Where's Albania? : staking out the politics of the real and reality in documentary cinema

This thesis, entitled, "Where's Albania? Staking Out the Politics of the Real and Reality in Documentary Cinema," charts the documentary tradition's path from its first incarnations, as filmed travelogue or ethnographic study, for example, right through to its development as a form acting as an objective observer, reflexive commentator, and finally, as a postmodern hybrid. This thesis begins by locating the documentary tradition's origins in realism. Foregrounding documentary cinema as a realist style is important in that it is a contention that spans this entire study. After working through the numerous modes of documentary as outlined by Bill Nichols, I suggest the documentary is often best understood as a hybrid form drawing on numerous modes and conventions. This argument permits my study to make a shift into postmodern theory, wherein I examine postmodernism's relationship to the documentary both as being influenced by it, but also as subsequently forcing documentary cinema to look back at itself and reevaluate the claims it has made in the past, and how postmodernism has drawn these claims to the surface of debate. My thesis concludes with a study of the mockumentary. This analysis confirms the link between postmodernism and documentary, but perhaps more importantly, this analysis investigates postmodemism's critique of the image and representation in general, two elements historically linked to documentary cinema's success as "truth teller."

Web Classroom Application. Digital technologies to study theory, history and criticism of architecture at Escuela Superior de Arquitectura UPMadrid. The search for some guides to direct the inquiry learning

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The theatre of the Greeks, a series of papers relating to the history and criticism of the Greek drama.

The first 3 editions of this work appeared under the name of the original author, P.W. Buckham. cf. British Mus. General cat. of printed books.

The Bond Girl phenomenon: defining the female protagonists of the James Bond films

Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 C65 F86 2005

Documentary as history, memory, dream and film

A century ago, as the Western world embarked on a period of traumatic change, the visual realism of photography and documentary film brought print and radio news to life. The vision that these new mediums threw into stark relief was one of intense social and political upheaval: the birth of modernity fired and tempered in the crucible of the Great War. As millions died in this fiery chamber and the influenza pandemic that followed, lines of empires staggered to their fall, and new geo-political boundaries were scored in the raw, red flesh of Europe. The decade of 1910 to 1919 also heralded a prolific period of artistic experimentation. It marked the beginning of the social and artistic age of modernity and, with it, the nascent beginnings of a new art form: film. We still live in the shadow of this violent, traumatic and fertile age; haunted by the ghosts of Flanders and Gallipoli and its ripples of innovation and creativity. Something happened here, but to understand how and why is not easy; for the documentary images we carry with us in our collective cultural memory have become what Baudrillard refers to as simulacra. Detached from their referents, they have become referents themselves, to underscore other, grand narratives in television and Hollywood films. The personal histories of the individuals they represent so graphically–and their hope, love and loss–are folded into a national story that serves, like war memorials and national holidays, to buttress social myths and values. And, as filmic images cross-pollinate, with each iteration offering a new catharsis, events that must have been terrifying or wondrous are abstracted. In this paper we first discuss this transformation through reference to theories of documentary and memory–this will form a conceptual framework for a subsequent discussion of the short film Anmer. Produced by the first author in 2010, Anmer is a visual essay on documentary, simulacra and the symbolic narratives of history. Its form, structure and aesthetic speak of the confluence of documentary, history, memory and dream. Located in the first decade of the twentieth century, its non-linear narratives of personal tragedy and poetic dreamscapes are an evocative reminder of the distance between intimate experience, grand narratives, and the mythologies of popular films. This transformation of documentary sources not only played out in the processes of the film’s production, but also came to form its theme.

Crossing lines: Sport history, transformative narratives, and Aboriginal Australia

In this collaborative article, we seek to unsettle the dominance of Western, reconstructionist accounts of Indigenous Australian sport history through reflections on our past research in the Queensland Aboriginal community of Cherbourg. That research focussed on a statue of legendary 1930s cricketer, Eddie Gilbert, and on sport exhibitions in Cherbourg's Ration Shed Museum. Here, we are less concerned with unveiling the ‘true’ account of Australian Aboriginal sporting history, or even a ‘true’ Indigenous representation of events. Rather, we are interested in analysing various perspectives in order to generate a more inclusive and complete account of Aboriginal sport history and the narrative implications of these for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Central to this endeavour is the positioning of Indigenous knowledge and understanding at the centre of history-making. The article is in two sections: reflections on our past work from the perspectives of the researchers themselves and an Aboriginal academic colleague, followed by a discussion of how those experiences and reflections will inform our pending project on the 1950s and 1960s Cherbourg marching girls teams.

Life history and host range of Alagoasa extrema (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae), a potential biological control agent of Lantana spp. (Verbenaceae) in Australia

The life history and host range of the lantana beetle, Alagoasa extrema, a potential biocontrol agent for Lantana spp. were investigated in a quarantine unit at the Alan Fletcher Research Station, Brisbane, Australia. Adults feed on leaves and females lay batches of about 17 eggs on the soil surface around the stems of plants. The eggs take 16 days to hatch and newly emerged larvae move up the stem to feed on young leaves. Larvae feed for about 23 days and there are three instars. There is a prepupal non-feeding stage that lasts about 12 days and the pupal stage, which occurs in a cocoon in the soil, lasts 16 days. Teneral adults remain in the cocoon for 3 days to harden prior to emergence. Males live for about 151 days while females live for about 127 days. The pre-oviposition period is 19 days. In no-choice larval feeding trials, nine plant species, representing three families, supported development to adult. Three species, Aloysia triphylla, Citharexylum spinosum and Pandorea pandorana were able to support at least two successive generations. These results confirm those reported in South Africa and suggest that A. extrema is not sufficiently specific for release in Australia. Furthermore, it is not recommended for release in any other country which is considering biological control of lantana.

Film, history and education website

This website, which forms part of a wider AHRC-funded project, provides a range of historical resources including interpretative essays, archival sources, recorded debates and further information to support the The enigma of Frank Ryan documentary (Desmond Bell, 2012). The website is designed to encourage film viewers to make their own assessments of the wider historical issues with which the films engage.

History of Art and Art Criticism: A System in Crisis

This article aims to reconstruct the critical debate regarding the examination of the crisis in the disciplines of art history and criticism with a particular focus on the proposal formulated by U.S. theorists who contributed to October journal. The discrediting of many modernist critical methods, particularly that of Clement Greenberg – the formalist diktat – marked the birth of the journal and gave rise to proposals set forth by critics committed to a new approach. Their divergent positions, nonetheless, have contributed to undermining the traditional concepts of the autonomy of art and criticism. The proposals discussed over the course of publication were the result of a reappraisal of the disciplinary instruments of art history and criticism pursuant to the crucial cultural changes which took place in the 1980s.

The new university for London; a guide to its history and a criticism of its defects,

Mode of access: Internet.

The theatre of the Greeks, or, The history, literature, and criticism of the Grecian drama; with an original treatise on the principal tragic and comic metres.

"An introduction to the principal Greek tragic and comic metres in scansion, structure, and ictus; by James Tate": p. [455]-529.

The history of materialism and criticism of its present importance /

v. 1. Materialism in antiquity.--The period of transition.--The seventeenth century.--v. 2. The eighteenth century.--Modern philosophy.--The natural sciences.--v. 3. The natural sciences (continued).--Man and the soul.--Morality and religion.

Liturgical right and national wrong, and a criticism of Wakeman's History and other books approved by bishops, and by the fellows of the "Australian School of Theology."

Mode of access: Internet.