The Act of Signifyin(g): Reflections on Dolemite is My Name
In which Leshu Torchin thinks aloud about Henry Gates Jr’s Signifyin(g), Marlon Riggs’s Black Macho, Blaxploitation, and Dolemite is My Name.
Archiving the St Andrews Green Film Festival
In 2018-2019, St Andrews student Sasha Potter ’19, with the support of the Undergraduate Research Assistant Scheme, conducted a study of the St Andrews Green Film Festival. Here is her report.
The Politics of Recognition, Remembrance, and Representation: The Armenian Genocide
NOTE: As a piece designated ‘Thinking Aloud’, I recommend reading it as that. On Tuesday, 29 October 2019, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) abstained from voting on a mesaure …
The Ethics of Empathy in Virtual Reality
So many have hailed VR as the ultimate ‘empathy machine’ capable of deepening empathy and recognition of another person’s humanity. But what really are we to make of this technology, the capacity for producing or enhancing empathy, and the ethics that attend it? Once we can put aside the all-too-familiar bid to techno-utopianism, what are the possibilities and limits? What are the questions we should be asking?
Thinking Aloud Event: The Handmaid’s Tale
Join us for a public conversation on The Handmaid’s Tale and its multiple cultural and political expressions featuring scholars from Film Studies, International Relations, Philosophy, and Russian as well as you, the audience. We will explore ways of approaching this phenomenon (and Atwood’s recently released sequel, The Testaments) so that we may investigate its significance and the issues it raises.
Live Film Screening: Wunder der Schöpfung and Herschel 36
The acclaimed sound duo Herschel 36 provide a live accompaniment of experimental soundscapes that breathe new life into a classic Weimar-eraprecursor to Cosmos, Wunder der Schöpfung (1926), 26th October at the Byre.
13 Reasons Why: Media Effects, Serialisation, and Genre in Social Issue Programming
On 27th August, 13 Reasons Why (Bryan Yorkey, Netflix, 2017-) returned to Netflix for a third series and it has me reflecting on the ways media are seen to influence audiences and are used as tools for influence.
Common Sexism in Charisma on Command’s video about Brie Larson
Charisma on Command, an organisation of two young men dedicated to cultivating one’s charisma, extrovertedness, and relationships recently released a video listicle entitled ‘5 Common Habits That Make People Instantly Dislike You’.
DocSalon 3 “Is Empathy Enough?”
On 29th July, the third annual DocSalon took place at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Our subject for discussion: Is Empathy Enough?
What if you could Instagram the Holocaust? A question stirs controversy
Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Mati Kochavi has set up an Instagram account for the real life figure of Eva Heymann, a 13-year-old Hungarian girl. The account interprets the diary she started …