B for Bad Cinema: Colloquy from Monash

Image from Snakes on a Plane (David R. Ellis, 2006); Read Kirsten Stevens's article Snakes on a Plane and the prefabricated cult film' (pdf) from the new issue of Colloquy

It's going to continue to be a little quiet around here at Film Studies For Free as its author busies herself with finishing off a couple of video essays that will be posted here very shortly.

The essays will also form the basis of two talks to be given in the next few weeks: on March 8 at Liverpool John Moores University; and on March 17 at the University of Sussex (details to follow).

The title of both talks, as per the following abstract, is:

Quote/Unquote? The "Unattainable [Film] Text" in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Following the lead of scholars Christian Keathley, Eric Faden, Jason Mittell, Andrew Miller and Craig Cieslikowski in the summary of their conference panel on The Scholarship of Sound and Image: Producing Media Criticism in the Digital Age (MIT6, Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission, April 24-26, 2009), in this talk Catherine Grant will revisit Raymond Bellour's essay on 'The Unattainable Text' (Screen, Vol 16, No 3, 1975: 19-27), as well as Laura Mulvey's more recent considerations of film 'possession', and 'pensiveness' in the digital age (Death 24x a Second (London: Reaktion, 2006). Then she will examine the issue of film quotation in audiovisual work, as well as, more generally, the possibilities offered to film studies by the rising generation of online digital-video essays about films and film theory.

To sustain FSFF's terribly loyal readers until then, here's news (via David Hudson @theauteursdaily) of a wonderful e-journal special issue entitled B for Bad Cinema. All the film-related contents are linked to below. Enjoy! It has some particularly choice items on horror cinema, as well as on David Lynch and Lars von Trier.

This usually indefatigable blog will be back properly soon. In the meantime you can continue to follow its much more succinct recommendations on Twitter courtesy of @filmstudiesff.

All articles are in pdf format. To download the whole issue as one file, click Issue 18.
Front
Contents
Editorial

B for Bad Cinema from Colloquy (Monash University), Issue 18, December 2009

• Introduction: B for Bad Cinema Julia Vassilieva and Claire Perkins

• Excremental Ecstasy, Divine Defecation and Revolting Reception: Configuring a Scatological Gaze in Trash Filmmaking Zoe Gross

• “They don’t call ’em exploitation movies for nothing!”: Joe Bob Briggs and the Critical Commentary on I Spit on Your Grave Tristan Fidler

• Erasing the B out of Bad Cinema: Remaking Identity in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Craig Frost

• “Fucking Americans”: Postmodern Nationalisms in the Contemporary Splatter Film Phoebe Fletcher

• Their Time Has Come: Bad Cinema Nerds as Late-Capitalist Paradigm Mark Steven

• Snakes on a Plane and the prefabricated cult film Kirsten Stevens

• “Bad Form”: Contemporary Cinema’s Turn to the Perverse. David Lynch: Lost Highway (1997) Lars von Trier: Breaking the Waves (1996) Hester Joyce and Scott Wilson

• The Other Side of Indonesia: New Order’s Indonesian Exploitation Cinema as Cult Films Ekky Imanjaya

• Doing It for the Kids: Rebels and Prom Queens in the Cold War Classroom Film Anika Ervin-Ward

• Family Demons: The Ghost as Domestic Inheritance Donna McRae

• B for Bad, B for Bogus and B for Bold: Rupert Kathner, The Glenrowan Affair and Ned Kelly Stephen Gaunson

• Horror-Ritual: Horror Movie Villains as Collective Representations, Uncanny Metaphors and Ritual Transgressors Mario Rodriguez

• From Kracauer to Clover: Some Reflections on Genre and Gender in 70s/80s Slasher Films Tyson Namow

Ten Monday Must Visits

Some great (recent) reading, listening, and viewing links with which to begin the week - from (a far too chilled out for its own good) Film Studies For Free:

