Framing Media #3 - Eleni Palis on Rethinking Film Quotations Through Race

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Today's episode features Eleni Palis, an assistant professor of English and Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee, who researches the intersections between classical and post-classical American cinema. We discuss her article, "Race, Authorship and Film Quotation in Post-Classical Cinema” published in Screen. Palis transforms our idea of the film quotation from a practice of canonization used by the directors of New Hollywood by looking at innovative practices by three African American filmmakers: Julie Dash, Cheryl Dunye, and Spike Lee. In her reading of their films, and particularly the use of manufactured and "fake"quotations, Palis demonstrates an alternative use to the practice that interrogates our own relationship to film histories, both real and imagined. Trough a generation of filmmakers who cannot necessarily look to the past for the same kind of inspiration, her article allows us to rethink our own relationship to Hollywood's own history.

Framing Media #2: Katie Bird on the Labor and Art of Steadicam Operators

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Today's episode features Katie Bird, an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, El Paso, who researches technology and craft histories in Hollywood film production. We discuss her video essay, "Feeling and Thought as They Take Form: Early Steadicam, Labor, and Technology (1974-1985),” published in the Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Image Studies. Bird emphasizes the operator's role in this unique technology's early history in both major films like The Shining and Halloween, as well as demo reels, industrial works, and more. She emphasizes how the choices of the operators—both physically and affectively, often referring to their own work closer to dancing—ultimately shaped the images we saw and how we respond to them. Bird challenges viewers to see the craft as labor beyond just invisibility, appreciating the art of production at every step. 

Episode #92 - Catherine Grant (The Headless Woman)

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"If you dive in with an idea of sketchiness, 'I can see something here but I'm not quite sure,' and then go for it, you constitute things. I think it's what we always hope to do with our scholarship."

While Peter sometimes has questioned what digital cameras have wrought, there is no question that the digital revolution has changed the ways we can relate to our cinematic experiences (Exhibit A: this podcast). UK film scholar Catherine Grant has always seemed to be on the precipice of these changes. Her blog, Film Studies for Free, brought the idea of Open Access within the field to a whole array of scholars, and her pioneering work in video essays transformed the way that film scholarship can come closer to their objects of study than ever before. In this interview conducted in the heart of the annual SCMS conference, Catherine discusses her discovery of art cinema, her research on world cinema and auteurism in the digital age, and the role that these new visual tools have changed the way she approaches cinema. They top off their conversation by turning to The Headless Woman and how Argentine director Lucrecia Martel creates a hyper-attentive spectator in the most breathtaking drama of recent memory. 

0:00-3:26 Opening 

4:25-9:14 Establishing Shots — Preview of "This American Life — Jonathan Demme"

9:59-1:00:05 Deep Focus — Catherine Grant
1:00:55-1:03:11 Sponsorship Section
1:04:09-1:1:39 Double Exposure — The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
1:19:43-1:22:02 Close / Outtake

Episode #74 - Ryland Walker Knight (The Awful Truth)

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"I'm always seduced by language and curious how the word and image interact"

Can movies think? Or how could we think through the movies? Highly influenced by the work of Stanley Cavell, Ryland Walker Knight has explored the possibilities of thinking and language in cinema, whether it be a work from a beloved art house master or a brash and loud Hollywood blockbuster. Ryland discusses his childhood raised on double features, his critical work, his recent short film, Inside Voices, and his latest project, a video essay series exploring some of the imagery and hidden narratives in the work of Michael Mann (with a little help from Beach House). Finally, the two turn to The Awful Truth, and discuss how Le McCarey's attention to how voices sound and bodies move create some of its most indelible humor, and intelligent insights.

0:00-2:22 Opening

2:56-12:16  Establishing Shots - A War and 13 Hours
13:02-50:52 Deep Focus - Ryland Walker Knight

51:10-53:21 Sponsorship Section
54:04-1:04:18 Double Exposure - The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)

1:04:22-1:06:00 Close

Check out Ryland's Posts on MUBI Notebook and The House Next Door, as well as his website. Watch his shorts Inside Voices and Headlands. View the Mann Sparks project.

