Issue 2.3 is out!

Posted on May 14, 2012 by admin

We at Film Matters are pleased to announce that issue 2.3 is out!  In this issue, you will find the following feature articles:

  • Willy Versus Charlie: The Culture-Bending Oompa-Loompa by Kimberly A. Behzadi
  • Globalization and the Modern Vampire by Lauren Berg 
  • “I Want to be a Princess Too”: Exploring the Blackout of Disney’s Princesses and Controversies Surrounding The Princess and the Frog and Its Effects on African American Girls by Lena Foote
  • Michael Snow and SSHTOORRTY: The Collision of Two Spheres of Avant-Garde Cinema by Jacob Mertens
  • Ritual of the Sadists: The Subversive Horror Cinema of José Mojica Marins by Will Stephenson

As well as the following featurettes:

  • Cinema, Editing and Its Seizures: Martin Arnold’s The Cineseizure by Basia Lewandowska Cummings 
  • The Psychedelic Synesthesia of ODDSAC: Interview with Filmmaker Danny Perez by Jacob Diesel 
  • This Is Not a Love Story: (500) Days of Summer (USA, 2009, dir. Marc Webb) by Harry Ryan [for the regular Mapping Contemporary Cinema column]

As well as a vibrant review section!  For more information about the issue, please visit this site: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=2198/

Think about submitting a piece to Film Matters today!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Issue 2.3 is out!

Grinnell College Celebrates FM 2.4!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by admin

The team of guest editors for issue 2.4 of Film Matters from Grinnell College, led by Theresa L. Geller, celebrated their accomplishment with a launch party:

It’s a great issue and will be announced here soon!  In the meantime, stay involved with Film Matters by submitting to call 4.1.  And if you are interested in guest editing a future issue at your school, let us know!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Grinnell College Celebrates FM 2.4!

Announcing the winner of the Vision Frame Analysis Contest 2011!

Posted on May 7, 2012 by admin

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Vision Frame Analysis Contest 2011:

  • Paul Tortolo, Wilfrid Laurier University

Hearty congratulations to Paul, whose winning analysis will feature in issue 3.2 of Film Matters due out later this year!

So high were the standard of the analyses that we received, that the judges decided that an Honorable Mention should also be given for this year’s inaugural award:

  • Jacob Mertens, University of North Carolina Wilmington

You can read Jacob’s analysis here:

Many thanks to all our entrants. Based on the success of the first year’s event, we plan on announcing another contest opportunity later in 2012. So please stay tuned!

Finally, we thank our partners in this year’s initiative, whose support and guidance were invaluable:

Posted in News | Comments Off on Announcing the winner of the Vision Frame Analysis Contest 2011!

The Transcendence of Order: A Frame Analysis. By Jacob Mertens

Posted on May 7, 2012 by admin

Jacob Mertens received an Honorable Mention in the Vision Frame Analysis Contest 2011.

The Vision Frame Analysis Contest 2011 image (click on image for a larger view).
Visions: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen

Mankind loves the illusion of order. For instance, we can take an abstract idea like rain falling from the sky and ascribe relentless categorization. In our capable hands, rain transmutes into weather, condensation, water molecules, and hydrogen and oxygen; but as the substance moves into microscopic specificity, it loses its inherent essence. Classification does little to describe the feeling of falling to sleep as rain pelts the roof or even the smell of water on grass. We live in a world full of phenomena that we barely understand and yet we refuse to accept a loss of full control. To me, this is what the frame taken from Visions: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen embodies. The cast of light barely reaching the foreground of the frame, the failed symmetry of the mise-en-scene, and the colorful clothing of the sainted juxtaposed with the nunnery habits all reinforce the notion of structure vying to exist in an environment of sublime beauty and doubt. The frame itself lives within an existential threshold of revelation, and our measured gaze challenges whether the world was meant to be rigid or mutable.

Continue reading →
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on The Transcendence of Order: A Frame Analysis. By Jacob Mertens

Issue 2.2 is out!

