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- Volume 12, Issue 2, 2022
Short Film Studies - Volume 12, Issue 2, 2022
Volume 12, Issue 2, 2022
- Editor’s Introduction
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Editor’s Introduction
More LessThis introduction summarizes the collection of essays in Short Film Studies, Issue 12.2, with attention to the films, filmmakers, short film themes and critical/theoretical approaches used for analyses.
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- Exam
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Patriarchal domination and resistance in Exam
More LessThis article focuses on the realistic depiction of female teenage students’ experience of subjection and resistance to disciplinary power in today’s Iranian patriarchal society, and the excessive vulnerability of their underprivileged position at the intersection of gender and age inequalities in Sonia K. Hadad’s Exam.
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The aesthetic reception of the film Exam
More LessFew studies have observed audience reception within the context of narrative short films. Short films, with their idiosyncratic structures and smaller audience, have been overlooked by the field of film studies in favour of other forms – namely feature films. This article discusses the audience reception of the short film Exam in accordance with Molinié’s Sémiostylistique (‘semio-stylistics’) and examines the aesthetic effect of this short film on its audience.
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- Short Film Criticism, Analysis and Theory
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Frustrating white men: Masculinity and genre instability in Eat and Gregory Go Boom
By Sonia LupherThis article draws a connection between the genre instability of Janicza Bravo’s first two short films and her subject position as a Black woman directing films about vulnerable white masculinity. In fluctuating between the tonal and genre markers of comedy and horror, Eat (2011) and Gregory Go Boom (2013) reveal the contradictions between mainstream representations that uplift flawed white male characters and how they are perceived by those they oppress.
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Made to measure: The Dress and the politics of sexual citizenship
By Ryan ProutThis article examines questions of sexual citizenship in The Dress, directed by Tadeusz Łysiak (2020). It situates the film’s narrative alongside disability studies’ repositioning in a social model of the sexuality of people with disabilities. It argues that interpreting The Dress as a contribution to discourse about sexual inclusivity is not at odds with seeing the film as one in which the representation of human desires and frustrations assumes a universal relevance. Analysis of mise en scène and comparisons drawn from art history query the film’s use of aesthetics. Reference to Intimate Encounters 20 Years On underscores cultural specificities in turn between conservativism and progressivism.
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Artificial intelligence in Indian films: Anukul and AI ethics
More LessIn recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an important theme in Indian cinema. Taking note of Indian filmmakers’ interest in AI, this article examines the Hindi-language short film Anukul directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Based on a short story by the legendary auteur Satyajit Ray, the film draws us to a posthuman world order in which machines have assumed rights and threaten to push humans out of the loop. The AI–human interface in Anukul provokes a number of ethical questions and this article aims to think through some of the ethical and legal concerns raised in the film.
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Film style, production design and the politics of interracial–interfaith relationship in Yasmin Ahmad’s Chocolate (2009)
By Ari PurnamaIn this article, I examine the film style of Yasmin Ahmad’s short film Chocolate (2009) by looking specifically at its production design component. Through the application of design intensity theory, the abstract function of film style theory and Viktor Shklovsky’s ostranenie (defamiliarization) concept, my examination reveals that production design through the patterning of everyday objects as props (kitchen utensils, a plastic food cover, AA batteries, a baby milk bottle and a chocolate bar) in Chocolate functions more than denoting the setting of the story and enhancing the reality effect. It also works to visualize abstract ideas about the ambivalent possibilities of interracial–interfaith relationships in contemporary Malaysia.
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Encountering real and imagined faces in A Gentle Night and I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face
By Dian WeysIn both Qiu Yang’s A Gentle Night and Sameh Alaa’s I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face, a face-to-face encounter takes place between a distraught main character and a beloved they have lost. Even though the one deals with storge while the other with eros, I argue that both of these Palme d’Or-winning short films, through the concealing, framing, covering and revealing of faces, encourage audiences to use their imaginations and, as a result, to enter into a face-to-face encounter with the short film as well.
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Charting the short fiction film
By Per FikseIn this article, I explore the landscape of short fiction film in the frame of two broad categories, Classical and Art shorts, and present a chart identifying how styles and devices are at play. Finally, as a brief case study, a short fiction film example is scrutinized and tentatively categorized according to the chart.
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