Episode #62 - Adrian Martin (Gloria)

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"The idea is not knowing what you're going to write, and to be open to your unconscious. If you're having a free association, it's because it's actually meaningful."

In an age in with the image friendly world of Twitter and Tumblr has made it all to easy to isolate our favorite shots in cinema, Adrian Martin wants to return us to movement. His new book,  Mise en Scène And Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art examines the historical and contemporary uses of the French term to describe how frames can turn in style, tone, and intensity, all without an edit. In this trans-Atlantic recorded interview, Adrian discusses his origins as a cinephile in Australia, how the Internet both gave him a voice and provided new challenges, and his continual search to allow films to speak to him in new ways. Finally, they discuss Gloria, a forgotten work by the legendary John Cassavetes, which takes the filmmakers intensely rhythmic style on to the streets of New York for a gangster thriller with Gena Rowlands.

0:00-2:21 Opening

3:45-8:06  Establishing Shots - Hype Williams's Belly
8:50-1:09:39 Deep Focus - Adrian Martin

1:10:33-1:12:44 Mubi Sponsorship
1:13:31-1:32:00 Double Exposure - Gloria (John Cassavetes)

1:32:05-1:33:45 Close 

Listen to The Cinephiliacs on Stitcher Radio

Read Adrian Martin at de Film Krant and Keyframe Daily.
Check out his two journals, LOLA and Rouge.
Adrian's books include Mise en Scène And Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art, The Mad Max Movies, Movie Mutations: The Changing Face of World Cinephilia, and Once Upon A Time In America.
Gloria is available on YouTube.

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Episode #23 - Gina Telaroli (Brigadoon)

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"The way we use cinema is changing, so the way we examine it should 

change to fit that a little bit more."

Many of Peter's guests have expressed their feelings about cinema through words. Gina Telaroli prefers images, both moving and still. The experimental filmmaker, image essay maker, and critic sits down with Peter for a very engaging conversation about her work and passion. The two dive into her frame-by-frame analysis of classic Hollywood films and the "unconscious cinema" she unlocks, as well as her obsession with Hollywood workmen Allan Dwan and William Wellman. Peter also gushes about Gina's films Traveling Light, and asks her numerous questions about what he sees as a spiritual work of cinema. Finally, Gina brings in Vincente Minnelli's Gene Kelly-Scottish set musical Brigadoon, a haunting work that both read as a metaphor for the magic and miracle that is cinema and 35mm.

0:00-1:08 Opening 

1:48-6:50 Establishing Shots - Computer Chess
7:02-9:05 Trivia Round

9:49-1:10:50 Deep Focus - Gina Telaroli

1:12:07-1:32:48 Double Exposure - Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli)

1:32:50-1:34:29 Close

Visit Gina's Tumblr to find her videos, image essays, and writing. 

 

Episode #12 - Kevin B. Lee (Slacker)

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"For me, it's been parachuting into a film, looking at everything that's been said about it, and trying to synthesize understanding of it from that...But I really want to establish a personal voice and a personal stake in the films that I'm talking about."

When Peter sat down to do a video essay on his own a few years back, he primarly studied and examined the work of Kevin B. Lee. Luckily, Peter has gotten to know Kevin, and was thankful to sit him down for a podcast while in Chicago last month. Kevin explains his long winded path into filmmaking and finally film criticism. The two discuss the art and process of making video essays, the importance and frustrations with film canons, and his work in highlighting the work of independent Chinese filmmakers. Finally, they open up a can of worms with Richard Linklater's Slacker, a film Kevin describes as similar to today's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

0:00-1:20 Opening

1:20-4:22 Establishing Shots - Side Effects

5:20-1:14:10 Deep Focus - Kevin B. Lee

1:15:33-1:45:12 Double Exposure - Slacker (Richard Linklater)

1:45:13-1:48:57 Trivia Round, Close, and Outtake

Read and watch Kevin B. Lee's work on Press Play, Fandor, Shooting Down Pictures, Sight & Sound, and Moving Image Source.

Follow Kevin on Twitter.