ESSAY DETAILS – Film history essay Essay – 2,700-3,300words QUESTION 1: Sherry B. Ortner (2012) suggests that American independent filmmakers produce films that are, in many respects, ‘against Hollywood’. How does My Own Private Idaho both reinforce and problematise this proposition?
Materials
American Independent Cinema: New Queer Cinema
My Own Private Idaho (Gus van Sant, USA 1991) Film Link: https://solarmovie.pe/watch-movie/watch-my-own-private-idaho- free-16869.5302333
Reading: Rich, B. Ruby (1992) ‘New Queer Cinema’, Sight and Sound, September 1992 https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/new-queer-cinema-b-ruby- rich
Further Reading:
Diawara, Manthia (Ed.) (1993) Black American Cinema, London: Routledge
Holmlund, Christine (Ed.) (2004) Contemporary American Independent Film: From the Margins to the Mainstream, London: Routledge
King, Geoff (2003) American Independent Cinema, London: I.B. Taurus
King, Geoff (2013) Indie 2.0, London: I.B. Taurus
Marubbio, M. Elise (Ed.) (2013) Native Americans on Film: Conversations, Teaching and Theory, University of Kentucky Press
OR
QUESTION 2:
How has the DVD box set and, more recently, online streaming transformed the production of television and the experience of viewing? Are there any differences between these two modes of delivery or do they simply do the same thing?
Materials
VIDEO/LECTURE LINK:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x5j6pYSGhT_AnmN846H81TDQqaBlSiG-/view?usp=sharing
Screening:
The Wire (season 1, episodes 1 and 2, 2002, USA) *** Higher resolution copies available below via Panopto *** https://solarmovie.pe/tv/watch-the-wire-free-39269
Assigned reading: Matt Hills, ‘From the Box in the Corner to the Box Set on the Shelf’, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Vol. 5, no. 1, (April 2007), pp. 41-60
Further reading: James Bennett & Tom Brown [eds], Film and Television After DVD (Routledge, 2009) John Caldwell, ‘Convergence Television: Aggregating Form and Repurposing Content in the Culture of Conglomeration’, in Lynn Spigel & Jan Olsson (eds), Television after TV (Duke University Press, 2004), pp. 41-74 John Ellis, TV FAQ: Uncommon Answers to Common Questions about TV (I.B. Tauris, 2007) Derek Kompare (2006) Publishing Flow: DVD Box sets and the Reconception of Television. Television and New Media, Vol. 7 (4), pp. 335-360. Amanda D. Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized: 2nd Edition (NYU Press, 2014)
Kevin McDonald & Daniel Smith-Rowsey, The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century (Bloomsbury, 2016) Chuck Tryon, On-Demand Culture: Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies (Rutgers, 2013)