• Paul Bowman, 'The Fantasy Corpus of Martial Arts' (essay draft), Cultural Studies, June 25, 2009
• Vicki Callahan, 'Interview with Joan Myers on her research regarding Virginia Rappe and Fatty Arbuckle', Feminism 3.0, July 2, 2009 podcast and slideshow
• Dublin2009, 'From Robin Wood to Robin Askwith', [Opening post from new blogspot] From Robin Wood to Robin Askwith: Explorations in British Film, July 2, 2009
• Ed Howard's superb idea for a new blog, The Film Blog Calendar, July 1, 2009 (great listings of notable blog events)
• Dan Jardine, 'My Year in Film Studies Part 1', Cinemania, June 29, 2009
• Jason Mittell, 'Previously On: Prime Time Serials and the Mechanics of Memory', Just TV, July 3, 2009
• Meaghan Morris, 'Banality in Cultural Studies', Cultural Studies, June 8, 2009
• Anne Helen Petersen, 'Everything Old is New, Everything New is Old [on the history and study of celebrity gossip]', Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style - proto-scholastic musings on star studies 2.0, June 9, 2009
• Jonathan Rosenbaum, 'GERTRUD as Nonnarrative: The Desire for the Image', JonathanRosenbaum.com, July 5, 2009
• Matt Zoller Seitz, 'Do the Right Thing Is About More Than Just Race', The L Magazine, July 4, 2009 Video essay (also see HERE)
  

So you want to study television? Free sample introductions to TV and 'Small Screen' studies

As a follow up to yesterday's post on online introductions to film studies (and to a positive flurry of email responses to it), Film Studies For Free (a veritable addict of screens of all sizes) brings you a list of links to exemplary, freely-available, online essays, sample book chapters, and other resources, all of which give a very rich sense indeed of what it is like to study different kinds of television and related media at university or college. The list begins with the most accessible resources.

• Museum of Broadcast Communications - 'Television Studies' Guide
• Jason Mittell, ' Introduction: Why Television?', Television and American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Companion Website/Resource Center. See Mittell's blog Just TV HERE; and also see Henry Jenkins' great interview with Mittell part one HERE and part two HERE.
  
• Glen Creeber, Toby Miller and John Tulloch (eds), The Television Genre Book (BFI/ Palgrave Macmillan, 2e, 2009): Chapter on DRAMA (including Studying Television Drama (G.W.Brandt/J.Tulloch) – Robin Nelson; The Single Play (The Wednesday Play/Play for Today) – Glen Creeber; The Western (Alias Smith and Jones) – William Boddy (Deadwood– Glen Creeber); The Action Series (Man from UNCLE/Avengers) –Toby Miller (24– Glen Creeber); The Crime Series (Hill Street Blues) – Lez Cooke (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) (The Sopranos– Glen Creeber) ; Hospital Drama (ER) – Jason Jacobs; Science Fiction (Star Trek) – Luke Hockley(The X-Files– Catherine Johnson),(Doctor Who– Matt Hills); Drama–Documentary (Cathy Come Home/The Day After) – John Corner; The Mini-Series (Roots/The Singing Detective) – Glen Creeber; Costume Drama (Jane Austen Adaptations) – Robin Nelson; The Teen Series – Rachel Moseley (Buffy the Vampire Slayer– Cathy Johnson); Postmodern Drama (Twin Peaks) – Adrian Page (Ally McBeal – Robin Nelson),(Heroes– Glen Creeber) note: a large file so slow to download but well worth the wait)
• Jeremy G. Butler, 'Chapter 13: Television Studies: Alternatives to Empirical Approaches', Television: Critical Methods and Applications, 3rd Edition (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, September 2006) and Companion Website
• Paul Bowman,'Introduction: Deconstructing "the Popular"’, Deconstructing ‘the Popular' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
• Critical Studies in Television: Scholarly Studies For Small Screen Fictions - Resources Website
• John Caldwell, 'Convergence Television: Aggregating Form and Repurposing Content in the culture of conglomeration (excerpt) from Lyn Spigel and Jan Olson (eds), Television after TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition (Duke University Press, 2004)
• Susan Holmes, "'The Only Place Where ''Success'' Comes before ''Work'' Is in the Dictionary...?': Conceptualising Fame in Reality TV." M/C Journal 7.5 (2004). 11 May. 2009
• Maire Messenger Davies, 'Chapter 1: Children and Broadcasting in the 1990s', 'Dear BBC' Children, Television Storytelling and the Public Sphere (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
• Tania Modleski, 'The Search for Tomorrow in Today’s Soap Operas - Notes on a feminine narrative form' from Charlotte Brunsdon and Lyn Spigel (eds), Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader (Open University Press/McGraw Hill, 2007)
• Nitesh Rohit, 'Cinema/Television in India- a story of images', IndianAuteur.com - Winds from theEast, November 30, 2008
  

If there any other relevant websites or sample introductory book chapters out there that FSFF has inadvertently omitted from this list, please feel free to email with information. (last updated May 12 2009)