Posted on March 28, 2012 by admin

Film Matters is pleased to announce that our latest issue (2.2) is now out and available.  In addition to a healthy review section for books and DVDs, this issue features the following articles:

  • Depiction of Suicide in British Cinema from the late 1940s by Martin Storhaug Gran
  • Romantic Power in Fritz Lang’s You Only Live Once by Daniel Langford
  • The Art of the Frame: The Use of Framing, Montage, and Homage in The Red Balloon and The Flight of the Red Balloon by Royce Marcus
  • The Plight of the Screen Animal: Animal Disappearance and Death on Film by Caufield Schnug 
  • Analyzing the Puzzle That is Amores Perros by Allison Stubbmann
  • In Dublin, Out of Answers: The Question of Irish National Cinema by Allain Daigle
  • An Aggravated Film Student’s Look at Remakes by Nick Griffin
  • Blessed are the Forgetful: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Shanshan Chen

For more information, please visit: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=2133/

Read a copy today!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Issue 2.2 is out!

Last Call/New Call for “Film Bytes”

Posted on March 5, 2012 by admin

Last call!  The “Film Bytes” column for Chungking Express will run in issue 3.1 (2012), which we are working on now.  So you have until March 9th to get your comments submitted to us.

New call!  For 3.2 (2012), our “Film Bytes” selection is:  Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991).  Share your thoughts on Daughters by March 30th!

“Film Bytes” is the perfect opportunity to contribute to Film Matters in a meaningful yet casual way — particularly if you have been wanting to get published but don’t have the time to write reviews or submit your longer essays.

Comments on Chungking or Daughters can be posted here on our website or on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/filmmattersmagazine), or you can email them to us at:  futurefilmscholars AT gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted in News | Comments Off on Last Call/New Call for “Film Bytes”

Open Call for Papers, 4.1 (2013)

Posted on February 27, 2012 by admin

We’re pleased to announce our next call for papers for issue 4.1 (2013).  This is an open call, the deadline for which is September 1, 2012.  For more information, please download the official document (in Word):

As always, any questions can be directed to Liza Palmer (palmerl AT uncw.edu).  We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Posted in Calls | Comments Off on Open Call for Papers, 4.1 (2013)

FM 1.1 Reviewed!

Posted on February 14, 2012 by admin

We’re pleased to read this review of FM 1.1 in Music Library Association. Notes:

We appreciate the feedback and are always working to make Film Matters as strong and diverse a publication as it can be!

Posted in News | Comments Off on FM 1.1 Reviewed!

UNCSA School of Filmmaking Dean Emphasizes “Thinking As Well As Shooting.” By Melinda Miles

Posted on February 7, 2012 by admin
Credit: Donald Dietz

Since its inception in 1993, the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) has been a creative addition to the forty-six-year-old conservatory located in the Piedmont city of Winston-Salem, NC. For the past four years, the department has been under the leadership of Dean Jordan Kerner. A graduate of Stanford University, Dean Kerner was previously a guest artist who was tapped by former UNC President Erskine Bowles to be Dean of the Film School while maintaining his career as a film producer. The film school went from being relatively unknown outside the Carolinas to ranking twelfth among film institutions worldwide (according to The Hollywood Reporter, July 27, 2011). On September 20, 2011, I interviewed the Dean via telephone.

Continue reading →
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on UNCSA School of Filmmaking Dean Emphasizes “Thinking As Well As Shooting.” By Melinda Miles

Beauty and the Beast 3D: Nostalgia Sells This Re-release, Not The 3D. Reviewed by John Debono

Posted on January 30, 2012 by admin
Beauty and the Beast image
Belle (voiced by Paige O’Hara) & the Beast (voiced by Robby Benson). ©2011 Disney

To my readership, I should state that I am unfit to write this review. This is not because of a lack of craftsmanship in my writing or a lack of journalistic integrity. The reason why I would consider myself unfit to write a review of the 3D re-release of Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise’s Beauty and The Beast is because I consider this film to be the definitive Disney classic. I was so spellbound by seeing the film on the big screen for the first time; I cannot even pretend that I noticed the extra dimension.

Continue reading →
Posted in Reviews | Comments Off on Beauty and the Beast 3D: Nostalgia Sells This Re-release, Not The 3D. Reviewed by John Debono