The definitive timeline for the early screening of Dziga Vertov’s 1929 masterpiece has been established for the first time. This illustrated paper looks at the details of the first showing of the film in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Moscow, and Germany. The earliest (pre-release) review of the film in 1928 has been translated into English for the first time,…[Read more]

Following extensive research and detective work, most of the locations used in Dziga Vertov’s 1929 masterpiece have been discovered. Described by leading film academics as ‘extraordinary and exciting research’ and ‘a huge step ahead in knowledge of the film’ the paper describes each location in detail including contemporary and current views. The…[Read more]

In July 1944, the Red Army was advancing through Eastern Poland when they discovered the first traces of the camps. On reaching Lublin they found an enormous compound behind barbed wire in the city’s suburb of Majdanek. Embedded with the Soviet army were film crews, who made the first images of a Nazi camp, among them the “flight survivors” Olga a…[Read more]

This article examines the link posited by Virilio and others between the camera shot and gun shot, arguing that this link operates differently in the context of Soviet vs. Western fantasies of agency, community and technology. Comparing THE LOST PATROL (USA 1934, John Ford) with TRINADTSAT (THIRTEEN, UdSSR 1936, Mikhail Romm), it asks what kind of…[Read more]

This paper analyses the sitcom “Friends” (1994-2004) and its performance motifs.

Analysis of the episode from television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Who Are You?” (4.16).

Urban and domestic spaces are at the core of the American film noir developed in the 1940s and 50s. The connection between such spaces and noir cannot be considered only as motivational (an association between city and crime) or protective (a separation between home and violence). The context of this genre must be considered more largely as the…[Read more]

The concept of class has been progressively erased in contemporary discussions around art — and other topics. The explanatory power of this economic and social category, as articulated by Karl Marx, has been annulled precisely at a time when the contradictions of late capitalism are growing, composing an ideological background that creates c…[Read more]

Interview with Catherine Grant about her move to Birkbeck, teaching and research, the project [in]Transition, changes in scholarship, and technology and the humanities.

Leaning into the work of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Vertov, and Cunhal, I present a critical analysis of the dialectic of work and art.

This talk reads Robert Bresson’s Notes on the Cinematographer, not as a mere collection of thoughts, but as spiritual reflections. These brief meditations record aspects of his film practice in condensed form and reveal the connection between contemplation and action. The contemplative tone of the book becomes perceptible through the careful o…[Read more]

Nöel Carroll has been one of the most eloquent proponents of an anti-essentialist view of art, in particular, of cinema. He seems to think that Stanley Cavell holds an essentialist view of film, put forward in his foundational work, The World Viewed, and developed in later essays and books. While Carroll admires Cavell’s philosophical readings of…[Read more]

Paper on performance and personal identity in the television series “Battlestar Galactica”.

Representations of dreams – no matter if factual or fictional – are influenced not only by cultural patterns but also by the specific opportunities offered and the specific challenges posed by the genre or medium which was chosen for them. The essays in this volume consider, in detailed case studies, variants of factual dream reports and fic…[Read more]

El diseño de ofertas de información centradas en el usuario favorece la satisfacción de los mismos. Se identificó que en los canales de televisión locales se realiza un incorrecto tratamiento de la documentación audiovisual, fundamentalmente por la carencia de personal especializado. Se plantean como objetivos del estudio: 1) diagnosticar las n…[Read more]

The roles in the treatment of audiovisual documentation have a great variety of denominations. Among the most common are Production Researcher, TV Researcher, Film Researcher, Program Researcher and Video Librarian. Although the names vary, the functions are limited to the processing, storage, custody and dissemination of audiovisual collections.…[Read more]

English abstract: A paper on Facebook and ubicuous online social networking as a radical intervention on the elitist social networks which were at the origin of Zuckerberg’s stroke of genius in computer-mediated communication and in social self-presentation. This is done by way of a critique of David Fincher’s film ‘The Social Network’ based on…[Read more]

In 1970, a television-show dance contest in a small California town ended abruptly when the studio was briefly plunged into darkness because of an apparent power failure. The media coverage of the event eventually helped uncover criminal activity at the studio; over the course of this reporting, the narrative was accompanied by select genres of…[Read more]

El libro aborda los principales resultados y características del proyecto científico: Sistema de Superación de las Televisiones Locales para Potenciar el Proyecto de desarrollo Local, cuyo objetivo se enfoca en el municipio de Caibarién. El territorio se selecciona debido a que cuenta con un canal local y en el mismo se implementa el Programa Nac…[Read more]