content. This thesis includes a selection of movies from multiple genres and the show Supernatural, and it describes the messages that are conveyed in them. Theology that comes from the Bible along with different Christian theologians, authors, and philosophers are provided to help people understand the truth of Jesus …

Gender Identity And Facebook: Social Conservatism And Saving Face, Nastaran Khoshsabk, Jane Southcott

The Qualitative Report

People increasingly log on to Social Networking Websites to remain updated with the latest News and to share their thoughts and their significant life events. Their perception of their own and others’ identities influences their self-presentation on social media. There is a mental image of the audience on the mind of online users when they share content. The extent to which individuals reveal or conceal aspects of their identities within a socio-cultural context affects the presentation of their digital gender identity. We have explored Internet accessibility and use of social media relating to adult users for both Iranians living in …

Discursive Power In Contemporary Media Systems: A Comparative Framework, Andreas Jungherr, Oliver Posegga, Jisun An

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Contemporary media systems are in transition. The constellation of organizations, groups, and individuals contributing information to national and international news flows has changed as a result of the digital transformation. The 'hybrid media system' has proven to be one of the most instructive concepts addressing this change. Its focus on the mutually dependent interconnections between various types of media organizations, actors, and publics has inspired prolific research. Yet the concept can tempt researchers to sidestep systematic analyses of information flows and actors’ differing degrees of influence by treating media systems as a black box. To enable large-scale, empirical comparative studies …

Advancing Film Through Art & Design: A Study Of The Influence That Film And Fine Art Have On The Independent Film Market, Jamall Rashaud Mcmillan

Masters Theses

The Influence of Graphic Design and Fine Art in Film is a exploration into the impact that an investment of the arts has on film and more specifically the independent film market. Most independent filmmakers have to develop their productions with little to no budget. In doing so they must work to create a marketable film to the best of their ability. There in-lies the issue; they are doing it to the best of “their” ability. The issue that is in focus with the notion of ability is that a major component that is left out of the equation to …

Pathos, Spring 2019, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Sadie Jordan

Seeing Every Corner Of Tangier: A Photographic Collection Going Beyond The Media Sphere, Cynthia J. Coleman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tangier is an iconic city, with an image recognized internationally. Its image is created, not only by the city itself, but by its representation in the media. That said, it is worth considering, how true to Tangier is its image? This study considers this issue by addressing the following question: how does the image of Tangier, as represented in photographs, compare with that portrayed in the media? To accomplish this, a collection of 18 photographs over the area of Tangier, an area of 44 square miles, was taken. The photos were taken to as objectively as possible represent the city …

Unfair Standards: Media Influence On The Fairness Paradigm In India, Sahana Heiderscheidt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper aims to study the fairness paradigm in India and how the media influences women’s perceptions of beauty. It aims to answer a main question: How does the media influence the cultural obsession with fairness and ultimately perpetuate a market for dysmorphic beauty ideals among women in India? The paper is structured to discuss three topics: How has fairness as a beauty ideal evolved? How does advertising and the film industry portray women? How do they influence young girls’ perceptions of beauty and self? While most studies have focused on college-educated, middle class women, this study focuses on women …