This study provides a new perspective on adaptation processes by examining the interactions amongst television screenwriters and book authors within Israel’s youth media system. It explores the relationships and dialogues between these content creators during the adaptation process using polysystem theory and a media systems integration model as theoretical frameworks in specific contexts. Through semi-structured interviews with fifteen youth content creators (seven screenwriters and eight authors), this study reveals how adaptations are shaped by professional norms and interpersonal dynamics in this marginal media system. The findings identify three key dynamics: creative autonomy for practitioners, which enables content creators to exercise their expertise whilst maintaining collaborative respect; interpersonal adaptability in navigating personal relationships and professional egos; and adherence to core narrative principles that preserve essential story elements. Additionally, the research exposes a status distinction within adaptation practices: literary-to-screen adaptations are regarded as culturally valuable and pedagogically beneficial, whereas screen-to-literature adaptations are considered primarily commercial ventures with minimal artistic merit. These findings demonstrate how adaptation outcomes emerge from production contexts and professional relationships rather than being determined exclusively by source material analysis. The present work contributes to adaptation theory by highlighting the significance of production environment and creator collaboration in shaping adaptation processes and their cultural reception.

This research examines the practice of filmmaking from the site of a wheelchair and reflects on making films with a recurring set of limitations that is also an impetus for freedom and creative engagement. An imagined conversation with experimental filmmaker, Jonas Mekas, provides a platform for considering the notion of creative practice research, while simultaneously reflecting on the methodology used to make films.

This article analyses the particularities of Sarah Maldoror’s gaze, founded upon a singular notion of political cinema that used the poetic image of a surrealist matrix. In the Portuguese-speaking world, Maldoror stood out from other engagé¹ filmmakers for being the first to use fiction to portray the fight for African independence. Later films shot in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau portray the involvement of people in the decolonization, without failing to unabashedly point out the cultural hybridity. Her work (dis)orders itself as a ‘filmography of survival’ – which includes both personal projects and commissions accepted to make a living in cinema, in her insubordinate and politicized way. Making use of poetry, jazz and painting, she relied upon a surrealist aesthetic and never conceded to the pressures exerted on her filmmaking, all the while putting together a body of work portraying decolonization and survival. I propose that the invisibility of Maldoror’s filmography resulted from the difficult balance between her creative choices and the coercion she was subjected to.

During the last two decades, Italian crime TV series have increased considerably, becoming one of the main scripted television genres offered on national channels, both on free-to-air and pay-TV and streaming platforms, while additionally developing an ever-closer synergy with local territories and their representation. Focusing on the 2020–21 television season, this article provides some maps in order to highlight roles and identities of national places and territories in defining different types and gradations of Italian crime drama TV series. More specifically, it underlines the variety of functions that territories played through the plot and the way they could be represented alternatively as background or foreground, as well as realistic or imaginary, taking into account different models of representation of a multifaceted genre and its connections with geographical locations, which could explain the prominence of giallo in national popular culture.

The aim of this article is to analyse the TV series L’ispettore Coliandro (Inspector Coliandro) (2006–present), starting from the conceptual categories regarding complex storytelling such as extrinsic norms, intrinsic norms, authorship and transmedia. The analysis of the different dimensions of this series (production and distribution history, forms of storytelling, transmedia narrative ecosystem) tries to highlight the peculiar media characteristics of L’ispettore Coliandro, with a twofold objective. First, the article intends to investigate the reasons why Coliandro differs from other Italian detective series. Second, it aims to study how these peculiar characteristics affect the interaction between production and distribution policies, the aesthetic-narrative framework and the fandom. To this end, we present the results of a media content analysis of the posts published on the Facebook group ‘Noi che amiamo l’Ispettore Coliandro’.

This article addresses the development of TV crime dramas in Italy during the last two decades, arguing that the impact of international shows as well as national literary series gradually led to significant changes in the crime series produced by both public and private broadcasters. In particular, a few recent crime series produced by Rai participate in a process of ‘noirification’ of crime narratives, in an attempt to produce noir series addressed to an international audience and characterized by the combination of national literary sources and the model of US quality television. On the one hand, the aim is to explore the specific traits of the national approach to crime narratives. On the other hand, the investigation gives the opportunity to reflect upon the ‘noirification’ of European popular narratives more broadly, examining the uses of genre to increase the cultural and commercial value of TV series on the international market.

This editorial provides an overview of the historical development of crime dramas on Italian television from the early years to contemporary challenges, while sketching many of the complexities of the giallo genre. With references to a large number of crime dramas, to the contributions included in this Special Issue and to relevant literature, the representation of investigators and criminals in Italian television is scrutinized in its most distinguishing features: from genre tropes and hybridizations to literary adaptations and digital transmedia aspects; from leading male and female characters to central and peripheral locations; from the global circulation of local content to the changing cultural and societal representations. As a result, Italian TV crime drama is shown as a field of constant negotiation where varied and satisfying forms of balance have been experimented.